Piano Trivia Questions
What is a piano?
A: The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical
instrument, in which the strings are struck by
hammers.
What is used to play the instrument?
A: It is played using a keyboard.
The performer presses down or strikes with the
fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause what
to happen?
A: The hammers to strike the strings.
When was the piano invented?
A: About 1700 (the exact year is uncertain).
Who is credited with inventing the piano?
A: Bartolomeo Cristofori
Cristofori's success was solving the fundamental
mechanical problem of what?
A: Designing a stringed keyboard instrument in
which the notes are struck by a hammer.
The piano is very heavy and thus not what?
A: Portable.
Most modern pianos have a row of how many black
and white keys?
A: 88.
What are the 52 white keys for?
A: The notes of the C Major scale (the notes C,
D, E, F, G, A and B).
What are the 36 shorter black keys for?
A: The black keys are for the "accidental" notes
(♯/G♭, G♯/A♭, A♯/B♭, C♯/D♭, and D♯/E♭).
Most keys have three strings, except for bass
notes which have how many?
A: One or two.
The notes can be sustained, even when the keys
are released, by the use of what?
A: Pedals at the base of the instrument.
What does pressing one or more keys on the
piano's keyboard do?
A: It causes a padded hammer to strike the
strings.
The hammer rebounds from the strings, and the
strings continue to what?
A: Vibrate at their resonant frequency.
These vibrations are transmitted through a
bridge to a soundboard that does what?
A: It amplifies the sound by more efficiently
coupling the acoustic energy to the air.
When the key is released, a damper does what?
A: It stops the strings' vibration, ending the
sound.
Although an acoustic piano has strings, it is
usually classified as what type of instrument?
A: A percussion instrument rather than as a
stringed instrument.
The word piano is a shortened form of what word?
A: pianoforte, the Italian term for the early
1700s versions of the instrument.
Modern acoustic pianos have what two basic
configurations?
A: The grand piano and the upright piano.
When did the electric piano become a popular
instrument?
A: In the 1960s and 1970s.