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Piano
The piano is a keyboard instrument with strings struck by wooden hammers coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using its keyboard, which is a row of keys (small levers) touched by the performer with the fingers and thumbs of both hands, causing the hammers to strike the strings. It was invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700. Description The English word ''piano'' is a shortened form of the Italian ', derived from ' ("key cimbalom with soft and loud").Pollens (1995, 238) Variations in volume (loudness) are produced in response to the pianist's ''touch'' (pressure on the keys): the greater the pressure, the greater the force of the hammer hitting the strings, and the louder the sound produced and the stronger the ''attack''. Invented in the 1700s, the fortepiano was the first keyboard instrument to allow gradations of volume and tone according to how forcefully or sof ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chordophone
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the strings with their fingers or a plectrum—and others by hitting the strings with a light wooden hammer or by rubbing the strings with a bow. In some keyboard instruments, such as the harpsichord, the musician presses a key that plucks the string. Other musical instruments generate sound by striking the string. With bowed instruments, the player pulls a rosined horsehair bow across the strings, causing them to vibrate. With a hurdy-gurdy, the musician cranks a wheel whose rosined edge touches the strings. Bowed instruments include the string section instruments of the orchestra in Western classical music (violin, viola, cello and double bass) and a number of other instruments (e.g., viols and gambas used in early music from the Baroque ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bridge (instrument)
A bridge is a device that supports the strings on a stringed musical instrument and transmits the vibration of those strings to another structural component of the instrument—typically a soundboard, such as the top of a guitar or violin—which transfers the sound to the surrounding air. Depending on the instrument, the bridge may be made of carved wood (violin family instruments, acoustic guitars and some jazz guitars), metal (electric guitars such as the Fender Telecaster) or other materials. The bridge supports the strings and holds them over the body of the instrument under tension. Explanation Most stringed instruments produce sound through the application of energy to the strings, which sets them into vibratory motion, creating musical sounds. The strings alone, however, produce only a faint sound because they displace only a small volume of air as they vibrate. Consequently, the sound of the strings alone requires impedance matching to the surrounding air by transmi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Accidental (music)
In music, an accidental is a note of a pitch (or pitch class) that is not a member of the scale or mode indicated by the most recently applied key signature. In musical notation, the sharp (), flat (), and natural () symbols, among others, mark such notes—and those symbols are also called accidentals. In the measure (bar) where it appears, an accidental sign raises or lowers the immediately following note (and any repetition of it in the bar) from its normal pitch, overriding the key signature. A note is usually raised or lowered by a semitone, and there are double sharps or flats, which raise or lower the indicated note by two semitones. Accidentals usually apply to all repetitions within the measure in which they appear, unless canceled by another accidental sign, or tied into the following measure. If a note has an accidental and the note is repeated in a different octave within the same measure the accidental is usually repeated, although this convention is far from uni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Range (music)
In music, the range, or chromatic range, of a musical instrument is the distance from the lowest to the highest pitch it can play. For a singing voice, the equivalent is vocal range. The range of a musical part is the distance between its lowest and highest note. Compass Among British English speakers, and perhaps others, compass means the same thing as chromatic range—the interval between the lowest and highest note attainable by a voice or musical instrument. Other ranges The terms sounding range, written range, designated range, duration range and dynamic range have specific meanings. The sounding range"Music theory online : musical instrument ranges & names", Brian Blood, Dolmetsch.com, 2009, webpage: Dolmetsch-M29 refers to the pitches produced by an instrument, while the written range refers to the compass (span) of notes written in the sheet music, where the part is sometimes transposed for convenience. A piccolo, for example, typically has a sounding range one oct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flat (music)
In music, flat (Italian bemolle for "soft B") means "lower in pitch". Flat is the opposite of sharp, which is a raising of pitch. In musical notation, flat means "lower in pitch by one semitone (half step)", notated using the symbol which is derived from a stylised lowercase 'b'. For instance, the music below has a key signature with three flats (indicating either E major or C minor) and the note, D, has a flat accidental. : Under twelve-tone equal temperament, D for instance is enharmonically equivalent to C, and G is equivalent to F. In any other tuning system, such enharmonic equivalences in general do not exist. To allow extended just intonation, composer Ben Johnston uses a sharp as an accidental to indicate a note is raised 70.6 cents (ratio 25:24), and a flat to indicate a note is lowered 70.6 cents. In intonation, flat can also mean "slightly lower in pitch" (by some unspecified amount). If two simultaneous notes are slightly out-of-tune, the lower-pitched o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sharp (music)
In music, sharp, dièse (from French), or diesis (from Greek) means, "higher in pitch". More specifically, in musical notation, sharp means "higher in pitch by one semitone (half step)". Sharp is the opposite of flat, which is a lowering of pitch. A sharp symbol, , is used in key signatures or as an accidental. For instance, the music below has a key signature with three sharps (indicating either A major or F minor, the relative minor) and the note, A, has a sharp accidental. : Under twelve-tone equal temperament, B, for instance, sounds the same as, or is enharmonically equivalent to, C natural (C), and E is enharmonically equivalent to F. In other tuning systems, such enharmonic equivalences in general do not exist. To allow extended just intonation, composer Ben Johnston uses a sharp to indicate a note is raised 70.6 cents (ratio 25:24), or a flat to indicate a note is lowered 70.6 cents. In intonation, sharp can also mean "slightly higher in pitch" (by some unspec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
