The piano is one of the most popular musical instruments ever. There are probably three million pianos in the US alone, and over a million new and used pianos are sold every year. There are at least fifty thousand piano teachers, who teach hundreds of thousands of students. In spite if how popular the piano is have you ever stopped to think about who invented it, and how it works?
The piano as we know it took many people hundreds of years to invent. The first instrument to be anything like the piano was called the monochord. The monochord, which had only one string, was a popular instrument in ancient Greece and Rome. The monochord was such a simple instrument that people began trying to make it better, and after a while, the clavichord was born.
The clavichord was much like the piano, but it was so quiet that even a whistle would drown the song out, so a better instrument was invented. It was called the harpsichord. Instead of using fingers, like the monochord, or brass strips, like the clavichord, the harpsichord used quills to strum the strings. The harpsichord was much louder than the clavichord. In fact, many people thought it was too loud, so they tried to make an instrument that played both loudly and softly.
In 1711, the Italian Bartolomew Cristofori invented a new instrument, which he called "the pianoforte", which means soft-loud in Italian. He noticed how the dulcimer used hammers to hit the strings, and used that idea instead of brass strips or quills. It worked!
The piano is a complex instrument with many parts. When you press a key the hammer that is attached to that key hits a string, and causes it to vibrate, which is what makes the noise. If you press that key hard, the hammer will hit the string hard, and the noise will be louder. If you press the key gently, the noise will be softer.
The piano strings are made of steel, and each string is tuned for a different note. The width, length, and how tight the string is strung decide how high or low the note is. The shorter, thinner and tighter the string is strung, the higher the note is. The strings for the lowest notes have copper wire wrapped around them to make them thicker. The string for the highest note is only as long as your pinkie!
The dampers are another important part of the piano. A damper is a sound blocker that rests against a string to keep it from vibrating when you don't want it to. When you press a key, the damper lifts off the string, and when you let go of that key, the damper comes back down.
Each piano has at least two pedals. The left one, which is called the "soft" pedal, is connected to the hammers. When you press the soft pedal, the hammers are moved closer to the strings. Since the hammers don't have as far to go, they hit the strings more gently, and make a softer sound. The right pedal is called the "damper" pedal, or the "sustaining" pedal. It is connected to the dampers, and when you press it, it lifts the dampers off the strings. This lets the note keep sounding even after you have taken your hands off the keys, and gives the music an echoey sound.
As you can see, the piano is an amazing instrument. You can play many notes at once, and play them loudly or softly, just by pressing the keys. It was very interesting to learn about the piano, and I hope you think so, too. Next time you play the piano, (or watch someone else play) think about all the little parts, and how they come together to make beautiful music.