Toy piano

The toy piano is a musical instrument, made as a child's toy, but which has also been used in more serious musical contexts. The instrument was invented in Philadelphia in 1872 by a German immigrant named Albert Schoenhut.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It is often in the form of a scaled down model of a piano, usually no more than 50 cm in width, and made out of wood or plastic. The first toy pianos were made in the mid-19th century and were typically uprights, although many toy pianos made today are models of grands. Prices range from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Rather than hammers hitting strings as on a standard piano, the toy piano sounds by way of hammers hitting metal bars or rods which are fixed at one end. The hammers are connected to the keys by a mechanism similar to that which drives keyboard glockenspiels. This makes it sound more 'tinkly.' Some new toy pianos are electronic.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Toy pianos ostensibly use the same musical scale as full size pianos, although their tuning in all but the most expensive models is usually very approximate. Similarly, the pitch to which they are tuned is rarely close to the standard of 440 Hz for the A above middle C.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A typical toy piano will have a range of one to three octaves. The cheapest models may not have black keys, or the black keys may be painted on. This means they can play the diatonic scale (or an approximately tuned version of it), but not the chromatic scale. Typically, diatonic toy pianos have only eight keys. They can play one octave.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Musical instrument: A musical instrument is a device that has been constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound, and can somehow be controlled by a musician, can serve as a musical instrument; but the expression is reserved generally to items that have that specif...

Toy: :This article is about things that people play with. See also Toys for the 1992 film of that name starring Robin Williams; or toy dog, referring to one of many very small breeds of dog....

Music: Music is a natural intuitive phenomenon operating in the three worlds of time, pitch, energy, and under the three distinct and interrelated organization structures of rhythm, harmony, and melody....

Toy piano related Images and Photos (experimental)

Grand Piano Toy Musical Instrument	Learn-To-Play Piano Toy Musical Instrument	Piano	Piano
Piano c.2007	Piano Legs	Piano Play	Piano Forte
Piano Sheck (c. 1920)	Piano Man I	Piano Player	Piano Concert