Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Piano shopping experience:
1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Piano offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Piano at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.
2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about
3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Piano? Wrong! If the Piano is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.
4. Questions - Got a question about Piano then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....
5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Piano? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Piano and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.
6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Piano wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.
7. Feedback - happy with your Piano then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.
8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Piano site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site
9. Contact - got a question about Piano, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.
10. Payment - ready to pay for your Piano, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.
[Image:Piano.jpg|thumb|right|260px|A short grand piano, with the lid up. Most pianos are about 150 cm wide. Short grand pianos such as a "baby grand" are about as long as they are wide, but a Concert Grand can measure up to 3.08 m (10 ft 1 in){{cite web| author = Fazioli Pianoforti
| title = FAZIOLI – Pianoforti a coda e da concerto
| year = 2005
| url = http://www.fazioli.com/
| accessdate = 2006-05-18
--> perpendicular to its keyboard.
The
piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. It produces sound by striking steel strings with
felt hammers that immediately rebound allowing the string to continue vibrating at its resonance frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through the Bridge (instrument) to the
Sounding board, which amplifies them.
The piano is widely used in Western music for solo performance, chamber music, and accompaniment. It is also very popular as an aid to
musical composition and rehearsal. Although not portable and often expensive, the piano's versatility and ubiquity have made it one of the most familiar musical instruments. It is sometimes
musical instrument classification as both a
percussion instrument and a string instrument (in a loose sense of that term).
The word
piano is a shortened form of the word
pianoforte, which is seldom used except in formal language and derived from the original Italian language name for the instrument,
clavicembalo gravicembalo col piano e forte (literally
harpsichord with soft and loud). This refers to the instrument's responsiveness to keyboard touch, which allows the pianist to produce notes at different dynamic levels by controlling the speed with which the hammers hit the strings.
Early history
Although there were various crude earlier attempts to make stringed keyboard instruments with struck strings,Pollens, 1995. chp. 1 it is widely considered that the piano was invented by a single individual: Bartolomeo Cristofori of
Padua, Italy, employed by
Prince Ferdinand de Medici as the Keeper of the Instruments. It is not known exactly when Cristofori first built a piano, but an inventory made by his employers, the
Medici family, indicates the existence of a piano by the year 1709. However, some writings indicate that there was a piano built in the year 1698, and a prototype built as early as 1694. The three Cristofori pianos that survive today date from the 1720s. Two of these pianos date from 1722; a piano now in
Rome, and a harpsichord now in
Leipzig.
Like many other inventions, the piano was founded on earlier technological innovations. The mechanisms of keyboard instruments such as the clavichord and the
harpsichord were well known. In a clavichord the strings are struck by Tangent (clavichord), while in a harpsichord they are plucked by quills. Centuries of work on the mechanism of the harpsichord in particular had shown the most effective ways to construct the case, soundboard, bridge, and keyboard. Cristofori, himself an expert harpsichord maker, was well acquainted with this body of knowledge.
Cristofori's great success was in solving, without any prior example, the fundamental mechanical problem of piano design: the hammers must strike the string, but not remain in contact with the string (as a tangent remains in contact with a clavichord string) because this would — offers a history of the three piano pedals and covers the wide variety of ways in which they are used by professional pianists.
| title = Piano roles : three hundred years of life with the piano
| first = James
| last = Parakilas
| location = New Haven, Connecticut
| publisher = Yale University Press
| year = 1999
| id = ISBN 0-300-08055-7
--> — provides much history of the instrument. The book is richly illustrated.
| title = Piano Servicing, Tuning and Rebuilding: For the Professional, the Student, and the Hobbyist
| first = Arthur A.
| last = Reblitz
| year = 1993
| location = Vestal, NY
| publisher = Vestal Press
| id = ISBN 1-879511-03-7
-->
| title = The Piano Shop on the Left Bank
| first = Thad
| last = Carhart
| publisher = Random House
| location = New York
| year = 2002
| origyear = 2001
| id = ISBN 0-375-75862-3
--> — is a partly autobiographical exploration of the diversity and history of the piano, and is a readable introduction by an enthusiast.
