David Boyce wrote: > Irving Berlin had a key-change piano: "Berlin was a self-taught > pianist and one who reputedly restricted himself mainly to the black > keys of the piano. Eventually he bought a special piano with a lever > under the keyboard, enabling him to transpose his music mechanically" > (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Berlin ) The Smithsonian National Museum of American History has a picture of this piano and the following caption on http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object.cfm?key=35&objkey=59 . "This upright transposing piano was made in 1940 by Weser Brothers, New York, for Irving Berlin (1888–1989). Like many Tin Pan Alley pianists, Berlin was self-taught, preferring to play on the black keys. 'The key of C,' he once said, 'is for people who study music'. The transposing mechanism shifted the keyboard to allow him to stay on the black keys but produce music in other keys." Tom Cole
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