Piano

Piano
Also called pianoforte, French piano or pianoforte, German Klavier,
a keyboard musical instrument having wire strings that sound when
struck by felt-covered hammers operated from a keyboard. The
standard modern piano contains 88 keys and has a compass of seven
full octaves plus a few keys.

Invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori during the 1700’s

Parts of the Piano
Keyboard
• The keyboard is comprised
of 88 black and white keys
• The keys are what you press
to produce the sound.
 Pedals
With the pedals, you can make the
sound softer or longer. The Una
Corda pedal will actually shift the
hammers inside of the piano so they
are striking only 1 string (instead of
all 3 strings) The Sostenuto pedal will
prolong the note with a soft echo,
and the Sustain pedal with prolong
the note with rich sound. We most
often use the sustain pedal.
Case and Lid

• Opening the lid of a grand

piano increases its
resonance and projection.

• Pulling an upright piano

away from the wall will
increase its resonance and
projection.
Keys, Hammers, and
Strings
Keys, Hammers, and Strings
• These parts actually produce the sound. Each of the 88 keys is connected
to a small, felt-covered hammer. When you press a key, its hammer strikes
a string, or set of strings, tuned to the appropriate musical note. The string
begins to vibrate extremely rapidly. Your ear picks up these vibrations, and
you hear music. The entire vibration process occurs in a split second.
• To stop the strings from vibrating, another mechanism called a damper sits
over the strings inside the keyboard. Dampers are made of cloth or felt that
mutes the strings by preventing any vibration. When you press a key, in
addition to triggering the mechanism that vibrates the string, a piano key
also lifts the damper. When you release the key (provided you’re not
holding down a pedal), the damper returns to mute the string so that all
your notes don’t crash into each other.