~Random Helpful Things to Know~
- Other nicknames given to the piano are, “tickling the ivories,” “the eighty-eight,” and the “black and whites.” These are all references to the structure of the piano.
- The largest piano is eleven feet, eight inches long. It weighs over one ton and has a total string tension of thirty tons.
- The keys on pianos are now made of plastic.
- One of the most expensive pianos ever sold is a Victorian Steinway Grand, which Christie Auction House sold for $1.2 million.
- There are over twelve-thousand parts in a piano. Ten thousand of those parts are moving.
- The middle of a keyboard is actually not "middle C". It's the space between E and F; above "middle C."
- Even though the piano is technically a string instrument, it is in the percussion group.
- The keys of a piano were originally made of ebony and ivory.
- There are eight keys in an octave. "Oct-"ave.
- The correct term for playing a note, 'short' ad 'choppy', is staccato.
- The highest note on a piano is a C.