Musical Instruments: The Piano

The piano is an instrument of the keyboard family. The full name of the instrument is the pianoforte. This is due to being able to play soft and loud, piano meaning soft and forte meaning loud. It was invented at the beginning of the eighteenth century, but was a very simple instrument at that time, different to what it is today.

The upright piano has the strings arranged vertically while the grand piano has them arranged horizontally. The sound is created by strings being struck by a wooden hammer when the key is depressed. The sound is then silenced when the key is lifted by a damper which stops the string vibrating.  The low notes have one string, the middle notes have two strings and the high notes have three strings. The damper or sustaining pedal was invented later. It is situated on the right. This pedal allows the string to continue to sound once the key has been lifted, preventing the dampers from resting back on the strings and silencing them. Modern pianos have two or three pedals. The pedal on the left is the soft pedal. On the grand piano the hammers are moved slightly so on the notes that have more than one string, one is not hit by the hammer so the sound is softer. On the upright piano the hammers are moved closer to the strings so they are struck with less force, resulting in a softer sound. The pedal in the middle is the sostenuto pedal which sustains notes that are sounding at the time the pedal is depressed, but not any further notes that are played. This pedal is on the grand piano. Another use for the third pedal is to muffle the sound due to a strip of felt that falls down between the hammers and the strings. It makes practising the piano less annoying to other people, but it does not have any musical value. This pedal is on the upright piano.

The piano eventually replaced two early keyboard instruments, the harpsichord and the clavichord. The piano has a larger range of notes than earlier keyboard instruments. The music for the piano is written on two staves, the treble clef for higher notes and the bass clef for lower notes. Pianos today have a range of just over seven octaves.

Below is a picture of a grand piano.


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Below is an upright piano.


Photo credit: nwclassicyacht via Foter.com / CC BY

Below is inside an upright piano. It shows the hammers, the dampers next to the hammers and the strings.


Photo credit: nwclassicyacht via Foter.com / CC BY


Warburton, Annie O. Basic Music Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Print, p. 150.

Taylor, E. (1991). The AB guide to music theory, part II. 1st ed. London: Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. pp. 223 to 226.