C Major
C major (or the key of C) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and its parallel minor is C minor. The C major scale is: : On the piano, the C major scale can be played by playing only the white keys starting on C. Compositions Twenty of Joseph Haydn's 106 symphonies are in C major, making it his second most-used key, second to D major. Of the 134 symphonies mistakenly attributed to Haydn that H. C. Robbins Landon lists in his catalog, 33 are in C major, more than any other key. Before the invention of the valves, Haydn did not write trumpet and timpani parts in his symphonies, except those in C major. Landon writes that it wasn't "until 1774 that Haydn uses trumpets and timpani in a key other than C major... and then only sparingly." Most of Haydn's symphonies in C major are labelled "festive" an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musical Note
In music, a note is the representation of a musical sound. Notes can represent the Pitch (music), pitch and Duration (music), duration of a sound in musical notation. A note can also represent a pitch class. Notes are the building blocks of much written music: musical analysis#Discretization, discretizations of musical phenomena that facilitate performance, comprehension, and musical analysis, analysis. The term ''note'' can be used in both generic and specific senses: one might say either "the piece 'Happy Birthday to You' begins with two notes having the same pitch", or "the piece begins with two repetitions of the same note". In the former case, one uses ''note'' to refer to a specific musical event; in the latter, one uses the term to refer to a class of events sharing the same pitch. (See also: Key signature names and translations.) Two notes with fundamental frequency, fundamental frequencies in a ratio equal to any integer power of two (e.g., half, twice, or four times ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piano Pedals
Piano pedals are foot-operated levers at the base of a piano that change the instrument's sound in various ways. Modern pianos usually have three pedals, from left to right, the soft pedal (or una corda), the sostenuto pedal, and the sustaining pedal (or damper pedal). Some pianos omit the sostenuto pedal, or have a middle pedal with a different purpose such as a muting function also known as silent piano. The development of the piano's pedals is an evolution that began from the very earliest days of the piano, and continued through the late 19th century. Throughout the years, the piano had as few as one modifying stop, and as many as six or more, before finally arriving at its current configuration of three. Individual pedals Soft pedal The ''soft pedal'', or ''una corda'' pedal, was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori. It was the first mechanism invented to modify the piano's sound. This function is typically operated by the left pedal on modern pianos. Neither of its commo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Upright
Body relative directions (also known as egocentric coordinates) are geometrical orientations relative to a body such as a human person's. The most common ones are: left and right; forward(s) and backward(s); up and down. They form three pairs of orthogonal axes. Traditions and conventions Since definitions of left and right based on the geometry of the natural environment are unwieldy, in practice, the meaning of relative direction words is conveyed through tradition, acculturation, education, and direct reference. One common definition of up and down uses gravity and the planet Earth as a frame of reference. Since there is a very noticeable force of gravity acting between the Earth and any other nearby object, down is defined as that direction which an object moves in reference to the Earth when the object is allowed to fall freely. Up is then defined as the opposite direction of down. Another common definition uses a human body, standing upright, as a frame of reference. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand
Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor * Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist * Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper Places * Grand, Oklahoma * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand Concourse (other), several places * Grand County (other), several places * Grand Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone * Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway, a parkway system in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States * Le Grand, California, census-designated place * Grand Staircase, a place in the US. Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Grand'' (Erin McKeown album), 2003 * ''Grand'' (Matt and Kim album), 2009 * ''Grand'' (magazine), a lifestyle magazine related to related to grandparents * ''Grand'' (TV series), American sitcom, 1990 * Grand piano, musical instrument * Grand Production, Serbian record label company * The Grand Tour, a new British automobile show O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hornbostel–Sachs
Hornbostel–Sachs or Sachs–Hornbostel is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, and first published in the in 1914. An English translation was published in the '' Galpin Society Journal'' in 1961. It is the most widely used system for classifying musical instruments by ethnomusicologists and organologists (people who study musical instruments). The system was updated in 2011 as part of the work of the Musical Instrument Museums Online (MIMO) Project. Hornbostel and Sachs based their ideas on a system devised in the late 19th century by Victor-Charles Mahillon, the curator of musical instruments at Brussels Conservatory. Mahillon divided instruments into four broad categories according to the nature of the sound-producing material: an air column; string; membrane; and body of the instrument. From this basis, Hornbostel and Sachs expanded Mahillon's system to make it possible to classify any instrument from any cult ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
