- Key People:
- Prince
- Brian Eno
- Billy Preston
- Yanni
- Herbie Hancock
keyboard instrument
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What is a keyboard instrument?
A keyboard instrument is any instrument that can play different notes when a series of keys, push buttons, or parallel levers are pressed. In Western music, the keys usually correspond to notes in the chromatic scale, going from bass on the left to treble on the right.
The keyboard allows a performer to play many notes at once or in close succession. Keyboard instruments include accordions, the celesta, the carillon, and electronic instruments like the Moog synthesizer and the Ondes Martenot. Instruments such as the harpsichord, piano, and organ are restricted to those that produce sound from strings, whether by plucking, striking, or rubbing, or from pipes or reeds.
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What are some common examples of keyboard instruments?
A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a keyboard. The keyboard allows musicians to play many notes at once or in close succession.
Common examples of keyboard instruments include:
* Piano The piano uses hammers to strike strings.
* Organ The organ sends air through pipes.
* Harpsichord The harpsichord uses quills to pluck the strings.
* Celesta The celesta has hammers that strike a metal bar.
* Electronic piano The electronic piano employs electronic oscillators to produce its sound.4 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How do keyboard instruments produce sound?
Keyboard instruments produce sound through various mechanisms depending on the instrument type. In general, sound is made when a key is pressed, which then sets off a chain of events that leads to the creation of musical notes.
Different keyboard instruments produce sound in different ways:
* Harpsichords produce sound by plucking strings with a plectrum when a key is pressed.
* Pianos generate sound by hammers striking strings.
* Organs create sound by sending air through pipes.
* Celestas use hammers to strike metal bars.
* Electronic organs employ electronic oscillators.
* Synthesizers generate and modify sounds electronically, often using a digital computer.5 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How does a piano differ from an organ?
Organs and pianos both have keyboards, but they produce sound in different ways. A piano creates sound when hammers strike strings, making it a stringed and percussion instrument. An organ produces sound by sending wind through pipes or reeds. Organs are larger and more complex, often found in churches, while pianos are popular for solo and ensemble music. The piano allows for dynamic variation through the player's touch, whereas the organ's volume is constant unless adjusted with stops or a swell box.
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What role do keyboard instruments play in different types of music?
Keyboard instruments play varied roles across musical genres due to their versatility. They are not typically associated with folk music but are integral to Western urban culture, with accomplished keyboard performers influencing composition styles.
Since the 17th century, keyboard instruments such as the harpsichord, piano, organ, celesta, and electric piano have been essential in orchestration. Each offers unique sound production methods, like the harpsichord's quills plucking strings and the piano's hammers striking them, contributing distinct colors to the music. The piano, with its extensive range, is used in diverse instrumental combinations and is capable of functioning as a "one-person orchestra". In jazz, while early classical composers were drawn to its instrumental sounds, effects, and syncopations, jazz musicians characterize jazz playing through their unique attacks, inflections, and embellishments on their instruments.
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How have electronic keyboards influenced modern music?
Electronic keyboards have significantly shaped modern music by offering versatility that has influenced composition across various media. They have introduced new timbres and laid the technical groundwork for electronic music.
The development of electronic instruments such as the Hammond organ and the Moog synthesizer has allowed musicians to access a new world of tonal resources. These instruments, with their capacity for a wide variety of sounds and performance assistance features like automatic rhythm production, have become integral in both popular and experimental music.
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keyboard instrument, any musical instrument on which different notes can be sounded by pressing a series of keys, push buttons, or parallel levers. In nearly all cases in Western music the keys correspond to consecutive notes in the chromatic scale, and they run from the bass at the left to the treble at the right.
This large group of instruments has assumed great importance because the keyboard enables a performer to play many notes at once as well as in close succession. This versatility enables the modern pianist or organist to play, in transcription, any work of Western music, whether it involves chordal harmonies, independent contrapuntal parts, or only a single melody. The capabilities of keyboard instruments have influenced the composition of music for other media, because virtually every major composer from William Byrd (c. 1543â1623) to Igor Stravinsky (1882â1971) and beyond has been at least an accomplished keyboard performer, if not a renowned virtuoso. The evolution of an idiomatic keyboard compositional style has been linked to technological and theoretical developments within Western urban culture; keyboard instruments are not normally associated with folk music, and only during the 20th century has their use spread widely outside the Western world.
In its broadest sense, the term keyboard instrument may be applied to any instrument equipped with a keyboard and thus may be used to refer to accordions, percussion instruments such as the celesta and the carillon, and many electronic instrumentsâfor example, the Moog synthesizer (see ) and the Ondes Martenot. In a narrower sense, such as is employed in this discussion, the term is restricted to instruments in which sound is produced from strings, whether by plucking, striking, or rubbing, or from pipes or reeds.
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Development of the keyboard
Evolution from early forms
Long before the appearance of the first stringed keyboard instruments in the 14th century, the keyboard was developed and applied to the organ. A keyboard of the kind familiar todayâa series of parallel levers hinged or pivoted so that they can be pushed down by the fingersâfirst appeared on the hydraulus, an organ probably invented in Alexandria in the late 3rd century bc. This type of keyboard seems to have disappeared after the fall of the Roman Empire, and the organs of the early Middle Ages generally had sliders that were pulled out to sound different notes; some may have had keys that turned like the key for a lock. Keys of the last type were certainly used on the organistrum, a large medieval hurdy-gurdy operated by two players: one turned a crank rotating a wheel that rubbed against one or more strings to make them sound, while the other produced different notes by turning the key-shaped levers that stopped the strings at various points (much as guitar strings are stopped against the fingerboard).
Some small portable organs had push buttons instead of keys as late as the 1440s, but a keyboard resembling the modern type existed in the 14th century, although the arrangement of naturals and sharps (corresponding to the white and black keys on the modern piano) was only gradually standardized. The arrangement of the keys depended in part on the music played and partly on the current state of musical theory. Thus, early keyboards are reported with only a single raised key in each octave (Bâ), and there were organs that had both B and Bâ as ânaturalâ keys, with CâŻ, DâŻ, FâŻ, and G⯠as raised keys. The colours of the keysâwhite for naturals and black for sharpsâbecame standardized much later, about 1800, depending on fashion or on the relative cost of such materials as bone, ivory, or boxwood for the âwhiteâ keys and stained hardwood or ebony for the âblackâ keys. Flemish instruments had bone naturals and oak sharps by 1580; French and German instruments had ebony or fruitwood naturals and bone or ivory sharps until the 1790s.
