Piano

From ArticleWorld

The piano is a keyboard instrument. It is mainly used in chamber music, western music, accompaniment and solo performances. Most composers will also use the piano to aid them in writing songs. The principle behind the instrument is creating sound by hitting metal strings with a felt hammer. The device is constructed in such a manner that this needed movement of the hammer striking is done with the help of keyboards. Similar musical instruments are the clavichord and the harpsichord.

The beginning

The first instrument similar to a piano was called “gravicembalo col piano e forte” and was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700. Three of these, built by him, still exist today and date back to 1720. What Cristofori invented was basically a pianoforte. It was developed from a harpsichord. The breakthrough presented in the new invention came in the mechanical aspect of the instrument. The hammers used are supposed to return to their original position after striking the string and it should under no circumstance keep touching it after the key is released. Cristofori solved this problem and his pianoforte was a launching pad for evolution in the instrument’s development.

Types

The modern piano types can be divided in two categories:

1. The Upright Piano – named also a vertical piano, it is much more compact than a regular model. This is because the strings used are placed vertically. The innovation in design showed success when it comes to space occupied but it lacked the sound quality of other pianos. This is because the hammers are moving horizontally and it is harder to control the movement from such a position.
2. The Grand Piano – named because of its sheer size, the grand piano has the strings placed horizontally, extending from the keyboard. The hammers are moving vertically and create a much easier to control movement when compared to the upright piano. Three types of grand pianos stand out based on their size:

• concert grand – 2.2 to 3 meters long
• boudoir grand – 1.7 to 2.2 meters long
• baby grand – can even be shorter in length than it is wide

Other types of pianos include the player piano, the prepared piano and the digital piano. The player piano was invented by Henri Fourneaux and the main characteristic about it is that it plays itself. There is a piano roll that makes it possible to eliminate the pianist from creating the music. The only problem is that the piano will only play tunes it has the piano roll for. A prepared piano is a piano that has different objects put in it so that the sound would be as wanted by the pianist. The digital piano recreates the sound of the piano by altering a sample of a needed piano note. The process is called digital sampling.