At The Piano Removal Company, we thought that we’d compile a list of piano facts. Did you know all of these already? Test your piano knowledge now!

  1. The piano was invented in Italy in invented in 1698 Bartolomeo Cristofori.
  2. Pianos have more than 12,000 parts, 10,000 of which are moving.
  3. The piano is nicknamed “The King of Instruments” mainly for its wide tonal range.
  4. The piano can reach the lowest note of the contrabassoon and the highest note of the piccolo. No other orchestral instrument can match this range.
  5. Piano inventor Bartolomeo Cristofori made only a few pianos, preferring to focus on the harpsichord.
  6. Cristofori called his invention the “gravicèmbalo col piano e forte,” which translates from the Italian as “harpsichord with loud and soft” and was then shortened to pianoforte.
  7. A concert grand piano weighs over 1400 lbs and is 8’11”
  8. Piano maker Challen, who originally manufactured in England, made the world’s longest grand piano. It was 11′ 8″, with 30 tons of string tension and weighed 2000 lbs.
  9. Piano keys were made from ivory (hence the phrase, “tickle the ivories”), until the 1950s, where the expense, and environmental costs made manufacturers switch to plastic keys.
  10. The tension of the strings on an upright is more than 18 tons. For concert grand pianos, the tension is more than 30 tons.
  11. Henry Steinway was born Engelhard Steinweg, but changed his name after arriving in the US and starting his piano company.
  12. The piano is considered to be in the percussion family because it only makes noise when a hammer hits a string.
  13. ‘Piano’ is short for ‘pianoforte’, the full Italian name for the instrument.
  14. The Steinway family has been making pianos since 1853.
  15. There are 88 keys on a piano, made up of 36 black keys and 52 white keys.
  16. 70% of a piano is made of wood.
  17. A standard upright is at least 51” tall, while a console style is 42”. The smaller “spinet” can be just 3 feet tall.
  18. Pianos generally have 220-230 strings.
  19. Yamaha started production in 1887 and was the first Japanese piano manufacturer.
  20. On a standard 88-note keyboard, the first note is A, while the last note is C.
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