Since 1978/Moving over 100,000 piano’s and keyboards
Here are some fun facts about pianos:
The name “piano” is actually a shortened nickname from Italian. The grand piano was originally invented in 1698 by harpsichord maker Bartolomeo Cristofori. He called his invention “gravicèmbalo col piano e forte,” which means “harpsichord with loud and soft” in Italian. That long phrase was shortened to “pianoforte” and then eventually just become “piano.”
Some other nicknames for piano playing or the piano are “tickling the ivories,” “the eighty-eight,” and the “black and whites.” These are all references to the structure of the piano. The ivories refer to the fact that the keys were made of ivory until the 1950s. The eighty-eight refers to the number of keys. And the black and whites refer to the two different key colors.
The keys of pianos are now made of plastic, but 70% of the instrument is constructed of wood. The cabinets are actually hundreds of pieces of wood securely attached to each other. The hammers and other parts are made of wood, paper, iron, copper, steel and felt. There are about 12,000 parts of a piano, 10,000 of which move to produce sound!
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