0_Wizard
I was fascinated when as a kid I saw an open piano. To my surprise when you pressed the keys there would be movement in some strings inside of the piano. All done by levers.
It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys (small levers) that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings.
chosen_Piano_0
Piano
chosen_topic_0_Piano
Piano
The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700 (the exact year is uncertain), in which the strings are struck by hammers. It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys (small levers) that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings. The word "piano" is a shortened form of "pianoforte", the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument, which in turn derives from "gravicembalo col piano e forte" and "fortepiano". The Italian musical terms "piano" and "forte" indicate "soft" and "loud" respectively, in this context referring to the variations in volume (i.e., loudness) produced in response to a pianist's touch or pressure on the keys: the greater the velocity of a key press, the greater the force of the hammer hitting the strings, and the louder the sound of the note produced and the stronger the attack.
Double bass
The double bass, or simply the bass (and numerous other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra. It is a transposing instrument and is typically notated one octave higher than tuned to avoid excessive ledger lines below the staff. The double bass is the only modern bowed string instrument that is tuned in fourths (like a viol), rather than fifths, with strings usually tuned to E, A, D and G. The instrument's exact lineage is still a matter of some debate, with scholars divided on whether the bass is derived from the viol or the violin family.
Piano pedals
Piano pedals are foot-operated levers at the base of a piano which change the instrument's sound in various ways. Modern pianos usually have three pedals, from left to right, the soft pedal (or una corda), the sostenuto pedal, and the sustaining pedal (or damper pedal). Some pianos omit the sostenuto pedal, or have a middle pedal with a different purpose such as a muting function also known as silent piano. The development of the piano's pedals is an evolution that began from the very earliest days of the piano, and continued through the late 19th century. Throughout the years, the piano had as few as one modifying stop, and as many as six or more, before finally arriving at its current configuration of three.
String instrument
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when the performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the strings with their fingers or a plectrum—and others by hitting the strings with a light wooden hammer or by rubbing the strings with a bow. In some keyboard instruments, such as the harpsichord , the musician presses a key that plucks the string. With bowed instruments, the player rubs the strings with a horsehair bow, causing them to vibrate. With a hurdy-gurdy, the musician operates a mechanical wheel that rubs the strings.
Player piano
A player piano (also known as pianola) is a self-playing piano, containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism that operates the piano action via pre-programmed music recorded on perforated paper, or in rare instances, metallic rolls, with more modern implementations using MIDI. The rise of the player piano grew with the rise of the mass-produced piano for the home in the late 19th and early 20th century. Sales peaked in 1924, then declined as the improvement in phonograph recordings due to electrical recording methods developed in the mid-1920s. The advent of electrical amplification in home music reproduction via radio in the same period helped cause their eventual decline in popularity, and the stock market crash of 1929 virtually wiped out production.
Keyboard layout
A keyboard layout is any specific "mechanical", "visual", or "functional" arrangement of the keys, legends, or key-meaning associations (respectively) of a computer, typewriter, or other typographic keyboard. Most computer keyboards are designed to send scancodes to the operating system, rather than directly sending characters. From there, the series of scancodes is converted into a character stream by keyboard layout software. This allows a physical keyboard to be dynamically mapped to any number of layouts without switching hardware components – merely by changing the software that interprets the keystrokes.
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard, a row of levers which the player presses. When the player presses one or more keys, a mechanism that plucks one or more strings with a small quill is triggered. "Harpsichord" designates the whole family of similar plucked-keyboard instruments, including the smaller virginals, muselar, and spinet. The harpsichord was widely used in Renaissance and Baroque music. During the late 18th century, it gradually disappeared from the musical scene, with the rise of the piano. In the 20th century, it made a resurgence, being used in historically informed performances of older music, in new compositions, and in some styles of popular music.
1_Apprentice
I love piano! I wish i could play it
0_Wizard
Me too but I got a little bit confused with the three pedals. Sustaining pedal, sostenuto pedal and soft pedal? Way to many pedals!
