IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE KEYBOARDS OF PIANOFORTES, ORGANS, AND SIMILAR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederick James Strong at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th September 1878.
FREDERICK JAMES STRONG, of Coventry, in the County of Warwick.. "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE KEYBOARDS OF PIANOFORTES, ORGANS, AND SIMILAR MUSICAL
INSTRUMENTS."
My Invention relates to pianofortes, organs, and similar musical instruments,
and is designed to furnish such instruments with keyboards, the keys or levers
whereof are arranged in a novel manner, greatly facilitating the operations of
persons playing the instrument.
In keyboards as heretofore constructed for this class of musical instruments the
keys or levers are so placed that all the natural notes are played by means of the
front row of keys, namely, those whose ends which are touched in playing extend
to the front part of the piano, and all the notes called "flat" and " sharp" are
played by means of the rear keys, whose surfaces are placed at a higher level than
the front keys. This manner of arranging the keys, and consequently the other
parts connected therewith by which the notes are produced causes considerable
difficulty to persons learning to play, and also renders the playing more difficult
than it need be to those who are advanced in the art, by reason of the fact that
for every different fundamental or key note in which a piece of music can be played
the manipulation has to be effected in a different manner, so that when a person
has become accustomed to touch the keys or levers necessary to play in one key,
he has still to learn how to operate them in order to play in other keys. This
necessity causes frequent mistakes in playing, from which even skilful players are
not exempt, as it is a most difficult matter always to touch the right consecutive
key or lever during the playing of a piece of music, when the special requirements
of the particular key note in which the music is set have to be borne in mind.
By means of my said Invention this difficulty is entirely obviated, and a person
having learnt to play in any one key has at the same time learnt to play in all, and
therefore does not need to learn and remember the different requirements of
different key notes, arising from the arrangement of the keyboards as heretofore
constructed.

page_text: In carrying my said Invention into practice I construct the keyboard with two
rows of keys or levers as usual, but these keys or levers are arranged in such a
manner that each one of the same sounds a full tone, with regard to the notes
sounded by the key or lever immediately to the right or left thereof, and this
principle of construction is applied both to the front row and to the rear row of
keys or levers. I therefore place the keys or levers comprised in each octave in
the following order, it being understood that they extend from left to right in the
order named, and that each key or lever is arranged, by means of any ordinary
mechanism for this purpose, to sound the note known by the letter indicated, that
is to say: In the front row G, A, B, C sharp, D sharp, F, G; and in the rear
row G sharp, A sharp, C, D, E, F sharp, G sharp; or the same result may be
obtained if the keys or levers in the front row are placed in the order above
described for the rear row, those in the rear row being then placed in the order first
herein described for the front row according to my Invention, but I prefer the first-
named order.
It will be readily seen by those accustomed to the use of musical instruments of
the description to which this Invention relates, that each note sounded by the keys
or levers arranged in this way will be a full tone. interval compared with the note
preceding or following it in the same row, and that therefore a semi-tone or half
tone has never to be sounded by touching a key in the same row as the
corresponding full tone, or in other words, if the full tone is sounded by
manipulating a key or lever in the front row the corresponding half tones are
always in the rear row, and vice versa.
It will therefore be obvious that when using a keyboard constructed according
to my Invention, whatever is the fundamental or key note to which a piece of
music may be set, the player is not required to take into consideration the various
changes which are necessary in transposing from one key note to another when
using keyboards as heretofore constructed. He has only to take the usual care to
commence playing in the correct key, and whatever that may be, he plays in the
same manner as he would for any other.