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In the early years of piano construction, keys were commonly made from sugar pine. Black keys were traditionally made of ebony, and the white keys were covered with strips of ivory. However, since ivory-yielding species are now endangered and protected by treaty, or are illegal in some countries, makers use plastics almost exclusively, also ivory tends to chip more easily than plastic.
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Some pianos include an acoustic grand piano or upright piano combined with MIDI electronic features. Such a piano can be played acoustically, or the keyboard can be used as a MIDI controller, which can trigger a synthesizer module or music sampler. Some electronic feature-equipped pianos such as the Yamaha Disklavier electronic player piano, introduced in 1987, are outfitted with electronic sensors for recording and electromechanical solenoids for player piano-style playback.
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The first electric pianos from the late 1920s, used metal strings with a magnetic pickup, an amplifier, and a loudspeaker. The electric pianos that became most popular in pop and rock music in the 1960s and 1970s, such as the Fender Rhodes use metal tines in place of strings and use electromagnetic pickups similar to those on an electric guitar.
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The toy piano, was introduced in the 19th century, is a small piano-like instrument, that generally uses round metal rods to produce sound, rather than strings. A machine perforates a performance recording into rolls of paper, and the player piano replays the performance using pneumatic devices.
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In grand pianos the frame and strings are horizontal, with the strings extending away from the keyboard. The action lies beneath the strings, and uses gravity as its means of return to a state of rest. There are many sizes of grand piano.
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Some early pianos had shapes and designs that are no longer in use. The square piano (not truly square, but rectangular) was cross strung at an extremely acute angle above the hammers, with the keyboard set along the long side.
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This revolution was in response to a preference by composers and pianists for a more powerful, sustained piano sound, and made possible by the Industrial Revolution with resources.
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Bartolomeo’s new instrument remained relatively unknown until an Italian writer, Scipione Maffei, wrote an enthusiastic article about it including the diagram mechanism, that was translated into German and widely distributed.
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Three pianos by Bartolomeo survive, at the Metropolitan of Art.
The keyboards of the two surviving pianos by Bartolomeo can be shifted slightly so that the only one of the two strings of each pitch will be struck. -
Three pianos by Cristofori survived, however, their sound differs considerably from the modern piano.
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The first piano was developed when Cristofori named his instrument, “un cimbalo di cippresso di piano e forte,” which is an Italian for “ a keyboard made of cypress wood with soft and loud sound.”
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Bartolomeo Cristofori invented piano around the year 1700, in which he was known as the keeper of instruments.
