Reply To: Jenko Melodica
Thank’s for this post, I’m going to have a look at this, and try to modify my piano melodica into a 3 row chromatic button layout.
The Janko / J. Caramuel y Lobkowitz layout (dating from circa 1650s , cfr. Patrizio Barbieri articles on Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz and the history of the 6+6 whole tone layout), offers some advantages.
But a division of the 12 semitones of the octave in 3 equally uniform layout (C-system or B-system) (4+4+4, instead of 6+6), this layout compacter and offers more flexible ways of fingering difficult passages.
A Janko layout is closer to fingering patterns of traditional piano keyboard layout.
The plastic piano melodicas are lightweight. Converted in a Janko or 3 row CBA layout, they would have a weight half of the accordina.