Towards the beginning of high school, I had developed a deep passion for music. In order to supplement this passion, I began learning to play the piano on a fairly cheap keyboard I had received many years ago as a child. Eventually, the mundane nature of the instrument began to hinder my musical growth. In spite of this, during the fall of 2015, my parents and I decided it would be appropriate to purchase a true, acoustic piano. Following months of research, planning and dedication, we had finally found an instrument for a fair price that would suit my musical needs as a pianist. Consequently, for this week’s blog post, I have decided to write a detailed description of my personal upright piano.

For starters, it is important to note that this piano was assembled by Sohmer & Co., a piano manufacturing company founded in New York City in 1872. This logo can be seen on the front side of the piano right above the keys. The first aspect of the object an individual may observe is the rectangular shape the instrument conforms to. In addition, closer inspection reveals that the object measures 40 inches high with 59 inches defining its length and 25 inches defining its width. Although I am unable to give any quantitative information on its weight, I would roughly estimate that the instrument weighs somewhere between 500 and 600 pounds.

Moreover, the entirety of the piano, with the exception of the keys, is composed out of a dark brown wood that has been finished with polish. This ranges from the lid of the piano, to the music rack (the shelf that holds the sheet music), to the fallboard (the backboard directly above the keys), and to the legs and lower panel of the instrument.

Upon opening the top half of the piano, more insightful information can be collected about this object. First of all, it is important to note that the piano has a total of 88 black and white keys stretching across its surface, and when pressed, the keys lift hammers inside the piano that strike strings which allow it to produce its distinctive sound. Despite the fact that the piano utilizing strings to create sound and has more strings than any other string instrument, the piano is actually classified under the percussion family of instruments due to pressing the keys with your fingers, rather than plucking the strings.

Furthermore, based on the image of the piano’s interior, one can notice that the strings vary in thickness from one side to the other. This difference in thickness is what causes each note to produce a diverse range of pitches that, when harmonized, creates the everyday music that we are so accustomed to. In addition, one other critical part of this object I want to explore are the metal piano pedals that are located near the bottom of the instrument. In total, my upright piano has a total of three pedals: the soft pedal, the sostenuto pedal and the sustain pedal. These three pedals help to define the image of the piano as well as its functionality as an instrument.

At first glance, a piano can be seen as simplistic; despite this, if one takes the time to fully observe and analysis this object, he or she will discover the many complex structures that compose this instrument in its entirety. After going back and taking these seemingly trivial observations into account, I can say with confidence that observing my instrument in greater detail definitely led to an overall greater appreciation for my piano. With that said, I look forward to exploring this object in even more detail in my next post in where I describe other aspects on this object such as its history and overall function.