(TMS) The Piano Keyboard Lesson

The Piano Keyboard

The piano, an abbreviation of pianoforte , is a musical instrument played using a keyboard. The Italian musical terms piano and forte indicate "soft" and "loud" respectively, in this context referring to the variations in volume produced in response to a pianist's touch on the keys: the greater the velocity of a key press, the greater the force of the hammer hitting the strings, and the louder the sound of the note produced.

The piano is widely employed in classical and jazz music for solo and ensemble performances, accompaniment, and for composing and rehearsal. Although the piano is not portable and often expensive, its versatility has made it one of the world's most familiar musical instruments.

An acoustic piano usually has a protective wooden case surrounding the soundboard and metal strings, and a row of 88 black and white keys (52 white, 36 black). The strings are sounded when the keys are pressed, and silenced when the keys are released. The note can be sustained, even when the keys are released, by the use of pedals.

Notes that all of the white keys (bottom row) denote all natural notes while the black notes are denoted by two different names: the name of the note pitched a half-step (semi-tone) above with a sharp (♯) sign next to it, or the name of the note pitched a half-step lower with a flat ( ♭ ) sign next to it. One raises the pitch value of a note by a half-step by 'sharpening' it and lowers it by a half-step by 'flattening' it. Thus, the black note between 'C' and 'D' can be described as both 'C-sharp' and 'D-flat'. Furthermore, the concept of naming an identical pitch in two different ways (such as 'B-flat' and 'A-sharp') is described as being enharmonic and we will talk about enharmonics in more detail in a later module. In musical terminology, the sharp and flat signs are known as accidentals.

[CC BY 4.0] UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED | IMAGES: LICENSED AND USED ACCORDING TO TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION