Help! Is a piano a string or percussion instrument

[Benson]

You need to help a few of this answer this argument.  Thanks!

[liszmaninopin]

I'm hardly an expert on the issue, but here are my thoughts:

I don't think a piano is a string instrument.  With most stringed instruments, the sound is either produced by a bow or by plucking the strings.  While there are a couple piano pieces out there that pluck strings, most don't.  Also, a piano sounds rather different from any other instrument with strings.  A piano does have strings, but they are not used in the usual way.

I would call a piano a percussion instrument. Although I suppose that this is a better classification than a stringed instrument, it isn't perfect.  With other percussion instruments, the percussionist strikes his drums, bells, bars, etc. to make a sound.  In a way, a pianist is striking the strings by way of the key mechanism and action.  In that way it is percussion.  Please feel free to correct me if I've said anything not quite correct; but these are my thoughts without researching it too deeply.

[Noah]

Piano is a keyboard instrument...

[liszmaninopin]

You have a point, there.  The piano doesn't really fit well into any category except keyboard.  I was just picking from the two choices he suggested, string or percussion.

[bernhard]

The piano is all of them: string, percussion and keyboard. (and different composers exploited these different aspects, sometimes to extremes).

Just like the organ which is both a wind and keyboard instrument. Or the xylophone which is both percussion and keyboard.

What about a digital piano? What is it?

[krenske]

Can a Xylophone really be a keyboard instrument, if it doesn't really have "keys"? A key [i think] is something you depress to obtain a note [or something you lose, rendering you with an uncomfortable night in the gutter]. If a xylophone is a keyboard instrument, then so would be tubular bells, and maybe even tympani for that matter... the list goes on.
Now for a terminology error of my own... aren't all pianos "digital pianos" since you play them with your digits?

[Noah]

The piano is all of them: string, percussion and keyboard. (and different composers exploited these different aspects, sometimes to extremes).

Qualitatively speaking, yes, but the piano is classified as a keyboard instrument. It wouldn't be included in a string orchestra for example.

[bernhard]

Can a Xylophone really be a keyboard instrument, if it doesn't really have "keys"? A key [i think] is something you depress to obtain a note [or something you lose, rendering you with an uncomfortable night in the gutter]. If a xylophone is a keyboard instrument, then so would be tubular bells, and maybe even tympani for that matter... the list goes on.
Now for a terminology error of my own... aren't all pianos "digital pianos" since you play them with your digits?

A xylophone has its "keys" following the same pattern of the piano keyboard (something that tympani don't). I dind't realise that a keyboard had to be pressed in order to be classified as keyboard (or does it?)

The “digital” in digital pianos does not refer to digits, but to “discrete” (as opposed to continuous – in mathematics). So a vinyl LP is analogic, while a CD is digital. A real piano produces sound analogically, while a digital piano produces digital sound. (But I take it that you were probably joking).

Finally, a little fable that seems appropriate.

“An elephant belonging to a travelling exhibition had been stabled near a town where no elephant had been seen before. Four curious citizens hearing of the hidden wonder, went to see if they could get a preview of it. When they arrived at the stable they found that there was no light. The investigation therefore had to be carried out in the dark.

One touching his trunk, thought that the creature must resemble a hosepipe; the second felt an ear and concluded it was a fan. The third feeling a leg, could liken it only to a living pillar; and when the fourth puts his hand on its back he was convinced that it was some kind of throne. None could form the complete picture; and of the part which each felt, he could only refer to it in terms of the things which he already knew. The result of the expedition was confusion. Each was sure he was right; none of the other townspeople could understand what had happened, what the investigators had actually experienced.” (Idries Shah).


Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[ThEmUsIcMaNBJ]

The piano and xylophone and marimba and bells are all percussion.

[krenske]

A xylophone has its "keys" following the same pattern of the piano keyboard (something that tympani don't). I dind't realise that a keyboard had to be pressed in order to be classified as keyboard (or does it?)

Well... (as Kapell would say)
the Oxford Dictionary defines key as "Lever pressed by finger in playing organ, piano, flute, concertina etc; similar lever in typewriter..."

