Changes

[[Image:Piano.jpg|thumb]]

[[Image:Piano.jpg|thumb]]

A '''piano''' (short for pianoforte, which is Italian for "soft - loud") is a stringed musical instrument played by means of a mechanical linkage to a [[keyboard]]. Pressing the keys down causes hammers to strike the strings.  It was referred to by famous composer Ludwig van [[Beethoven]] as "the God of all instruments".  [[Franz Liszt]] famously stated, "Why do you need an orchestra when you have a grand piano with 88 keys?"

A '''piano''' (French: piano, German: Klavier, Russian: фортепиано, Spanish: piano)

(short for pianoforte, which is Italian for "soft - loud") is a stringed musical instrument played by means of a mechanical linkage to a [[keyboard]]. Pressing the keys down causes hammers to strike the strings.  It was referred to by famous composer Ludwig van [[Beethoven]] as "the God of all instruments".  [[Franz Liszt]] famously stated, "Why do you need an orchestra when you have a grand piano with 88 keys?"

A modern piano should properly have three pedals. The left pedal is called the ''soft pedal'' or ''una corda.'' On a grand piano it shifts the hammer assembly so that the hammers strike only two of the three [[strings]] for each note (or, in the case of the double-strung notes, only one of the two strings). This does not just make the sound software, it changes its tonal characteristics.

A modern piano should properly have three pedals. The left pedal is called the ''soft pedal'' or ''una corda.'' On a grand piano it shifts the hammer assembly so that the hammers strike only two of the three [[strings]] for each note (or, in the case of the double-strung notes, only one of the two strings). This does not just make the sound software, it changes its tonal characteristics.