Pianos are known to create beautiful music just by pressing on the keys. If you don’t like to listen to music played on the piano, let me tell the parts of a piano and how unique they are and how similar they are to other instruments. Have you ever played the piano, or even wanted to play? Well if you have or haven’t or have literally no interest in piano whatsoever, let’s see if I can interest even a little bit.
First, I’ll start with the boring part; what the piano is made up of. There are approximately 220-230 strings made from steel, and even though there might not be that many keys on a piano, it is needed to produce a very pretty sound. These strings are tightened so much, that the total tension through the piano is about 18-30 tons! Some of you might be interested in what the most expensive piano looks like and how much it sold for.
The most expensive piano was transparent, and was first played at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, and was played by a Chinese pianist Lang Lang. After that, at an auction, the piano sold for 3.22 million dollars! If I were at that auction I wouldn’t buy it for anywhere near that much money.
Now for some random fun facts about the piano. The piano was invented in Italy in 1709 by harpsichord maker Bartolomeo di Francesco Cristofori. The word piano is the shortened version of the word pianoforte, which means soft (piano) and loud (forte). Imagine if there was a new invention and everyone wanted it, but no one, not even the wealthiest were able to afford it. Well that is what happened when the piano was invented. For nearly a century no one could afford it!
The piano has the widest range of tones, compared to any other instruments. The piano goes higher than the highest note on a PICCOLO! Dang, piccolos can play very high. I bet the piano can’t play higher than a third grader on a recorder. The cool thing about pianos is you can play the melody and accompaniment at the same time, well I mean if the pianist is good enough to do that. No one really knows the exact group of instruments the piano is in, but it is closest to the string family and also the percussion family. The last thing I’ll talk about is going back to the parts of the instrument. It has 12,000 parts and 10,000 of those parts are moving!
I probably made it seem like this was going to be the most exciting essay you’ll ever hear, and it most definitely isn’t going to be. It was pretty boring to be honest, but I hope you learned at least one thing new. Even if it was the lamest thing you will ever hear, it’s still something new. If this didn’t make your day, then I don’t know what will. I hope you have a good rest of your day!!
Hand, // by Brandi, and Brandi Hand. “Piano Trivia and Fun Facts.” Piano Emporium, 17 Oct. 2018, www.pianoemporium.com/piano-trivia-and-fun-facts/.
Stone, Diana. “10 Interesting Facts About The Piano.” Normans News, 23 June 2020, www.normans.co.uk/blog/2015/03/10-interesting-facts-piano.