Firstly, notice it mentions "organ" first.
Secondly, a Xylophone definately doesn't qualify as a keyboard, since it has no keys. Nor board. Although a glockenspiel definately has board, but no keys or keyboard. Are we bored yet?

Musicman, you remind me of a tenor i once knew

[bernhard]

Let us not forget Virginals and clavichords (percussion and strings), harpsichords (plucked strings), Celestas (percussion - this definitely has a keyboard, with pressing keys), accordions (wind), and scalettas (? A fashionable wind instrument for children in the 60s that had a mouthpiece attached to a keyboard, so you did not have to go to the drudgery of remembering flute/clarinet/recorder/etc. fingerings).

[Babcock]

The piano is a string instrument.  Any instrument that has strings stretched over a bridge or bridges is a string instrument.  How those strings are set into motion is irrelevant.

[Noah]

The piano is a string instrument.  Any instrument that has strings stretched over a bridge or bridges is a string instrument.  How those strings are set into motion is irrelevant.

Absolutely not. You can't put the piano in the same family of instruments as violins and cellos.
When you audition for a music college for piano, you'll audition in the keyboard instruments department, not in the strings one.

[Babcock]

Of course it's a keyboard instrument, but it is a string instrument whose strings are set into motion by hammers activated by keys.  A harpsichord uses plectra activiated by keys, and a clavichord uses tangents activated by keys.  They are all stringed instruments that evolved from the dulcimer and zither.

[johnreef]

Whether a piano is a stringed or percussion instrument is dependant on how you play it!

[xenon]

Whether a piano is a stringed or percussion instrument is dependant on how you play it!

Heh, my piano professor was a performer at the New Music Festival here in the city I live in, and in one part of a piece, she had to put a heavy instrument case on the damper pedal and hit the strings in the piano with mallets.

But, I believe that piano is in a category all alone, at the top of the instrumental heirarchy.  But then, in a textbook I have, it is classified as a keyboard instruemt along w/ synthesizer, organ, celeste, harpsichord, etc.

[rachlisztchopin]

piano is no percussion instrument...and no string instrument.  A percussion instrument is something that humans hit with their hands or holding something like a mallet to hit...the only time i call piano a percussion instrument is when idiots walk into piano stores..stare at them for a few seconds, and then pound their fists on them like mad apes. A string instrument is something that is bowed or plucked with with ur bare fingers or something close to bare fingers (like a pick)...i dont think piano fits in that category very well..IT IS STRICTLY A KEYBOARD INSTRUMENT!!!

[ayahav]

a piano is a cordophone, scientifically, because the ssound is made using cords (or strings). This is in the same way that a violin, a viola, a guitar or a mandolin is also a cordophone. I would stick to this classification. The categories are, then:

Cordophone - any instrument whose sound is produced by strings or cords vibrating.

Aerophone - any instrument whose sound is produced by air flow.

Idiophone - any instrument whose sound is similar to its name (wood block).

Linguaphone - any instrument whose sound is produced by a tongue (mbira, for example)...

Under the traditional classification, one category is often neglected, and that is the keyboard category, it includes: Piano, Clavichord, Harpsichord, Organ, Celesta, et al.

hope this helps...

[faulty_damper]

Erm, the piano is a percussion instrument.  It is not a string instrument even though it has them.  Because the strings are struck to create sound, it is a percussion.

If anything is struck or plucked, then it is classified as a percussion.  Many pianists do not like to call the piano a percussion because, for some reason of inferiority, they think of when they hear "percussion" (eg. drums, snares, etc.)

Pianos, harpsichords, harps, xylophones, drums, cymbols, et al are classified as percussion.  The primary sound that is made is from striking or plucking, therefore, they are percussion instruments.

About strings, even string instruments can be plucked but that is not their primary sounding activator.  A string's sound is caused by rubbing the strings with something that can cause the string to vibrate.

So a piano is a percussion instrument because the strings are struck and not rubbed to make sound.

