Keyboard instrument

A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers that are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital pianos. Other keyboard instruments include celestas, which are struck idiophones operated by a keyboard, and carillons, which are usually housed in bell towers or belfries of churches or municipal buildings.

Today, the term keyboard often refers to keyboard-style synthesizers and arrangers as well as work-stations. These keyboards typically work by translating the physical act of pressing keys into electrical signals that produce sound. Under the fingers of a sensitive performer, the keyboard may also be used to control dynamics, phrasing, shading, articulation, and other elements of expression—depending on the design and inherent capabilities of the instrument. Modern keyboards, especially digital ones, can simulate a wide range of sounds beyond traditional piano tones, thanks to advanced sound synthesis techniques and digital sampling technology.

Another important use of the word keyboard is in historical musicology, where it means an instrument whose identity cannot be firmly established. Particularly in the 18th century, the harpsichord, the clavichord, and the early piano competed, and the same piece might be played on more than one. Hence, in a phrase such as "Mozart excelled as a keyboard player", the word keyboard is typically all-inclusive.

The term keyboard classifies instruments based on how the performer plays the instrument, and not on how the sound is produced. Categories of keyboard instruments include the following families (of which this is only a partial list):

• aerophones (pipe organ, pump organ, accordion);
• idiophones (celesta, carillon, glasschord);
• chordophones:
  • plucked string instruments (harpsichord, tangent piano, lautenwerck);
  • bowed string instruments (hurdy-gurdy, bowed clavier);
  • struck string instruments (clavichord, piano);
• electrophones (electric pianos, electric and electronic organs, synthesizers, mellotron).

History

See also: History of keyboard instruments

Further information: Piano history and musical performance

The earliest known keyboard instrument was the Ancient Greek hydraulis, a type of pipe organ invented in the third century BC. For many years, the organ was the main keyboard instrument, sometimes using buttons or large levers instead of keys.

Later, new instruments like the clavicymbalum, clavichord, and harpsichord were created. In 1698 in Italy, Bartolomeo Cristofori made the first modern piano, called the gravicèmbalo con piano e forte, which let players change the sound by pressing the keys harder or softer. Since then, pianos have changed a lot, and in the 1900s, electronic keyboards like the Ondes Martenot and other electronic keyboards were developed.