A Little Music for You

This is Cristofori's Dream, by David Lanz.

Elton John's Red Piano

Many musical artists, like Elton John, have made colored pianos popular. This red piano was played by Elton John.

A Crystal Piano

The build of this piano, where the wood would normally be has been replaced with crystal giving an onlooker the ability to see the inside of the piano.

Customized Pianos

Piano makers have begun to stray from the professional black and white pianos to the more creative and colorful versions such as these Yamahas and Steinway & Sons.

Bosendorfer Grand Piano

Bosendorfer gand pianos are some of the most expensive pianos.

Grand Pianos

After the upright pianos came the horizontal pianos, also knowna as grand pianos.There six types of grand pianos. There's the petite grand, baby grand, medium grand, parlor grand, semiconcert or ballroom grand, and the concert grand. These grand pianos are ordered in size from smallest to largest.

Piano Companies

The piano has gone on to be produced by many companies. A few of the companies are Yamaha, Steinway & Sons, Story & Clark, Bosendorfer, Schimmel, Baldwin, and many others.

The Player Piano and Pianola

The pianola is a piano that is controlled by pedals. The player pianos play the piano from a series of felt fingers that press on the keys the music roll is read.

Pedals

There are three pedals on a piano. The pedal on the right is the sustain or damper pedal which lifts the damper from all of the keys so that the tone rings out longer and the strings keep vibrating. The middle pedals is often the bass sustain pedal which only lifts the damper off of the bass strings so that the bass notes continue to ring out. The pedal on the left is the soft pedal. The soft pedal produces a softer sound from the instrument. On grand pianos the soft pedal shifts the entire keyboard so that the hammer only hits one of the strings per key. However, this action isn't possible on an upright piano, so instead the soft pedal moves the hammer closer to the strings so it will not make as much of a sound when struck.

Piano Keys

There are 88 keys on a piano, 36 black keys and 52 white keys. Originally, the black keys were made of ebony and the white keys were covered with ivory. But since ivory comes from endangered species, the ivory has been replaced with a type of plastic that mimics ivory.

Piano Strings

The number of strings per key differs for each piano.

Piano Hammers

The hammers of the piano hit the strings when the keys of the piano are pushed. The harder a key is hit, the harder the hammer will hit the strings, causing a louder sound. The softer a key is hit, the softer the hammer will hit the strings, causing a softer sound.

The First Piano

These pianos are all unique. Why? The top picture is a picture of the Pianoforte, which is what the original piano was called. The piano in the middle is most likely what Bartolomeo Cristofori's first piano looked like and the piano on the bottom is one of the first pianos brought to California.

The piano was first known as the "pianoforte" since the player of the instrument could vary the volume or intensity of the instrument.

The Console Piano

The console piano is one of the four types of upright pianos.

The Spinet Piano

A Story & Clark spinet piano.

The Upright Piano

A labeled picture of an upright piano.

Vertical Pianos

There are four types of vertical pianos: spinet, console, studio, and upright.
(from top to bottom; upright, console, and spinet)

Tortoise Shell Clavichord Keys

In this picture the keys of the clavichord are made of tortoise shells, which is now illegal.

The Set-Up of the Clavichord

The clavichord is built differently than the harpsichord. The strings of the clavichord are strung horizontally when looking at the strings from above while the harpsichord strings are strung vertically when looking at the harpsichord from above.

The Clavichord

The clavichord is similar to the harpsichord, but still different. The difference between the harpsichord and the clavichord is that the clavichord makes it's sound by metal strings being hit by metal blades while the strings of the harpsichord are plucked.

Double Keyboard Harpsichord

The harpsichord later went on to have two keyboards and multiple octaves.

The Harpsichord

The harpsichord is played by pushing on the keys which triggers a chain reaction that results in the string being plucked.

Bartolomeo Cristofori: Inventor or the Piano

Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the pianoforte which is now more commonly known as the piano. The piano, which is based off it's relative the harpsichord, differs from the harpsichord because it responds to the strength of the musician's touch on the keys while the harpsichord does not.