It Was Known as What? 10 Interesting Piano Facts

On average, people are buying fewer pianos than they used to. Less of an emphasis has been placed on the importance of learning instruments, and many people just don’t have the room to put one in their home.

But the piano will be around to stay. While acoustic piano sales might be low, electric piano sales are still going steady. Since it’s up to us to preserve this classic and beautiful instrument, here are ten piano facts you can learn.

10 Interesting Piano Facts

Music is used for anything and everything. From marketing to movies, it’s a part of who we are. And pianos are no different.

They’re Really Tense

Some pianos can hold up to thirty tons of tension in their strings. The pianos that usually have the most tension are the largest – grand pianos. That tension is carried across two hundred and twenty to two hundred and thirty strings.

It Had a Long Name

The first piano was invented in the 1700s and was called the gravicèmbalo col piano e forte. In Italian, that translates to “harpsichord with loud and soft.”

You’ve probably guessed it, but from there the name was shortened until the instrument just became known as the piano. The fact that the piano was sensitive to the touch was new in the world of music, and making it loud and soft opened up new avenues of expression.

It Was Unaffordable

The first piano invented was very expensive. Even rich families at the time couldn’t afford to have a piano in their home.

The people who first owned the piano were all the royalty and the aristocrats at the time. It was about a century until the rest of the public was able to afford it, as it went through changes that developed it into more of the instrument that we know today. In fact, it wasn’t until about the 19th century that the modern piano was born.

The Most Expensive

Speaking of expensive pianos, the most expensive piano in the world played by Lang Lang at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. This was the first time since it was made that the piano was ever played.

The piano is transparent, and called the Crystal Piano. An anonymous bidder bought the piano at an auction for 3.22 million dollars. Since it was sold, no one has seen this piano.

Maybe you don’t play the piano – but everybody types on the computer, and that’s sort of the same, right? Make typing on your computer more fun by getting a MacBook air keyboard cover. Not only will it make it slightly more like you’re playing the piano, but also protect your keyboard from all the dirt and dust particles that are threatening to get in it and harm it on a daily basis.

The Strangest Looking

Amongst one of the most famous pianos in the world is the Galaxy piano, an instrument that is worth around 1.36 million dollars. 

This piano was built in the United Arab Emirates by Galaxy Instruments. It’s crafted from 24-carat gold, and has a zany design that curves around the keys and looks quite unlike any piano you might be able to purchase regularly from a store.

The Dawn of Digital Pianos

People had to wait until the 1980s in order to play an electric piano. 

There was a version of the electric instrument that came to the market around the 1950s that had taken thirty years to create, but it was essentially just an amplified piano. The synthesizer was hugely popular in the 1960s, but didn’t become the modern digital piano until the 80s.

The Largest

The largest piano in the world was made by a twenty-year-old named Adrian Mann. The instrument took him four years to build and it weighs a whopping 1.4 tons. Mann started to build the piano when he was a teenager at age fifteen.

The piano is nineteen feet in length, which is more than double the size of what a normal piano measure. The piano travels from musician to musician and features a rich, deep tone. Mann restores pianos for a living.

Nicknames

The piano is often called the “King of Musical Instruments.”

That’s because of its impressively wide range of notes. It can play lower than a traditional organ and higher than a piccolo. It can play both the melody and the accompaniment of a song, unlike basically every other traditional instrument.

If you’re looking for piano facts, just remember – “King of Musical Instruments.”

Ivory Keys

Yes, when you’re playing a piano, it’s sometimes said that you’re stroking the ivory keys. That’s because piano keys actually used to be made of ivory. Until around as late at the 1950s, piano keys were made from elephant tusks.

Now, in an effort to preserve the elephants and keep them from dying out, mostly every piano’s keys are made from plastic. Some are made from wood, but typical pianos are made from cheaper, more ethical materials.

The Longest Concert

The world record for the longest piano concert was one hundred and three hours and eight seconds. This feat was performed by Romuald Koperski.

For every hour that the piano was played, Koperski was allowed to have a five-minute break. He would play through a few hours to accumulate rest, and ate and drank as little food as he could manage in order to break the record.

He played movie soundtracks, classical music compositions, and fragments of jazz. He was later reported to have said that he didn’t think that breaking the record would be as hard as it actually was in the end.

More Pianos

If piano facts aren’t enough, you can take a look at even more. Get a glimpse of all the unique and weird pianos out there in the world, and you can gain even more of an appreciation of this all-around awesome musical instrument.

And who knows – maybe you’ll get out there and learn how to play some new tunes. But maybe not for over one hundred hours straight. 

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