How Do Piano Keyboards Work?
Vibrating Strings Under the Piano Lid Acoustic piano keyboards have not changed very much in three centuries of music history. Sound is produced in much the same manner and with much the same piano mechanisms as Beethoven’s piano may have employed when he was composing his best known works. Lifting the lid of the piano reveals the mechanisms by which the piano creates sound. One of the first things you may notice is a series of strings attached to a metal plate made of iron. The strings correspond to keys on the keyboard. The strings for the highest notes of the piano, those played by the keys on the upper right as the pianist faces the keyboard, are in groups of three. They are the shortest and most tightly strung strings on the piano. The strings in each group of three are tuned to the same pitch by turning the tuning pins with a tuning wrench. The piano’s pitches get lower as the pianist plays the keys from right to left. As the pitches approach their lowest, the number of strings t