| title = Men, Women, and Pianos: A Social History
| first = Arthur
| last = Loesser
| origyear = 1954
| year = 1991
| location = New York
| publisher = Dover Publications
--> Originally New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954, this book is an extraordinarily wide-ranging survey of the history of the piano and its role in society.
| title = Van Piano tot Forte (The History of the Early Piano)
| first = Christo
| last = Lelie
| publisher = Kok-Lyra
| location = Kampen
| year = 1995
--> The book is in Dutch, but contains many drawings, photographs en numerous quotations in the original languages.
| title = The Piano Book: Buying and Owning a New or Used Piano (4th edition)
| first = Larry
| last = Fine
| coauthors = Gilbert, Douglas R
| publisher = Brookside Press
| location = Jamaica Plain, MA
| year = 2001
| id = ISBN 1-929145-01-2
| url = http://pianobook.com
--> A comprehensive work on how to evaluate, buy and maintain a piano. Includes a great deal of information on how a piano works, and a lengthy guide to specific pianos.
External links
- Grand Piano information and images
- History of the Piano Forte, Association of Blind Piano Tuners, UK
- The Frederick Historical Piano Collection
- Online Video Piano Lessons library Online video piano lessons
- Discover a Hobby: Online guide to learn the Piano
- Piano Chords and Scales made easy
- Piano Room
- Martha Beth Lewis' Piano Page Really useful information about buying, learning, playing piano
- The Piano Page Lots of information from the Piano Technicians Guild
- learntomove.com The Encyclopedia of Moving containing complete instruction for DIY piano moving (including 3 pages of warnings about the risks and dangers involved)
[Image:Piano.jpg|thumb|right|260px|A short grand piano, with the lid up. Most pianos are about 150 cm wide. Short grand pianos such as a "baby grand" are about as long as they are wide, but a Concert Grand can measure up to 3.08 m (10 ft 1 in){{cite web| author = Fazioli Pianoforti
| title = FAZIOLI – Pianoforti a coda e da concerto
| year = 2005
| url = http://www.fazioli.com/
| accessdate = 2006-05-18
--> perpendicular to its keyboard.
The
piano is a
musical instrument played by means of a
keyboard instrument. It produces sound by striking steel strings with
felt hammers that immediately rebound allowing the string to continue vibrating at its resonance frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through the
Bridge (instrument) to the
Sounding board, which amplifies them.
The piano is widely used in Western music for solo performance,
chamber music, and
accompaniment. It is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and
rehearsal. Although not portable and often expensive, the piano's versatility and ubiquity have made it one of the most familiar musical instruments. It is sometimes musical instrument classification as both a
percussion instrument and a string instrument (in a loose sense of that term).
The word
piano is a shortened form of the word
pianoforte, which is seldom used except in formal language and derived from the original
Italian language name for the instrument,
clavicembalo gravicembalo col piano e forte (literally
harpsichord with soft and loud). This refers to the instrument's responsiveness to keyboard touch, which allows the pianist to produce notes at different dynamic levels by controlling the speed with which the hammers hit the strings.
Early history
Although there were various crude earlier attempts to make stringed keyboard instruments with struck strings,Pollens, 1995. chp. 1 it is widely considered that the piano was invented by a single individual: Bartolomeo Cristofori of
Padua,
Italy, employed by Prince Ferdinand de Medici as the Keeper of the Instruments. It is not known exactly when Cristofori first built a piano, but an inventory made by his employers, the
Medici family, indicates the existence of a piano by the year 1709. However, some writings indicate that there was a piano built in the year 1698, and a prototype built as early as 1694. The three Cristofori pianos that survive today date from the 1720s. Two of these pianos date from 1722; a piano now in
Rome, and a
harpsichord now in Leipzig.
Like many other inventions, the piano was founded on earlier technological innovations. The mechanisms of keyboard instruments such as the
clavichord and the harpsichord were well known. In a clavichord the strings are struck by
Tangent (clavichord), while in a harpsichord they are plucked by quills. Centuries of work on the mechanism of the harpsichord in particular had shown the most effective ways to construct the case, soundboard, bridge, and keyboard. Cristofori, himself an expert harpsichord maker, was well acquainted with this body of knowledge.
