Fun Fact of Piano

DO YOU KNOW THAT...

- independent studies show that children who learn piano tend to do better in school. This is attributed to the discipline, eye-hand coordination, social skills building, learning a new language (music) and the pleasure derived from making your own music.

- anyone considering a career in any facet of music should consider studying the piano. Many music schools require at least one semester of piano, regardless of your major.

- the piano is known as "The King of Instruments". The piano earned this title for a number of reasons including it's tonal range ( the piano covers the full spectrum of any instrument in the orchestra from below the lowest note of the double bassoon to above the top note of the piccolo), it's ability to produce melody and accompaniment at the same time (try that on a flute) and it's broad dynamic range.

- it is the largest musical instrument (excluding the pipe organ), most versatile and one of the most interesting.

- the first practical piano with an escapement mechanism for the hammers and capable of being played softly and loudly was built in 1700 by an Italian, Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731).

- the name piano is an abbreviation of Cristofori's original name for the instrument: piano et forte or soft and loud.

- a new piano should be tuned four times the first year, with the change of seasons, and at least twice a year after that.

- there are over 10 MILLION pianos in American homes, businesses, and institutions!

- Johann Behrent built the first piano in America at Philadelphia in 1775 under the name "Piano Forte".

- the term Grand was first used in 1777.

- Abraham Lincoln used Chickering Grand while at the White House.

- Piano Row in New York included the headquarters of such fine pianos as Steinway, Steck, Behning, Bradbury, Sohmer and many others.

- the first patent issued to H. Steinway, New York, was May 5, 1857. 2007 was the 160th Anniversary of the famous Steinway Pianos!

- the founder of the European famous piano company Petrov, Antonin Petrov went to Vienna to learn how to build grand pianos in 1857.

- the Petrov company built the first concert grand piano in 1864.

- Yamaha, established in 1887 was the first piano manufacturer in Japan.

- Petrov together with the significant American manufacturer Steinway & Sons opened a subsidiary in London in 1928.

- during the past 100 years there have been approximately 5000 Brands of pianos placed on the market. Most are still on display in homes or elsewhere.

- that there are currently over 50 Brand Names of pianos.

- pianos are made of thousands of pieces of wood glued together to form various parts of the playing mechanism as well as the cabinet. Felt, buckskin, paper, steel, iron, copper, and other materials are also used.

- the average medium size piano has about 230 strings, each string having about 165 pounds of tension, with the combined pull of all strings equaling approximately 18 tons!

- the term "Tickle the Ivorys" refers to playing the ivory keys of the piano, however, ivory has not been used to make piano keys since about the 1950's (they are plastic now).

- a standard keyboard has 88 keys.

- the worlds largest piano is a Challen Concert Grand. This piano is 11 feet long, has a total string tension of over 30 tons and weighs more than a ton!

- Piano Sizes
Concert Grand - 8' 11" and weighs about 1400 Pounds
Half Concert Grand - 7'4"
Parlour Grand 6'8"
Drawing Room Grand - 6'4"
Professional Grand - 6'
Living Room Grand - 5'10"
Baby Grand - 5'8"
Upright - 51" and up
Vertical - 36" - 51"
Studio - 44" or taller
Console to 42"
Spinet - 36" to 38"

- over the years there have been many attempts at "improving" the piano. One such experiment was to replace some of the wooden action parts with plastic. It didn't work, they cracked with age.

- there were many other ideas that tried and failed including the Jensen piano which had 2 keyboards, a vertical grand, one that had a keyboard that was more like a typewriter and much more.

We know that piano has 88 keys, so how many white keys and black keys are there?
-52 white; 36 black. There are 13 white keys to every 9 black keys.