The piano was "invented" in about 1709, by Bartolomeo Cristofori, who was a harpsichord builder. Harpsichords and clavichords were the keyboard instruments of the day, but they were very quiet instruments and no matter how much force the player used on the keys, the volume never changed. If you've ever listened to harpsichord music for a long period of time, you know that although the music may be quite beautiful, the sound can become monotonous. There was a movement in the late 1600s and early 1700s to put a great deal of emotion into the creative arts, so Cristofori set out to find a way to put more expression into keyboard playing. How do you put expression into music? Usually by changing your speed and volume. Harpsichords have a mechanism that plucks the strings when the keys are pressed, so there is no way to change the volume when they are played. Cristofori found that by having hammers hit the strings, the amount of pressure that the fingers put on the keys changed the volume of sound that came out of the instrument. He called his invention a "pianoforte," which means "soft and loud."

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

The damper pedal is often referred to as the "loud" pedal, but it does not change the volume of sound that comes out of the piano. It only sounds louder when the player holds it down too long and all of the strings are vibrating at once!

The first modern pedal mechanism was developed by piano builder Sebastien Erard in 1810.

Steel piano strings and felt-covered hammers were introduced in 1826 by Jean-Henri Pape.

In 1930, Koichi Kawai left his job at Yamaha to start his own piano-building company.

An architect built an apartment building in New York in 1891 that had an upright piano built into every parlor.

In 1866, a piano was patented that turned into a couch and had closets for bed clothes and a wash basin. The stool converted to a workbox, looking glass, desk, and a small set of drawers.

Vladimir de Pachmann, a piano virtuoso of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, claimed that milking cows was the best finger exercise there was.

The first classical record to sell 1 million copies was a performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto #1 by Van Cliburn, recorded in 1958.

Piano tuning was a special skill after 1750, and became an occupation in the 1800's.

According to a newspaper estimate in 1791, about twenty-seven Boston families owned pianos. All of the instruments were made in London.

Jonas Chickering began as a cabinetmaker in Ipswich, New Hampshire. In 1818, at the age of 20, he sought his fortune in Boston by becoming an apprentice in one of the town's few piano-making shops. Three years later, he was in the piano-making business with a partner. He later went on to be one of the most successful piano-builders in America.

At Dolly Madison’s request, a piano was purchased specifically for the White House, but it was destroyed when the British burned the building during the War of 1812.

Steinway presented the White House with an ornate gold-covered grand piano during Theodore Roosevelt’s administration. It was the 100,000th piano built by the company, and now stands in the Smithsonian Institution.

A recording of a Bach prelude played by pianist Glenn Gould was placed onboard the Explorer mission to prove the existence of intelligent life on earth.

Early upright pianos were called “giraffes” and were about 7 1/2’ tall!

In 1868, Paris, France had about 20,000 people involved in teaching piano.