[DarkWind]

This is an age old argument that could go on for ever. I personally consider the piano in the class of keyboard, along with the organ, clavichord, harpsichord, celesta, etc. Some say it is a percussion because of the striking with the hammers. Some say it is strings because the sound comes from the strings. Personally, if I had to choose between the two, I would say strings. The piano was built to improve upon the harpsichord, which used plucking, instead of striking. One would not consider the harpischord a percussion instrument, would you? It plucks strings, which is not a distinct characteristic of percussion instruments, is it? Because of its origins, the piano seems more fit to be a string instrument. Also, your thoughts on whether a piano is percussive or string can effect a lot of factors, especially composing. Bartok, Prokofiev, people like them were known as percussionists. They took the piano as a percussive instrument. You can instantly hear the distinct difference in their composing from others. Anyways, this argument could go on forever...

[donjuan]

You are right-- this argument could go on forever.  So why don't we just leave it... The piano is used to make music.  These classifications - "strings", "percussion" are simply words came up with by humans.  Music is so much larger than humans....Stop arguing about this!!  damn, this forum is almost as bad as that dumb Star Trek Forum where they argue forever about whether or not the Star Trek enterprise is more aerodynamic than the Clingon ship.
I say we stop this dumb argument right now!
donjuan

[faulty_damper]

It's not pointless.  One of the problems with some of the classifications are that many of you have gotten them confused.  To use for example the classification of Life:

You have Plants, Animals, dogs and fleas, poodles, trees and spinach, and apples.

Notice that Plants and Animals are non-specific classifications but are Kingdoms.  Dogs and fleas are classified under Animalia but poodle is a specific reference to a type of dog.  Trees and spinach are classified under Plants but spinach is a specific kind of plant.  Apples is a fruit from a tree.

This is not how some of you have classified the piano.

There are three different classifications of musical instruments, right?

Strings - anything that makes sound by rubbing
Woodwinds - anything that makes sound by blowing air
Percussion - anything that makes sound by either plucking or striking

Which one does the piano go under? It is percussion.  It has strings but the piano does not make sound by rubbing the strings; it does so by striking it with mallets.  It is struck, therefore, it is percussion.  Under percussion, you may be more specific with the classification.  Between striking and plucking, the strings of the piano are struck.  So it can be further classifed as being struck.  It has strings so it can be further classified as a strings instrument but NOT the same Strings under the three different classifications.'

*Percussion
*Strings - Brass - Drums
*Struck - Plucked
*Keyboard

All the way down on the classification table, you can classify it as a keyboard.  Don't get it confused by calling it both a poodle and a tree.

----
And debating which is more aerodynamic?  This assumes that there is air in space, which is faulty.  There is no gaseous atmosphere in space.  Similar to asking "How aerodynamic is a submarine?"  You mean HYDROdynamic, right?  But for space, what is there?  Logic dictates that there is something there regardless of whether we can detect it.  So perhaps asking: "How spacial-dynamic is a Klingon ship?"  That's like asking, "How many licks to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop?"  The real answer is, "It depends on how big your tongue is, how much you are salivating when you lick it, the ambient air temperature, the relative humidity and the water content in the Tootsie Roll pop, how much surface area you are able to lick, how many licks per minute..."

[ayahav]

Strings - anything that makes sound by rubbing
Woodwinds - anything that makes sound by blowing air
Percussion - anything that makes sound by either plucking or striking

I completely disagree with your definitions, not to mention the fact that you have completely omitted the brass category. Furthermore, to all of you: the classification system that uses Woodwinds, Brass, Strings and Percussion is not made up of definitions. The woodwind group is not clearly defined by an "anything..." definition.  Rather, is is the collection of Flutes, Oboes, Clarinets, Cor Anglais, Bassoons, etc. This applies to the other groups as well. Except for figuring out where instruments' staffs fit in scores, and where orchestral instruments should sit, this system of classification is quite useless.

To this end, as I have suggested before, we should try and move towards the scientific classification of instruments, which are defined as "anything that...".

Chordophone - anything that makes sound from strings (a piano falls into this category because the sound is finally made by the strings - it is only initiated by the hammers). This category can further be divided into bowed, plucked, and struck strings. To be very exact, the piano is a struck cordophone.

