Exploring the
ORCHESTRA
Piano
Musical Section:
Percussion (<p style="font-weight: 400">Instruments that produce sound by hitting, shaking or scraping. Other instruments in this family include: celesta, chimes, crotales, cymbals, glockenspiel, maracas, marimba, piano, snare drum, Tam Tam, triangle, tambourine, vibraphone, xylophone and lots of others!</p>) . Other instruments in this family: Bass Drum, Celesta, Chimes, Cymbals, Tambourine, Timpani, Triangle, Xylophone
About the Piano
What it looks like
The piano is a large musical instrument with 88 black and white keys. The keys are in groups of two and three black keys, which help you find the right notes. When you press a key, a little hammer hits a string and makes a sound.
Since the piano has so many keys, it can play a huge range of high, medium and low notes. Moving from left to right, the notes get higher. When you reach the last note, it’s so high, you almost can’t hear it!
The piano is different from most other instruments because it can play so many notes at once, creating full chords and harmonies all by itself. It’s like having a whole orchestra in one instrument!
Even though the piano has strings like a violin, it is considered a percussion instrument and not a string instrument because the sound is created by the string being hit by a hammer.
How to Play
Both Maestros
Um, chances are you know how to play a piano. But you may not know what the three pedals are for:
Right pedal: sustain pedal. The notes keep ringing even after you lift your fingers off the keys.
Left pedal: soft pedal. This pedal makes the notes sound softer.
Middle pedal: sostenuto pedal. This sustains only the notes you’re holding down. Notes played after are not sustained.
The Original Swifties!
Franz Liszt was the original rock star phenom even before rock music! When he played piano, women in the audience would lfaint from excitement.
Fans would rush the stage just to touch him, or grab bits of his handkerchief or gloves.
They would send Liszt thousands of letters that included tiny gifts like locks of hair, flowers, or sometimes jewelry! Supposedly, one fan sent him a bouquet of flowers every day for a year! See? It definitely pays to practice!
