The key difference between keyboard and piano is that keyboard is an electronic instrument with a variety of volume options, whereas piano is an acoustic instrument whose sound is produced and amplified physically.
Pianos and keyboards are two similar musical instruments. Unlike keyboards, pianos should be tuned several times a year, depending on their usage and age. Generally, keyboards are small, light, and portable, whereas pianos are large, heavy, and difficult to move. In addition, pianos have more keys than keyboards.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is a Keyboard
3. What is a Piano
4. Keyboard vs Piano in Tabular Form
5. Summary – Keyboard vs Piano
What is a Keyboard?
A keyboard is an electronic musical instrument that creates sound through synthesizers. Keyboards have low-wattage power amplifiers and small loudspeakers. They can be used to play a wide range of music such as from classical to rock. They have short 61 keys.
Keyboards are lighter and more portable musical instruments, and they do not have weighted keys. These have a wide variety of sounds since they enable you to customize sounds. They offer sounds that can be easily used in the recording or production industry.
They are also ideal for beginners and multi-instrumentalists who like to experiment with various sounds. There are various types of keyboards other than basic keyboards. For example, arranger keyboards have more features and a USB port, which can record and save music on a computer, while workstation keyboards come with composing, recording, and production features. Electronic organs that produce sounds similar to traditional pipe organs are also a type of keyboard.
What is a Piano?
A piano is a stringed keyboard instrument whose sound is created through strings and hammers. When you press the keys, a small wooden hammer strikes the respective strings and makes a sound. The piano has three pedals: the damper or sustain pedal, which prolongs a sound when a key is hit, the sostenuto pedal, which acts as a selective damper, and the una corda or soft pedal, which shifts and hits the hammers to one of each note’s string. Upright pianos only have two pedals. Unlike grand pianos, which are visually attractive, upright pianos are not very attractive and do not need much space. But grand pianos are capable of adding more subtle expressions to the notes.
Pianos have several ancestry instruments, including harpsichord and monochord, but it is believed that pianos mainly descend from monochords. A piano is a string instrument, and the sound is created by vibrating the strings when they are hit by wooden hammers. But, it can also be described as a percussion instrument since the strings are hit by a hammer.
The piano was invented in 1709 by Bartolomeo Cristofori, and it was named piano e forte. It was shortened to the pianoforte and eventually became the piano. Early pianos were made from ebony and ivory. The ivory turned yellow and became chipping after some years, so later, since the 1970s, modern pianos were made from plastic.
Normally, a piano has about 220-230 steel strings, and they all hold around 168 tons of tension. This has about 88 keys, but some modern pianos have 92-102 keys. Out of these, more keys are found in the Bass section. In 2018, Stuart and Sons introduced the world’s first piano with 108 keys.
Generally, a new piano is tuned 3-4 times per year but after a few years, tuning once or twice a year is enough.
What is the Difference Between Keyboard and Piano?
The key difference between keyboard and piano is that the keyboard is an electronic instrument that has a variety of volume options, while the piano is an acoustic instrument whose sound is produced and amplified physically. Generally, keyboards are small, light, and portable, whereas pianos are large, heavy, and difficult to move.
The following table summarizes the difference between keyboard and piano.
Summary – Keyboard vs Piano
A keyboard is an electronic musical instrument that creates sound through synthesizers. Keyboards are lightweight, portable, cheaper, and capable of producing a wide variety of sounds. A piano, on the other hand, is a stringed keyboard instrument whose sound is created through strings and hammers. These are heavy, less portable, and expensive. So, this is the summary of the difference between keyboard and piano.
Reference:
1. “Electronic Keyboard.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia Foundation.
2. “Piano.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia Foundation.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Piano” By knownaa (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Flickr
2. “Person Playing Electronic Keyboard” (CC0) via Pexels