Keyboard instrument

This article is about Keyboard instruments. For keyboards on musical instruments see Musical keyboards

A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments. In common language, it is mostly used to refer to keyboard-style synthesizers.

== History == BORED.Anyway dont bother me keep reading. Among the very earliest keyboard instruments are the pipe organ, hurdy gurdy, clavichord and harpsichord. The organ is without doubt the oldest of these, appearing in the 3rd century BC, though this early instrument—called hydraulis—did not use a keyboard in the modern sense. From its invention until the 14th century, the organ remained the only keyboard instrument. Often, the organ did not feature a keyboard at all, rather buttons or large levers which were operated by a whole hand. Almost every keyboard until the 15th century had naturals to each octave.

The clavichord and the harpsichord appeared during the 14th century, the clavichord probably being the earlier. The harpsichord and the clavichord were both very common until the widespread adoption of the piano in the 18th century, after which their popularity decreased. The piano was revolutionary because a pianist could vary the volume (or dynamics) of the sound by varying the vigor with which each key was struck. The piano's full name is "gravicèmbalo con piano e forte" meaning "harpsichord with soft and loud" but can be shortened to "piano-forte", which means "soft-loud" in Italian.

Keyboard instruments were further developed in the early 20th century. Early electromechanical instruments, such as the Ondes Martenot, appeared early in the century. This was a very important contribution to the keyboard's history.

Construction

The keys were traditionally made of wood materials. The white tangents were made of ivory, the black of ebony, but now artificial materials like plastic are used to cover the wooden keys. Cheaper materials like oak, walnut and soft wood are used now. The flat for another, for example C♯ and D♭ are the same note.^[1]

The five accidentals written as sharps are: C♯, D♯, F♯, G♯, and A♯.

Modern keyboards

Much effort has gone into finding an instrument which sounds like the piano but lacks its size and weight. The electric piano and electronic piano were early efforts that, while being useful instruments in their own right, were not successful in convincingly reproducing the timbre of the piano. Electric and electronic organs were developed during the same period.

v t e Instrument intonation
Just intonation in any key	Fretless string instrument Pedal steel guitar Trombone Timpani Human voice Synthesizer
Dynamic intonation adjustment	Crook Fretted string instrument Wind instruments
Just intonation in one key	Bagpipes Natural horn Tromba marina Long-string instrument Harmonica
Retunable to a just key	Keyboard instruments Split sharp
Flageolet tones (harmonics) or natural overtone series	Guqin Đàn bầu
Physical just-intoned string part relation with additional 3rd bridge	Monochord Pencilina Moodswinger

Keyboard instrument

Construction

Modern keyboards

List of keyboard instruments

Chordophones

Aerophones

Idiophones

Electrophones

See also