What is a Piano in Music?

Each of us once wished that he could play the most famous and magical instrument among all musical instruments, which is the piano.

Come, let us learn more about this instrument, how it works when it was designed, and let us take a quick overview of the musical scales.

The piano is a Western stringed instrument. Sound is produced by wooden hammers inside it that strike the strings, and the sound is produced in response to this collision.

The piano contains 8 octaves, which means 88 musical keys. Fifty-two white keys and 36 black keys, and the octave consists of eight musical notes that gradually rise or fall in the melody, which do re mi fa sol la se and the last do; this is the answer to the first do, which is the same sign but at a higher level. There are sharp and flat marks between these seven tonal notes, which divides the musical scale into 12 semi-tones. The first to establish the scale was the scholar Guido Arezzo, a Benedictine monk from the Italian city of Arezzo, in 1025 AD.

Therefore, the inventor of the piano certainly came after him. He was also the Italian musical scientist Bartolomeo Cristofori, who designed the first piano in 1700 AD. The name piano came from the word pianoforte, an Italian term dating back to the eighteenth century that means tenderness or softness.

The piano also has foot pedals at the bottom that the pianist presses with his feet to control the sound coming out of the piano. For example, when the right pedal is pressed, it raises the wooden picket that touches the strings. Thus, when any string is struck by pressing any key on the piano keyboard, a free, free, far-reaching sound is produced because the wooden picket no longer touches the strings.

When pressing with the foot on the left pedal, we bring the plate of the hammers closer to the strings, and thus, pressing the piano keys becomes faster and smoother because the distance between the hammer and the string has become short. This process also reduces the sound in the piano, so the left pedal is used for fast or quiet, low-volume pieces.

As for the middle pedal, it is only used to mute the sound of the piano so as not to disturb others in the room with the sound of the piano, whether they are neighbours, friends, or family. This sound muting is done by inserting a cloth cover between the strings and the hammers, thus muting the sound.

In the piano, there are four main scales through which all types of music in the world are built and composed, whether classical, jazz, pop, etc. These scales are diminished, which is the smallest scale and expresses fear or mystery, and then minor, which is broader than the one before it, which is the short scale, which It expresses sadness and sorrow, then major, which is larger than the minor scale, which expresses happiness and joy, and then augmented, which is the largest and widest scale, which is often used in jazz music, which expresses vitality, movement, and sometimes surprise.

Conclusion: The piano is an ancient and approved instrument for orchestral composition, as all orchestral instruments depend on it for the tunes. The piano is the instrument closest to philosophy and delicate feelings, and you can even play a symphonic work through the piano if you distribute the symphonic musical template to it in the correct and thoughtful manner because the piano accommodates all the scales and vocal degrees in Western music.