2. To the untrained eye, all those parts
and mechanisms that come along with
a piano can be quite intimidating.
Breaking down the piano piece by
piece will help you understand more
about the piano and about how it
works.
3.
4. The sound is, of course, the most
important thing when talking about a
musical instrument. There’s just a bit
more to it than tapping a key, which
activates a hammer, that makes a steel
string vibrate.
The sound is created along with the
soundboard, which is the surface the
strings vibrate against. The
soundboard helps to accentuate the
acoustics of the strings to the
surrounding air, resulting in better
sound quality.
When one taps down on a key,
produces a sound, and releases that
same key, the sound is stopped. The
pedals at the bottom of the piano will
allow the sound to continue even
when the key is released.
5. From the outside of the piano, there are 52 white
keys and 36 black keys. Each plays a different
note, or sound, and each key corresponds to a
single steel string.
Each string is different so each key produces a
different sound.
The outer casing of the piano, normally made out
of wood, protects the inner mechanisms of the
piano.
6. There are a few different types of pianos, from the
grand piano to the straight vertical, however they all
use essentially the same mechanisms.
The principle, rather, is the same; pressing down on a
key, activating a hammer, which vibrates a string
against a soundboard. Once one understands the
functions of the parts in a piano and the underlying
physics that goes along with them, one will
understand exactly how a piano works.
Opening up the piano to see what’s inside will
hopefully be a lot less overwhelming!
