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The piano is one of the most-popular musical instruments in the world. But peek inside it, and you’ll quickly discover that it is also among the more-complex instruments. You might also begin to wonder what type of instrument it is—percussion or stringed?
The piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, through engagement of an action whose hammers strike strings. Most pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, representing each note of the chromatic scale as they repeat throughout the keyboard's span of seven and a quarter octaves.
- Early 18th century
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Mar 8, 2021 · If you go by the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, the piano is a stringed instrument. But we have to accept that the piano falls into the realm of percussion instruments as it uses hammers for striking.
Aug 10, 2023 · The answer is both! The traditional Hornbostel-Sachs system considers the piano to be a type of chordophone, while the mechanism by which sound is produced makes it a percussion instrument as well. While the piano is known as a keyboard instrument, it is classified as a percussion instrument.
Jun 7, 2021 · A piano is a chordophone—a type of string instrument. It produces sound via vibrating piano strings that run across a soundboard inside the instrument. When a player presses a piano key, they trigger a felted hammer to strike a string. This hammer strike causes the string to vibrate, producing the modern piano sound we recognize today.
Jul 17, 2023 · A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when the keys are pressed. It consists of a row of 88 black and white keys, 52 white keys and 36 shorter black keys.