The Uniform Keyboard
It was the late Jimmy Blair (of Scotia Players fame), father of present day accordion wizard Gary Blair who pioneered the use of an alternative keyboard system in Scotland in the 1950’s – the Uniform Keyboard (U.K.). Although the idea was good, like Esperanto – the universal language – it didn’t catch on and in time faded completely from the scene. Gary has been keen for a number of years to obtain one of these rather unusual instruments. Can you help him? Do you have one in your attic? If so please let Karin know and we’ll put you in touch with Gary.
The U.K. was invented by an American accordionist John H. Reuther and in an article from 1953 he tells us all about why he developed the instrument.
“It is obvious that the faster the student can learn, the faster he can be moved to a full-sized keyboard. This is one of the main features which the Uniform Keyboard has to offer – cutting down the study-time normally required on the piano keyboard to less than half.
The development of the keyboard on the piano was retarded because the instrument is not portable. Obviously, it was necessary for the pianist to have an identical keyboard at the scene of his engagement as that which he practiced on at home. Therefore, all attempts at improvement in key arrangement on the piano came to a standstill about two hundred years ago. The piano keyboard is so taken for granted that its defects are thought to be necessary evils and most teachers have heretofore ignored their existence. However, the need for improvement has been recognized for a long time.
Past Reforms
A few inventors have suggested reforms during the past 60 years, the most notable being the ‘Janko’ keyboard of 1882 and, more recently, the ‘Chromo’ keyboard (which appeared on accordions in the early 1920’s). However, although these developments were a step in the right direction, they did not eliminate the main difficulties of the piano keyboard.
The greatest stumbling-block on the present day keyboard has been lack of uniformity when transposing from one key to another. From time to time, a few special keyboards have been built at enormous expense to get round the limitations of the piano keyboard. For instance, Irving Berlin had a piano build with a special mechanical transposing feature in order to facilitate his composing.
Actually, what I have done is to assemble in one keyboard the best features of the ‘Janko’ keyboard, the ‘Chromo’ keyboard and the piano keyboard respectively. The black keys are arranged in groups of twos and threes and, therefore, it is really an improved piano keyboard. The long narrow black keys have been replaced with wide black keys which provide a larger landing area for the finger tips.
Uniformity in Both Hands
It is no longer necessary to reach into the narrow channels between the black keys, which is a particularly bad feature of the present piano accordion keyboard.
Because the keyboard is uniform on the bass side, the value of that uniformity is lost if it is not matched by uniformity on the right hand. This is especially apparent in learning scale and chord fundamentals. The basic chords, scales and arpeggios are absolutely necessary equipment for the beginner if he is to progress at all. If the student has to wade through twelve different Major scales, twelve different Minor scales, etc as well as twelve each of the numerous chords and their inversions, which have to be mastered on the standard piano keyboard, progression to a full sized accordion can be considerably delayed.
Identical Fingering
On the Uniform Keyboard it is necessary to learn only one of each chord, scale and arpeggio in order to play them all. While the piano accordion favours the C-scale, the Uniform keyboard is laid out so that the fingering is exactly identical in all twelve keys, thus making possible the tremendous advantages of automatic transposition”.
Well Mr Reuther had obviously applied a lot of thought to his design but with the exception of Jimmy Blair he failed to convince those ‘key’ individuals – the accordion teachers of the time. Had he been able to do so history might have been different and the Box and Fiddle might regularly have contained photographs that looked like this.
Remember to let us know if you know of one.
C.T.
The U.K. was invented by an American accordionist John H. Reuther and in an article from 1953 he tells us all about why he developed the instrument.
“It is obvious that the faster the student can learn, the faster he can be moved to a full-sized keyboard. This is one of the main features which the Uniform Keyboard has to offer – cutting down the study-time normally required on the piano keyboard to less than half.
The development of the keyboard on the piano was retarded because the instrument is not portable. Obviously, it was necessary for the pianist to have an identical keyboard at the scene of his engagement as that which he practiced on at home. Therefore, all attempts at improvement in key arrangement on the piano came to a standstill about two hundred years ago. The piano keyboard is so taken for granted that its defects are thought to be necessary evils and most teachers have heretofore ignored their existence. However, the need for improvement has been recognized for a long time.
Past Reforms
A few inventors have suggested reforms during the past 60 years, the most notable being the ‘Janko’ keyboard of 1882 and, more recently, the ‘Chromo’ keyboard (which appeared on accordions in the early 1920’s). However, although these developments were a step in the right direction, they did not eliminate the main difficulties of the piano keyboard.
The greatest stumbling-block on the present day keyboard has been lack of uniformity when transposing from one key to another. From time to time, a few special keyboards have been built at enormous expense to get round the limitations of the piano keyboard. For instance, Irving Berlin had a piano build with a special mechanical transposing feature in order to facilitate his composing.
Actually, what I have done is to assemble in one keyboard the best features of the ‘Janko’ keyboard, the ‘Chromo’ keyboard and the piano keyboard respectively. The black keys are arranged in groups of twos and threes and, therefore, it is really an improved piano keyboard. The long narrow black keys have been replaced with wide black keys which provide a larger landing area for the finger tips.
Uniformity in Both Hands
It is no longer necessary to reach into the narrow channels between the black keys, which is a particularly bad feature of the present piano accordion keyboard.
Because the keyboard is uniform on the bass side, the value of that uniformity is lost if it is not matched by uniformity on the right hand. This is especially apparent in learning scale and chord fundamentals. The basic chords, scales and arpeggios are absolutely necessary equipment for the beginner if he is to progress at all. If the student has to wade through twelve different Major scales, twelve different Minor scales, etc as well as twelve each of the numerous chords and their inversions, which have to be mastered on the standard piano keyboard, progression to a full sized accordion can be considerably delayed.
Identical Fingering
On the Uniform Keyboard it is necessary to learn only one of each chord, scale and arpeggio in order to play them all. While the piano accordion favours the C-scale, the Uniform keyboard is laid out so that the fingering is exactly identical in all twelve keys, thus making possible the tremendous advantages of automatic transposition”.
Well Mr Reuther had obviously applied a lot of thought to his design but with the exception of Jimmy Blair he failed to convince those ‘key’ individuals – the accordion teachers of the time. Had he been able to do so history might have been different and the Box and Fiddle might regularly have contained photographs that looked like this.
Remember to let us know if you know of one.
C.T.
