Early pianos had 54 keys, while today's piano has 88. There are several piano makers who add additional keys to give their most expensive pianos more resonance.(Stuart and Sons in Australia has 102-key and 97-key grands, and some Bosendorfer pianos also add keys to the bass.)

The organ was the first keyboard instrument. It used pipes rather than strings to produce its sound.

In addition to “inventing” the piano, Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the "una corda" pedal (the soft pedal) in about 1726.

Louis Braille, an organist, originally invented Braille as a way for blind people to read music.

Before music publishing became an actual business in the 1750's, people had to copy by hand any music that they wanted to have.

Even though Franz Liszt left Hungary at the age of nine and could never speak a word of Hungarian, at a concert in Budapest in January 1840, a number of Hungarian dukes came onstage and presented Liszt with a richly jeweled sword, the symbol of service or nobility.

Two Austrians took out a patent in 1824 for a concavely-curved keyboard. The idea was that a longer reach was possible on a curve.

Lower bass notes in music have wavelengths that are about 30 feet long.

W.W. Kimball was established in about 1865 as a maker of cheap, quick-selling pianos and organs. They eventually became the largest piano manufacturer in the world, and were owned by a furniture manufacturer in Indiana. Kimball stopped producing pianos in 1996.

On the evening of 2/16/95, the jury in the OJ Simpson trial was treated to a private concert by pianist Roger Williams. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but Williams’ publicist claimed he was “the greatest-selling popular pianist in history.”

Hallet, Davis & Co. is the oldest U.S. brand of pianos in continuous production with the first piano created in 1835. The Pearl River Piano Group in China has produced the HD&C line since 2014.

The best-selling pianos in the world are made by The Pearl River Piano Group in China. They also claim to have the largest piano factory in the world. The company was established in 1956 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. Pearl River is capable of producing over 125,000 pianos a year, and exports them to more than 100 countries. Most Pearl River pianos are considered entry level instruments. However, they make some (Ritmuller, Kayserburg, and Hallet Davis) to higher specifications with better materials. Pearl River pianos are mostly sold under the Ritmüller brand name for the US and European markets.

In January 2016, Pearl River Piano Company took over 90% of the shares of Wilhelm Schimmel, a German piano manufacturer in Braunschweig. Operations in Germany remain unchanged and the Schimmel factory is still managed by the Schimmel family.

The existence of the profession of piano tuner was marked in England by the 1840 publication of a textbook, The Tuner’s Guide.

The most expensive upright piano ever sold, a Steinway upright model Z, was originally bought by former Beatle John Lennon in December 1970, and delivered to studios at his home in Tittenhurst Park in Berkshire, England. He composed and recorded the song “Imagine” on it, and was filmed playing the song on it for the first time to wife Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono band. Believed to be a piece of British history by many, the most expensive piano in the world sold at auction in the year 2000 for £1.45 million (about $2.1 million dollars) to British pop singer George Michael after a “who’s who” bidding war that included several other British celebrities. After using the world’s most expensive piano to record songs for an album, George Michael returned the piano to the Liverpool museum that housed it prior to his ownership. He stated that “the piano was not the type of thing that should be in storage somewhere or being protected, it should be seen by people.”

It is possible that the distinctive and powerful tone of Steinway pianos is due to the fact that Steinway and his sons all had hearing problems. They might have been designing pianos that they could hear.

Former Louisiana governor Jimmie Davis wrote more than 400 songs, including “You Are My Sunshine.” Elected in 1944 and 1960, Davis is the only governor to be elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Between Civil War battles, brigadier General Daniel Butterfield worked with his bugler and wrote the tune for “Taps.”

The ancient Romans loved the bagpipes. Emperor Nero is said to have been a bagpipe virtuoso, playing it regularly at public functions. The Romans carried the bagpipe all over the world, but most of the world rejected this musical gift - except the Scots.

The song, “Yankee Doodle” began as a nonsense Dutch song called “Yankee Dudle Doodle Down” in the 15th century. It spread to England as a children’s song before being used to taunt Oliver Cromwell’s Protestants during the English Civil War. Finally, the British turned it on the American colonists in the same taunting vein, not realizing that they would proudly adopt it!

Herds of elephants sing to each other. Although the tones are too low for humans, other elephants can hear the songs from up to five miles away.