Thanks Blackfire.


Alright, this next one is about the piano. I play it myself, so it shouldn't be too hard to write about it.

Piano

The piano is played by pressing the many keys that are aligned on the front. I classify the piano as a string instrument; if you have ever seen the inside of a piano, you will know why. Each key is connected to a wooden 'hammer', when you press it, it pushes the hammer down. The hammer then hits a string, which make the sound. Different notes are formed by different strings, each different string is a different length and/or width. When you take your finger off of the key, a piece of wood falls back down and stops the string from vibrating. Therefore, the sound stops.

There are pedals on the bottom of the piano, they each do different things. I'll just talk about the one to the far right, it is the one most commonly used. You use your foot to press down the pedal. The pedal lifts all of the wooden pieces that cause the sound to stop when you let go of a key. What use is this, you ask? Well, if you press the pedal down and play a note, you can lift your finger from the key and the sound won't stop. Also, the pedal can blend together a piece of music that would otherwise be very choppy.

Playing methods and tips:

-While using the pedal can make some music sound very lovely, you shouldn't use it for everything. If it is used thorughout a piece, it can blend the notes together too much, making the piece sound muddy and dischordant. If you have a piece of music that has the pedal in it, you will probably notice that there are small little breaks in it. When you see that in sheet music, that is a sign to up-down, or quickly remove and then replace, your foot on the pedal. This breaks up the notes so that they are distinct, and not a blended together.

-Even if you can't read notes, you can make some cool sounds on the piano. For instance, look at the black keys on the piano. If you look at the whole piano, you will see that they follow a pattern. There are three black keys, then two, then three, then two, and etc. So pick one of the white notes, any white note. Play it, skip a note, play a note, then skip another note, and finally play a note. Then do the same thing an octave higher. If you're saying, "Wait a minute, what an octave? You said I didn't need to know about music!" then listen to this next part. To play the same note an octave higher, just look at the grouping of black keys around the note you just played. Look for the next grouping of black keys that looks the same. Play the same note there, then do the same thing as before. Play a note, skip a note, play a note, skip a note, play a note. Then do this again, another octave higher. Practive this until you get really good at it and you can play it very fast, one octave after another. Once you can, add the pedal, and marvel at the wonderful sound!

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