Piano Facts Interesting facts about pianos

Christie's Auction House recently sold a Vicorian Steinway grand piano for $1.2 MILLION DOLLARS! The piano was sold to the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute of Williamstown, Massachusetts.

That 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 eighteen tons !

The total string tension in a concert grand is close to Thirty Tons!

That a boxed model D Steinway Grand Piano weighs 1400 Pounds !

That six Steinways are now in the Smithsonian collection

The working section of the piano is called the action. There are about 7500 parts here, all playing a role in sending the hammers against the strings when keys are struck.

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.

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).

Cristofori made few pianos, his attention was to the building of harpsichords.

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

Spinet pianos were made by Samuel Blythe as early as 1789 at Salem, Mass.

The term Grand was first used in 1777.

Abraham Lincoln used Chickering Grand #5070 while at the White House.

During 1869 the US produced 25,000 pianos valued at $7,000,000, during 1910 production was 350,000 pianos valued at $100,000,000 !

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, sometimes referred to as "Ivorine").

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.

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.

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.

It should also be noted here that 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.

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 many others.

Jonas Chickering was the first exporter of American made pianos. First shipment to India 1844.

Yamaha, established in 1887 was the first piano manfacturer in Japan.

That pianos were the first meaningful brand names, the first Status Symbol, and the first major items sold on an installment basis, which was the cornerstone of several major banking institutions of today.

A grand piano action is faster than a vertical (spinet, console, upright) because it has a repetition lever. This allows the pianist to repeat the note when it is only half way up. A vertical action requires letting the key all the way up to reset the hammer action.

Piano Sizes
Concert Grand - 8' 11" and larger
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"

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 !!

The term A-440 concert pitch refers to A above middle C vibrating at 440 cycles per second.

The first note (on a standard 88 note keyboard) is A .

The exact middle of the keyboard is not middle C, it is actually the space between E and F above "middle" C.

The last note of the keyboard is C.

The Bösendorfer Imperial concert grand piano is 9' 6" long and has 9 extra keys stretching to a growling C below bottom C ! (The Imperial grand sold for $55,000 in 1980!) The 9' and 7' 4" grands have four extra bass keys, the lowest of which is F below bottom C.