Jumping jack (music)

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This article is about the musical reference. For other uses, see Jumping jack (disambiguation).

Jumping jack refers to the effect of pressing a key on a harpsichord when the jack rail is off. The normal action of a harpsicord is that the jack goes up when the key is depressed. The jack then hits the jack rail and stops. The term "jumping jack" refers to when somebody has taken the jack rail off and and forgotten to replace it before starting to play. In this case there is no jack rail to stop the jack moving up, so the jack actually flys up into the air about a foot or two.“jumps”.