Aerophone - anything that makes sound out of air. This category encompasses all woodwind and brass instruments. So this can be divided further into wooden and metallic. The only exception would probably be the flutes, who were originally made of wood, and therefore go under wooden aerophone.

Idiophone - anything which sounds like its name. IE - a wood block sounds like a wood block.

Linguaphone - anything whose sound is produced by a 'tongue'. For example, a mbira is made of many 'tongues' which are plucked.

I am sincerely for learning both systems of classification, because for some things, one is easier than the other.

And just by the way - all of you forget that Keyboard is a  seperate category, and piano is neither a string instrument, nor a percussion one: it's a keyboard instrument.

[faulty_damper]

"I completely disagree with your definitions, not to mention the fact that you have completely omitted the brass category."

Yeah, but that's why I asked if there were three.  And brass category files anything that is brass under it?  Like a gong?  A gong is a percussion instrument.  So are cymbols.

But a trumpet is brass, right?  But it's a wind instrument.  So it's really a wind instrument classified by brass instead of wood.

[ayahav]

as I said... there aren't any set "anything that..." definitions for the woodwind/brass/percussion/strings system. Brass encompasses not only instruments which are made of brass. An Ophicleide, for example, is made of leather, but is still a brass instrument, because its sonority and sound are similar to those of a trombone.

[faulty_damper]

Using your definitions, it's not something most musicians would use as terms.  We understand musical instruments and that there are violins, drums, guitars, etc. but we generally won't use those terms to decribe the instruments.

Idiophone?  Can you elaborate on this?  This seems to be very un-scientific a classification scheme.  But rather onomatopoeia-phonic.  

---
The definition for percussion means to strike a body against another.  The musical definition is the striking of a musical instrument to produce tones.

The definition of string is the is the tightly stretched wires that create sound when either plucking, striking, or friction of a bow, to create sound.

From Webster's dictionary
---

Hmm...  Am I the other one to bother looking at a dictionary?  I guess I'm wrong that a harpsichord is a percussion according to Webster's.  But this can't be right, can it?  A piano can't be classified under two different categories.  It's like saying a mushroom is a plant and a fungus.

...

[ayahav]

Yet again, a piano doesn't have to fall under either category. It's a keyboard instrument. Except for that, an idiophone is exactly what you said it is. It is a way to classify things in the scientific system. (Scientific here is used in the sense of what physically happens, and less in the sense of an exact science). Idiophones are wood blocks, the gong, etc.

Sorry - the last category that I have completely ignored and forgotten was the membranophones (instruments whose soudns are produced by membranes), like drums - for example....

[faulty_damper]

Nah, I don't buy the "it's a keyboard" instrument.  A mallet strikes the strings.  A lever activates that mallet.  A finger activates the lever.

That's like saying a violin is a bow instrument.  It is, but that's not what the instrument is which is a strings instrument.

I'm happy with the "percussion" category of the piano since a mallet strikes the strings.  And it just so happens to be a keyboard percussion.

[DarkWind]

Bah, give it a rest. No one will ever come to a conclusion. It's been a long fought war. I read, although, on this website discussing how music works and how to write a great melody (https://www.completechords.com/Pages_Sidebranch_Free_Features/How_Music_Really_Works/How_Music_REALLY_Works_Full_Index.htm) and here they say it's a string instrument. Personally I tend to favor neither side and say it's both, although the keyboard does make the most sense...

[newsgroupeuan]

what makes a car a car?

what makes something orange?

warm? Cold? Good? Bad? Tall? short?

all these definitions are bendable and relative....

...so is the definition of a percussion instrument.

so the answer is neither

[bernhard]

A piano is a musical instrument.

[bachopoven]

the replies are interesting.

But the piano is a percussion instrument. It's how you play it not what it's made of.

The mechanism for playing the piano is you HIT and key then the hammer HITS the string. String insrtuments like the violin also have strings but are player by bowing the strings.

Having said that, I have some questions as well, such as what is a guitar?