Keyboard instruments

Introduction

A keyboard instrument is any instrument that is played using a piano-type keyboard, that is, a set of keys, arranged in two rows, with the keys for the natural notes (usually white) in the first row and the keys for the flat and sharp notes (usually black) in the second row. A key is played by pressing it down with a finger.

Sometimes all of these instruments are grouped together as a "keyboard family", but when instruments are classified by how their sounds are produced, keyboard instruments are found in four of the five main classes of instruments (leaving out only the membranophones, or drums). There are keyboard chordophones , aerophones , idiophones , and electrophones .

Keyboard instruments are tremendously popular. The ease with which one person can play multiple notes, or even multiple independent lines, at the same time (an ease which is not really matched in any other instrument), makes them extremely versatile, good for playing solo, for providing the entire accompaniment for another soloist, for being part of an ensemble, and as an aid in composition or in explaining music theory.

Types of keyboard instruments

Chordophones

A chordophone keyboard instrument has a resonating body, usually made of wood, with a rack of strings inside it. Pressing a key causes the string or strings for that key to vibrate. There are several instruments in this family, and the major difference between them is the mechanism by which the key causes the strings to vibrate.

The most familiar and popular of the keyboard instruments is the piano . When a key of a piano is pressed, it causes a hammer to hit the strings for that key. The mechanism that connects the key to the hammer is engineered to allow the piano to be sensitive to finger pressure; if you press a piano key gently, the hammer will hit gently and the sound will be soft. If you press it harder, the hammer will hit the strings harder, and the sound will be louder. The full name for this instrument, pianoforte , means "soft loud", and reflects this sensitivity to finger pressure. The mechanical system which allows this was an important innovation that allows the piano to be played with great nuance and expression, and is the main reason the piano has almost completely replaced the other chordophone keyboards.

The piano's popularity means that it is commonly found not just in concert halls, but in homes, music classrooms, churches, activity rooms, bars, restaurants, and any public or semi-public space where live music is commonly featured. The grand piano, which can have a body up to nine feet long, is most commonly found in concert halls. "Baby" grands, which have a body around five feet long, are more common in other performance and teaching venues. Upright pianos, which hold the rack of strings vertically so that the piano doesn't take up much floor space, are most popular in homes and other venues with limited space.