A transposing piano is a special

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

with a mechanism (operated by a pedal or lever) that changes the keyboard position relative to the ''action'' (see '' Development of the modern piano'' for details). This ''transposes'' (changes the key of) any particular keyboard fingering. A transposing piano enables a person who knows a composition's fingerings in a certain key but who cannot transpose that composition from one key to another to continue playing in the latter key using the fingerings of the familiar key. More generally, a person who learns keyboard fingerings on the basis of

relative pitch Relative pitch is the ability of a person to identify or re-create a given musical note by comparing it to a reference note and identifying the interval between those two notes. For example, if the note ''Do'' and ''Fa'' is played on a piano, a per ...

with respect to the tonic of any given composition can use a transposing piano to play along with a choir and/or orchestra performing in any key. A correlative disadvantage is that individuals with

absolute pitch Absolute pitch (AP), often called perfect pitch, is a rare ability of a person to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of a reference tone. AP may be demonstrated using linguistic labeling ("naming" a note), associating ...

may have difficulty playing on such a piano because the pitches they actually hear do not match the notes they are playing on the keyboard when its correspondence between nominally played note and generated pitch is altered. Transposing pianos were never common, and few still exist.

Irving Berlin Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer, songwriter and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Born in Imperial Russi ...

had two such instruments. In 1972 he donated one piano (built in 1940 by Weser Bros. Company in New York City, NY) to the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. It is now on display in the

National Museum of American Jewish History The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History (The Weitzman) is a Smithsonian-affiliated museum at 101 South Independence Mall East (S. 5th Street) at Market Street in Center City Philadelphia. It was founded in 1976. History With ...

. Berlin never learned to read music, playing his songs entirely by ear in the key of F-sharp (keeping all five notes of the

pentatonic scale A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale). Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancien ...

on the “black keys”), employing his “trick piano” to do the work as necessary. Many electronic or digital pianos and keyboards can transpose. The

harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...

sometimes features a mechanically shifted keyboard for transposition. A guitar capo has much the same effect.

References

{{reflist Piano