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I am very fortunate to live near the National Music Museum on the campus of the University of South Dakota located in Vermilion, SD

National Music Museum Homepage

I visited there yesterday and took pictures of many of the acoustic keyboard instruments. It was very difficult to resist the urge not to touch!

My apologies for my photography skills and slow web hosting.

There aren't many reasons to come to southeastern South Dakota, but this museum is surely one of them.

Enjoy!

Fascinating! Thanks so much!!

wow! thank you so much!

my favorite was the miniature! never saw anything like that...

if i ever realize my dream of driving cross-country i'll definitely make a stop there!

thank you again. that's a lot of work posting those pics.

Wow. Who would've thunk it?

A museum with pieces as unusual as some that you photographed... in South Dakota!! I have spent time in the Historical Musical Instrument Museum in Vienna and some of your photos rival pieces I saw there.

Now I have a reason to visit South Dakota. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you for sharing and spending time posting the pictures, Feeble. It was very enjoyable to read the descriptions!

Yet I cannot help but to notice, but why some of the instruments displayed seem not very well cared for?

The poor 1864 Chickering seems so dusty..

Man south Dakota! Thats not that far away from me!

I really really want to play one of those beautiful organs!


I presume though that you cant play any of these instruments?

I wonder what the condition of the internals of some of them are... :?:

Thats pretty neat stuff

Thank you for sharing and posting all those beautiful photos. I guess now I have a reason to visit South Dakota. Many of your photos rival the pictures at this website: http://www.get-piano-lessons.com/renaissance-time-period.html

The harpsichords and early pianofortes that I find the most fascinating and I don't know why, are the ones with the black and white keys reversed from what we see today.

Looking at the evolution of the piano makes me glad that I live in a time where we can afford to live in homes big enough to have pianos and can afford such beautiful instruments and that we don't have to re-tune our pianos each time we want to play in a different key or every time we want to practice!

Okay. I will have to go to S. Dakota sometime. Can someone shed more light on the piano with the completely different keyboard? I think it was the Decker Bros upright.

Don't think I have ever seen a keyboard like that for a keyboard. Reminds me of an old typewriter.

Maybe a link to that style keyboard.

Wow feeble, thanks so much, great pictures!

Lots of wonderful shots. That's the best picture I've seen of a Janko keyboard, love it.

I'd love to see these in person, but I think I'll wait until summer :-)

If you don't mind, I might grab a copy of the pictures and host them on the Piano World server so they will load faster.

That is the Jenko keyboard system.

Its a chromatic keyboard. Its like the button accordions.

I hear they are very easy to play. Much easier than a standard piano.

Japan has been making this keyboard called a chromatone or something. It looks like a cheap $100 but with the chromatic button system. its like $2,000!!!!!!

Very cool idea. Too bad it wasn't more popular.

They made Grand Janko pianos!

http://squeezehead.com/uniform-keyboard/

And that grand is a Steinway!!!!!!!!

Glad everyone likes them. Having the museum located in such a rural area as South Dakota means that not as many people get to enjoy it. Hopefully I've brought some of the museum out to the world.

It really is an unbelievable place if you like musical instruments, they have much, much more than keyboard instruments on display.


They have an audio tour of the museum as you walk though, you can hear some of the instruments being played. I think the audio tour does cost some $$. Admission itself is free but you can donate if you wish.






If you want to host the pictures so that they load faster, help yourself, or let me know the location and I can change the posts. I have higher resolution pictures if you want those as well, just let me know.