Susan, I don't know if it's been built but one of the earliest American piano patents (in the 1830's?) was for just such a keyboard. I could dig up the number if you like. I've never seen this on a piano but plenty of times on organ keyboards. I don't know how it would go over. Pianists spend many hours a day for several years training their hands and arms to know just where the keys are. If you move them they're not going to like it, even if in theory it should be nicer for them. It's like designing a better typewriter or computer keyboard. Great in theory but most of us don't want to learn to type all over again. We'll just live with the somewhat inferior system that we're used to. Phil --- Phillip Ford Piano Service & Restoration 1777 Yosemite Ave - 215 San Francisco, CA 94124 On Fri, 16 Nov 2001 20:34:16 Susan Kline wrote: >At 10:17 PM 11/16/2001 -0600, you wrote: > >> >Has anyone given thought to the possibility that the crown was to >> >accommodate the ergonomic fact that the tendency of the hand to lower >> >when being extended from the body center? >> > >> > Newton > >Not really. But reading your idea did give me a momentary mental picture -- >a keyboard in a slight arc surrounding the player, so that the player's >hands could approach the keys at the extremes of the scale without >kinking the wrists. > >It would be so much more comfortable to play that I'm sure many people have >considered building something that way. The trouble is that it would >be a bear to design and build. > >Educated list members? Has anyone built a keyboard where the keys >fan out around the player like that? > >Susan > >
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