| The following are a few brief facts about the piano: | | | | copper or iron wire around the core wire. The lowest |
| Invented in 1698 by an Italian, Bartolomeo Cristofori. | | | | octave having two wrappings. |
| The name piano is an abbreviation of the original name | | | | If a piano hammer were attached directly to the back |
| for the instrument, piano et forte or soft and loud. | | | | end of a key, when the key was depressed, the |
| There are over 10,000 moving parts in a piano, 10,000 | | | | hammer would hit the string and stay there, which |
| and 12,000 parts in total. | | | | would dampen the sound. For this reason, all piano |
| Each note in a grand piano has more than 35 points of | | | | actions have some kind of escape mechanism for |
| adjustment. Over 3,080 adjustments for the entire | | | | each key, allowing the hammer to be released from |
| piano. | | | | the key just before hitting the string. When the key is |
| There is approximately 18 tons of pressure being | | | | released, the action returns to its original position and |
| exerted by the stretched steel piano strings. | | | | resets itself for another cycle. |
| The action of a grand is superior in many ways to a | | | | Older piano keys were made from the Ivory from |
| vertical piano, one being that any key can be repeated | | | | elephant tusks. More modern day pianos have |
| faster than any vertical upright. | | | | replaced this with different material in order to stop |
| Lower strings on a piano are weighted by wrapping | | | | destroying the animals. |