Cristofori's great success was in solving, without any prior example, the fundamental mechanical problem of piano design: the hammers must strike the string, but not remain in contact with the string (as a tangent remains in contact with a clavichord string) because this would — offers a history of the three piano pedals and covers the wide variety of ways in which they are used by professional pianists.
| title = Piano roles : three hundred years of life with the piano
| first = James
| last = Parakilas
| location = New Haven, Connecticut
| publisher = Yale University Press
| year = 1999
| id = ISBN 0-300-08055-7
--> — provides much history of the instrument. The book is richly illustrated.
| title = Piano Servicing, Tuning and Rebuilding: For the Professional, the Student, and the Hobbyist
| first = Arthur A.
| last = Reblitz
| year = 1993
| location = Vestal, NY
| publisher = Vestal Press
| id = ISBN 1-879511-03-7
-->
| title = The Piano Shop on the Left Bank
| first = Thad
| last = Carhart
| publisher = Random House
| location = New York
| year = 2002
| origyear = 2001
| id = ISBN 0-375-75862-3
--> — is a partly autobiographical exploration of the diversity and history of the piano, and is a readable introduction by an enthusiast.
| title = Men, Women, and Pianos: A Social History
| first = Arthur
| last = Loesser
| origyear = 1954
| year = 1991
| location = New York
| publisher = Dover Publications
--> Originally New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954, this book is an extraordinarily wide-ranging survey of the history of the piano and its role in society.
| title = Van Piano tot Forte (The History of the Early Piano)
| first = Christo
| last = Lelie
| publisher = Kok-Lyra
| location = Kampen
| year = 1995
--> The book is in Dutch, but contains many drawings, photographs en numerous quotations in the original languages.
| title = The Piano Book: Buying and Owning a New or Used Piano (4th edition)
| first = Larry
| last = Fine
| coauthors = Gilbert, Douglas R
| publisher = Brookside Press
| location = Jamaica Plain, MA
| year = 2001
| id = ISBN 1-929145-01-2
| url = http://pianobook.com
--> A comprehensive work on how to evaluate, buy and maintain a piano. Includes a great deal of information on how a piano works, and a lengthy guide to specific pianos.
External links
- Grand Piano information and images
- History of the Piano Forte, Association of Blind Piano Tuners, UK
- The Frederick Historical Piano Collection
- Online Video Piano Lessons library Online video piano lessons
- Discover a Hobby: Online guide to learn the Piano
- Piano Chords and Scales made easy
- Piano Room
- Martha Beth Lewis' Piano Page Really useful information about buying, learning, playing piano
- The Piano Page Lots of information from the Piano Technicians Guild
- learntomove.com The Encyclopedia of Moving containing complete instruction for DIY piano moving (including 3 pages of warnings about the risks and dangers involved)
BBC - Parents' Music Room - Piano
Parent and child interviewed about playing the piano, in video ... Which Instrument Piano: Percussion Family: I am pleased at the moment that I play piano.
Piano.Aero aircraft performance and design software
Aircraft Emissions and Performance: Aircraft Design and Competitor Analysis: Piano-X revolutionises the assessment of aircraft emissions and performance.
Pitcher and Piano - quality food and drink
Bar and restaurant chain. Information on company, locations and recruitment.
Pitcher and Piano - quality food and drink
Quality food and drink throughout the UK. Pitcher & Piano is a bar chain with branches located through out the UK. We have a reputation for providing high quality food, drink with ...
Piano - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with felt hammers. The hammers immediately rebound allowing the ...
Piano Warehouse - Yamaha, Roland, Kemble, Gors and Kallmann ...
Specialises in the hire, sales and restoration of pianos, including electric and second hand. Includes product catalogue with photographs and prices.
Piano Kensington, High Street Kensington, London, W8, UK. The Piano is ...
A bar in Kensington offering fine food and wines with live music.
Piano tuning and piano tuners in the UK. The Piano Tuners' Association ...
Offers advice about locating tuners in the UK, purchasing, and maintenance. Includes membership and course information.
Piano Removal Team Ltd
The Piano Removal Team Bath Ltd, providing effective, professional and specialist Piano Removals throughout the uk and Europe.
Piano Tuners, Teachers, History Music British Parts Entertainers ...
Serves blind and partially sighted piano tuners worldwide. Site provides information including mission statement, aims, member list and membership benefits.
