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  • Poll [23 votes]: What is a piano?
Subject: What is a piano?

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Poll: What is a piano?  [closed]
A string instrument:  43%
(10 Votes)
A percussion instrument:  57%
(13 Votes)
Total Votes: 23

Fundamental instrument question. Is a piano a string instrument or a percussion instrument?

Yeah, it has strings.
But it also has mallets that hit the strings..

  • 12.30.2012 6:41 PM PDT

I really don't understand why I have a signature.

So isn't it both then?

  • 12.30.2012 6:42 PM PDT
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  • 12.30.2012 6:42 PM PDT

Please stop complaining about the 'death of a loved one' it's my job. They probably deserved it anyways. Here's a warning, if you keep making pentagrams out of the neighbors livestock I will personally come to your house and kill everyone you love. Now leave me alone, I got to get back to work.
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String?

  • 12.30.2012 6:42 PM PDT

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Posted by: mubox47
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According to the music theory book i read, it's percussion. I'd just call it a key instrument.

  • 12.30.2012 6:42 PM PDT

I should probably leave this thread before I lose my mind.

  • 12.30.2012 6:43 PM PDT

I was about to say something sarcastic, and then...

you blew my mind.

  • 12.30.2012 6:44 PM PDT

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Posted by: MadMax888
But it also has mallets that hit the strings..
Well you hit/slap the bass to play. But, bass is still a stringed instrument.

  • 12.30.2012 6:44 PM PDT
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If you assign every letter of the alphabet a number, a is 1, b is 2, etc., and you take all of the values of the word "MATH", and add them, you get 42. So math is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.

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  • 12.30.2012 6:45 PM PDT

That is a very interesting question, OP.

I would say it is a string instrument. When you slap a bass, your thumb acts like the hammer on a piano, but the bass is still a string instrument. I don't know for a fact though, so this is just my two cents.

[Edited on 12.30.2012 6:48 PM PST]

  • 12.30.2012 6:46 PM PDT

Challenge me to a Hawaiian Punch chugging contest. I dare you.


Posted by: mubox47
$.50 in store credit.


Posted by: D Deity

Posted by: MadMax888
But it also has mallets that hit the strings..
Well you hit/slap the bass to play. But, bass is still a stringed instrument.
You dont use a mallet though. . .

But by that criteria, could any stringed instrument using a bow be a percussion instrument because you're using a tool to make contact with the strings?

[Edited on 12.30.2012 6:48 PM PST]

  • 12.30.2012 6:46 PM PDT

Whatever category Mayonnaise also falls under.

  • 12.30.2012 6:47 PM PDT
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I've always considered it both and none at the same time.

Yes it has strings and yes it has hammers making it percussive, but it just doesn't fit into the mental image one pictures when someone says "string instruments" or "percussion section."

(Piano player myself)

[Edited on 12.30.2012 6:48 PM PST]

  • 12.30.2012 6:47 PM PDT

I think it's already been established as a percussion instrument...

  • 12.30.2012 6:50 PM PDT

There's a “U” and “I” in union but just an “I” in my beliefs


Posted by: The EAKLE

Posted by: D Deity

Posted by: MadMax888
But it also has mallets that hit the strings..
Well you hit/slap the bass to play. But, bass is still a stringed instrument.
You dont use a mallet though. . .

You don't use a mallet to play bongo's or tambourine. And both are considered percussion instruments.

  • 12.30.2012 6:50 PM PDT


Posted by: Murcielago00
I've always considered it both and none at the same time.

Yes it has strings and yes it has hammers making it percussive, but it just doesn't fit into the mental image one pictures when someone says "string instruments" or "percussion section."

(Piano player myself)


Well it almost has it's own category. Unless you're speaking of a jazz band and say the rhythm section, the piano itself is always mentioned alone.

  • 12.30.2012 6:51 PM PDT
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My signature is rather loopy and elegant... I don't see a way to replicate this in text form. Do italics work? Yes, they do

It's never classified as string. If it's in an orchestra it will be placed together with the other percussions, unless it's a solo concerto - then it'll be right in the middle of the stage with the orchestra surrounding it in a fan-shape formation.

  • 12.30.2012 6:52 PM PDT

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"Simple chordophone with keyboard sounded by hammers."

  • 12.30.2012 6:54 PM PDT

Wikipedia defines the piano as a chordophone, or string instrument. It also notes that pianos are sometimes classified as keyboard or percussion instruments.

What many would call string instruments are classified as chordophones. Violins, guitars, lyres, and harps are examples. However, the word also embraces instruments that many westerners would hesitate to call string instruments, such as the musical bow and the piano (which, although sometimes called a string instrument, is also called a keyboard instrument and a percussion instrument).

  • 12.30.2012 6:57 PM PDT