The Greenbrier Piano Vocabulary
A piano is a complex instrument. This page will assist your selection and understanding of terminology used in describing pianos.
General Vocabulary
- Action: The entire complex unit includes whippens, felts, adjusting screws, springs, jacks and hammers. They transpose the action of pushing the key to having the hammer strike the corresponding string(s).
- Bridges: A black-topped, raised wood piece, with small pins, holds the strings in place. It is near the curved side of the piano and attaches to the soundboard. It may be one continuous piece or in separate units. The bridge serves to transmit vibration tone sounds between string and soundboard.
- Case: The exterior wood frame of the piano whose tone and overall quality may be affected by design, thickness, and woods used.
- Damper: Behing the pinblocks, individual wood pieces with felt on the bottom side move when the pedals are depressed. The damper assists in providing resonance, volume, and expression in playing. In a normal position they barely touch the string to prevent "wondering" sounds.
- Hammer: A wooden hammer-shaped, felt covered, 1/4" piece rests on top of the action and strikes the string when the key is moved.
- Hitch Pin: A metal pin at the outer curved edge of the piano protrudes from the harp frame and holds the distal end of the string. It assists in proper position and tension.
- Keybed: A wooden frame upon which the keyboard and action is mounted, it allows the sliding out of the action from the piano as a single unit.
- Lyre: The wooden frame upon which the pedals and rods are mounted at the lower front of the piano.
- Plate or Harp: The large iron metal frame fitted over the soundboard. This holds the entire string system in place and is very important to the overall integrity and function of the piano. It bears 12 tons of tension strength pull when each string is properly set.
- Pins: Small metal rods which extend from the harp, behind the hammers, on the upper level of the piano. They are individually hand-driven and adjusted into the pinblocks, which holds them in proper position and tension. Proper resistance
between pin and pinblocks is critical to hold the pianos perfect tone quality of A440.
- Pinblock: A cross-layered block of hard maple, usually not seen under the harp plate, to which the pins are driven and held in place. The structural integrity of this component is exemplified in #10 above.
- Soundboard/Ribs: The wooden piece under the harp takes up the body of the piano. Made of spruce, this amplifies the sound produced by the strings in the process described previously. Long wooden rods across the backside of the soundboard, known as ribs, hold the soundboard in proper curvature and are incorporated with the soundboard.
- Speaking Length: The portion of the string between the pins which, when struck, produce the sound and vibration with adjacent strings. This gives the rich, full tone sounds only found in an acoustical piano and NOT reproducible in any other type of instrument, not even in digital systems.
- Spine: The non-curved, straight side of the piano case.
Piano Designs
There are many types of pianos. This is a brief description of pianos commonly found and used today. For more specialty types, please contact us directly for a discussion of the specific piano.
- Console Piano: A taller version of the spinet piano with heights reaching 42", this piano typically has a better sound quality, presentation, and responsiveness than the spinet.
- Grand Piano: The Grand Piano is the most desired of all pianos. With the increasied size comes increased volume and natural amplification. Because of their design, the ultimate expression of musical phonetics is possible from the accomplished pianist. Specific types are determined by size and function. All lengths presented below are from the front to the back of the piano. Widths are commonly between 55" and 62".
Apartment Grand are typically from 54" to 56" long
Baby Grand - 57" to 66"
Parlor Grand - 67" to 86"
Full/Concert Grand - 87" to 120"
The longest Grand ever built was 13 feet in length.
- Spinet Piano: The answer to the need for a smaller, lighter piano, these pianos were first built in the 1920's and continue through today. They are approximately 55" by 24" and 30" high.
- Square Grand Piano (Early Pianos): Created by many builders, including Steinway, Knabe, Weber, Mason and Hamlin, and Chickering, after the design of the earliest known pianos, Square Grand Pianos typically date back to the 1700's and 1800's. Beautiful furniture pieces with a commanding sound, they weigh a hefty 800-1200 lbs. A floor space of 36" by 84"is taken up on average. Specialty care and restoration is recommended.
- Studio Piano: For the pianist desiring the qualities of a grand piano without the needed space,these pianos require the same floor space as spinets or consoles. With a height of 48" to 54", this modern upright grand is popular among professional pianists who don't have the room to spare for a grand piano. They are the most popular vertical piano built today.
- Upright Piano: Perhaps the most common piano available and most reasonably priced on the private market, these pianos were built primarily from the late 1800's through the early 20th century. A variety of case designs and qualities are usually 27" by 55\', weigh 500-700 lbs, and are 5 feet in height. These cases were popular for player pianos of the early 1900's and had variations of cabinet and upright grand designs as well.
Technology
Piano function has remained essentially unchanged over the past 100 years. New innovations have been in the case finishes, now mirror-like, and the MIDI systems.
- MIDI Systems: MIDI systems are a modern digital form of the traditional player piano. An electric system reads a tape or disk and automatically plays it on the piano. These systems are so advanced that an actual recording studio can be incorporated into almost every type of piano ever designed.