Modern pianos usually have three pedals, from left to right, the soft pedal (or una corda), the sostenuto pedal, and the sustaining pedal (or damper pedal).
self_Piano_pedals_1
Piano pedals
self_2_Piano_pedals
Piano pedals
Piano pedals are foot-operated levers at the base of a piano which change the instrument's sound in various ways. Modern pianos usually have three pedals, from left to right, the soft pedal (or una corda), the sostenuto pedal, and the sustaining pedal (or damper pedal). Some pianos omit the sostenuto pedal, or have a middle pedal with a different purpose such as a muting function also known as silent piano. The development of the piano's pedals is an evolution that began from the very earliest days of the piano, and continued through the late 19th century. Throughout the years, the piano had as few as one modifying stop, and as many as six or more, before finally arriving at its current configuration of three.
Piano
The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700 (the exact year is uncertain), in which the strings are struck by hammers. It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys (small levers) that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings. The word "piano" is a shortened form of "pianoforte", the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument, which in turn derives from "gravicembalo col piano e forte" and "fortepiano". The Italian musical terms "piano" and "forte" indicate "soft" and "loud" respectively, in this context referring to the variations in volume (i.e., loudness) produced in response to a pianist's touch or pressure on the keys: the greater the velocity of a key press, the greater the force of the hammer hitting the strings, and the louder the sound of the note produced and the stronger the attack.
Sostenuto
In music, sostenuto is a term from Italian that means "sustained". It occasionally implies a slowing of tempo, though more often it refers to a very legato style in which the notes are performed in a sustained manner beyond their normal values. On a modern grand piano with three pedals, the middle pedal is usually a sostenuto pedal. It sustains "only" those notes that are being held down when the pedal is depressed, allowing future notes played to be unaffected. It is commonly abbreviated "S.P. ", "Sost. Ped. ", or "ThP." (from the German equivalent "Tonhalte-Pedal"). On some upright pianos and lower-quality grand pianos, the middle pedal sustains all notes in the bass register, but this is not a true sostenuto pedal.
Effects unit
An effects unit or pedal is an electronic or digital device that alters how a musical instrument or other audio source sounds. In the 2010s, most effects use solid-state electronics and/or computer chips. Some vintage effects units from the 1930s to the 1970s and modern reissues of these effects use mechanical components as well (e.g., Leslie rotating speaker, spring reverb, and tape recorder-based echo effects) or vacuum tubes. Some effects subtly "color" a sound, such as a reverb unit used on a low setting, while others transform it dramatically, such as a distortion pedal used with electric guitar, with the overdrive set to its maximum level.
Sustain pedal
A sustain pedal or sustaining pedal (also called damper pedal, loud pedal, or open pedal) is the most commonly used pedal in a modern piano. It is typically the rightmost of two or three pedals. When pressed, the sustain pedal "sustains" all the damped strings on the piano by moving all the dampers away from the strings and allowing them to vibrate freely. All notes played will continue to sound until the vibration naturally ceases, or until the pedal is released. This lets the pianist sustain notes which would otherwise be out of reach, for instance in accompanying chords - and accomplish "legato" passages (smoothly connected notes) which would have no possible fingering otherwise.
Consolations (Liszt)
The Consolations are a set of six solo piano works by Franz Liszt. The compositions take the musical style of Nocturnes with each having its own distinctive style. Each Consolation is composed in either the key of E major or D-flat major. E major is a key regularly used by Liszt for religious themes. There exist two versions of the Consolations. The first (S.171a) was composed by Liszt between 1844 and 1849 and published in 1992 by G. Henle Verlag. The second (S.172) was composed between 1849 and 1850 and published in 1850 by Breitkopf & Härtel, containing the familiar Consolation No. 3, "Lento placido", in D-flat Major.
Bicycle pedal
The bicycle pedal is the part of a bicycle that the rider pushes with their foot to propel the bicycle. It provides the connection between the cyclist's foot or shoe and the crank allowing the leg to turn the bottom bracket spindle and propel the bicycle's wheels. Pedals usually consist of a spindle that threads into the end of the crank and a body, on which the foot rests or is attached, that is free to rotate on bearings with respect to the spindle. Pedals were initially attached to cranks connecting directly to the driven (usually front) wheel. The safety bicycle, as it is known today, came into being when the pedals were attached to a crank driving a sprocket that transmitted power to the driven wheel by means of a roller chain.