How the piano is made

A fun video which shows how the Mason & Hamlin company makes its pianos.



The Making Of A Baldwin Piano



Making of Steinway Piano

Cool post maggie!

Wow, I've always wanted to see how a piano is made. I love how they make the Steinways.

There is a reason why grands are so expensive, it's almost all hand made...
Where are the robots? I want much cheaper pianos...

EDIT: Haha at that accent in the second video

I found a little piano history for you folks... if you are interested in it, it is really basic stuff:


The idea of designing a piano is from an older instrument called the harp which was designed before the birth of Christ. This instrument "Harp" exist in ancient Greece. At some point, an enterprising young go-getter named Fred conceived of a peculiar notion. Fred decided to change the concept of piano by plucking the strings with mechanical device and not by plucking the strings with fingers. This idea of a harp operated by keys is the first primitive keyboard.

In the fourteenth century, the idea of designing a keyboard was envisioned and sketched. An interesting story of instrument design, innovation and invention proceeded over the next five centuries. The modern piano was invented in the early 1700s before the precursor and there were three instruments which were used to play the keyboard music.

Harpsichord: If you are the fan of Baroque music of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century Bach, you have heard about the contemporaries which are nothing but the sound of a harpsichord.

Clavichords: These instruments were very soft and no matter how hard you slammed down the keys. It could not make them any louder than this.

Organs: No matter whether it is large or small organs. In churches they accompany liturgical music and it have been around for centuries.

Cristofori: It is credited with inventing and building the first piano. Pianoforte is Cristofori's new instrument. Italian's combines the words for soft (piano) and loud or strong (forte).

In the European tradition, piano-building has been continued by makers such as Steinway, Bosendorfer and Baldwin. Some companies have been affected by industrial-age factory methods and automated procedures but still maintain an ethic that hand-crafting of important parts is essential. The strong points tend to be consistency and play ability, these pianos are developed by Japan which has got into the act with high quality pianos built largely by machines. Yamaha and Kawai are some of the companies which have established reputations for their excellent instruments.