Keyboard instrument - Simple English Wikipedia

# Keyboard instrument

### From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

A musical keyboard

A keyboard instrument is an instrument that is played by pressing the keys of a keyboard. In a keyboard the notes are arranged with naturals (usually white notes) forming the main body of the keyboard, and sharps and flats (usually black notes) placed in cuttings into the upper half of the naturals.

The ways in which the sound is made varies a lot:

- In the piano hammers hit the strings.
- In the organ air is sent through the pipes.
- In the electronic organ the sound is made electronically.
- In the harpsichord the strings are plucked by quills or “jacks”.
- In the clavichord the strings are hit by a metal “tangent”.

In the 17th and 18th centuries the word Clavier was used in Germany to mean any kind of keyboard instrument. Often the naturals were black and the sharps and flats were white (see picture of harpsichord), but the layout was exactly the same.

A modern harpsichord with two manuals (keyboards). It is a copy of a Baroque instrument

The development of electronic instruments in the 20th century has brought about many different types of electronic keyboard instruments. These include the ondes martenot and the synthesizer.

Nowadays people often talk about a keyboard meaning an electronic keyboard (e.g. “He plays the keyboard”).

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Category: Keyboard instruments

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