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!
- The piano was invented in Italy in invented in 1698 Bartolomeo Cristofori.
- Pianos have more than 12,000 parts, 10,000 of which are moving.
- The piano is nicknamed “The King of Instruments” mainly for its wide tonal range.
- 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.
- Piano inventor Bartolomeo Cristofori made only a few pianos, preferring to focus on the harpsichord.
- 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.
- A concert grand piano weighs over 1400 lbs and is 8’11”
- 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.
- 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.
- The tension of the strings on an upright is more than 18 tons. For concert grand pianos, the tension is more than 30 tons.
- Henry Steinway was born Engelhard Steinweg, but changed his name after arriving in the US and starting his piano company.
- The piano is considered to be in the percussion family because it only makes noise when a hammer hits a string.
- ‘Piano’ is short for ‘pianoforte’, the full Italian name for the instrument.
- The Steinway family has been making pianos since 1853.
- There are 88 keys on a piano, made up of 36 black keys and 52 white keys.
- 70% of a piano is made of wood.
- A standard upright is at least 51” tall, while a console style is 42”. The smaller “spinet” can be just 3 feet tall.
- Pianos generally have 220-230 strings.
- Yamaha started production in 1887 and was the first Japanese piano manufacturer.
- On a standard 88-note keyboard, the first note is A, while the last note is C.