transposing keyboard

Definition: A transposing keyboard is a manual that allows a performer to quickly change the home key of an instrument in one of the following ways:

1. A second manual that is either permanently tuned a fourth interval above the main manual, or transposed with a hand stop; seen on early Flemish harpsichords before concert pitch became standard.


2. A single manual instrument in which the action may be moved laterally, causing the hammers to strike different strings.*


3. Some electric piano and MIDI controller keyboards can be transposed at the touch of a button.

*Not to be confused with “keyboard shift,” which positions the hammers to strike only one or two strings (una corda, due corde, respectively) instead of all three; see trichord.