Quarky Plays The Piano
How do your fingers turn into little hammers?
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Quarky is writing this for you...
The story
Quarky lifts a piano lid and finds a workshop inside. Press a key and a padded hammer flies at a tight steel string, then instantly lets go so the string can ring. Bartolomeo Cristofori invented that escapement trick around 1700, which is why a piano can whisper or shout.
What you'll learn
- Pressing a key swings a hammer that strikes a string and makes it vibrate.
- The escapement lets the hammer fall away so the string keeps ringing.
- Cristofori invented the piano around 1700 in Italy.
- Quarky takeaway: how hard you hit changes the sound, so a piano can be loud or soft.
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