Random Facts

• There are over 12,000 parts in a piano, 10,000 which are moving.
• The working section of the piano is called the action. There are about 7500 parts here, all playing a role in sending the hammers against the strings when keys are struck.
• Each note in a grand piano has more than 35 points of adjustment. Overall, there are more than 3,080 adjustments for the entire piano.
• The range of the piano extends lower than the bottom 16 foot pedal note of an organ and higher than the top note of a piccolo.
• The piano is totally complete and needs no assistance from any other instruments, but almost all other instruments need the piano for accompaniment, including singers.
• There are 18 million nonprofessional pianists in this country. 79% are female; 21% are male. The average age is 28.
• The first practical piano with an escapement mechanism for the hammers with capability of being played softly and loudly was built in 1700 by an Italian, Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731).
• The name "piano" is an abbreviation of Cristofori's original name for the instrument: "piano et forte" meaning soft and loud.
• One of Cristofori's original pianos is still in existence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
• Jonas Chickering was the first exporter of American made pianos. The first shipment was in 1844.
• Abraham Lincoln used a Chickering Grand (#5070) while at the White House.
• During 1869 the U.S. produced 25,000 pianos together valued at $7,000,000; during 1910 production was 350,000 pianos valued at $100,000,000!
• A quarter million NEW pianos are bought every year in the U.S. and nearly one million OLD pianos are sold.
• The Bsendorfer Imperial concert grand piano is 9' 6" long and has 9 extra keys stretching to a growling C below bottom C ! (The Imperial grand sold for $55,000 in 1980!) The 9' and 7' 4" grands have four extra bass keys, the lowest of which is F below bottom C.
• The worlds largest piano is a Challen Concert Grand. This piano is 11 feet long, has a total string tension of over 30 tons and weighs more than a ton!
• A grand piano action is faster than a vertical (spinet, console, upright) because it has a repetition lever. This allows the pianist to repeat the note when the key is only half way up. A vertical action requires letting the key all the way up to reset the hammer action.
• The exact middle of the keyboard is not middle C, it is actually the space between E and F above "middle" C.
• The average piano has about 230 strings. Each string has about 160 pounds of tension with a combined pull of all strings equaling almost eighteen tons!
• A drop of 1/2 step in pitch can equal a change of 3,000 to 5,000 pounds of tension!
• The month of September is National Piano Month.

Presidential Pianos

1st President - George Washington - 1789-1797, Schoen & Vinsen Pianoforte and Longman & Broderi Harpsichord

2nd President - John Adams - 1797-1801, Currier & Co.

3rd President - Thomas Jefferson - 1801-1809, Astor Pianoforte

4th President - James Madison - 1809-1817, Square Grand (name destroyed by fire)

5th President - James Monroe - 1817-1825, Astor Piano

6th President - John Quincy Adams - 1825-1829, Currier & Co.

7th President - Andrew Jackson - 1829-1837, T. Gilbert & Co. Square Grand Piano

8th President - Martin Van Buren - 1837-1841, Hallet & Cumston Square Grand Piano

9th President - William Henry Harrison - 1841, Haines Brothers

10th President - John Tyler - 1841-1845, Thomas Tomkinson Upright Piano

11th President - James Knox Polk - 1845-1849, Astor & Harwood Square Grand Piano

12th President - Zachary Taylor - 1849-1850, Piano brand name unknown

13th President - Millard Fillmore - 1850-1853, Piano brand name unknown

14th President - Franklin Pierce - 1853-1857, Chickering Square Grand Piano

15th President - James Buchanan - 1857-1861, Chickering Grand Piano

16th President - Abraham Lincoln - 1861-1865, Chickering Square Grand Piano and Chickering Upright

17th President - Andrew Johnson - 1865-1869, Steinway & Sons Square Grand Piano

18th President - Ulysses S. Grant - 1869-1877, Brand name of Melodeon unknown

19th President - Rutherford B. Hayes - 1877-1881, Bradbury Upright and Baldwin Grand

20th President - James A. Garfield - 1881, Hallet & Davis Upright

21st President - Chester A. Arthur - 1881-1885, Piano brand name unknown

22nd President - Grover Cleavland - 1885-1889, Combination Piano & Harpsichord (name destroyed by fire)

23rd President - Benjamin Harrison - 1889-1893, J. & C. Fischer Upright Piano and Haines Brothers Square Grand

24th President - Grover Cleveland - 1893-1897, Combination Piano & Harpsichord (name destroyed by fire)

25th President - William McKinley - 1897-1901, A. H. Gale Co. Square Grand Piano

26th President - Theodore Roosevelt - 1901-1909, Chickering Upright and Steinway Grand Piano

27th President - William Howard Taft - 1909-1913, Baldwin Grand Piano

28th President - Woodrow Wilson - 1913-1921, Ernst Rosenkranst Square Grand Piano, Steinway Grand Piano , and Knabe Grand Piano

29th President - Warren G. Harding - 1921-1932, A. B. Chase Electric Player Piano

30th President - Calvin Coolidge - 1932-1939, Sohmer Upright Piano

31st President - Herbert Hoover - 1939-1943, Knabe Grand Piano and A. B. Chase Grand Piano

32nd President - Franklin D. Roosevelt - 1943-1945, Hardman Grand Piano

33rd President - Harry S. Truman - 1945-1953, Steinway Grand Piano, Baldwin Grand Piano and Steinway Upright

34th President - Dwight D. Eisenhower - 1953-1961, Hallet & Cumston Upright

35th President - John F. Kennedy - 1961-1963, Ivers & Pond Grand Piano

36th President - Lyndon B. Johnson - 1963-1969, Steinway Grand Piano and Knabe Console

37th President - Richard M. Nixon - 1969-1974, Geo. P. Bent Upright, Baldwin Upright

38th President - Gerald Ford - 1974-1977, No personal piano

39th President - James (Jimmy) Carter - 1977-1981, Ludden & Bates

40th President - Ronald Reagan - 1981-1989, Steinway Grand Piano

41st President - George H.W. Bush - 1989-1993, Conover Cable and Winter Musette both located at home in Maine

42nd President - William (Bill) Clinton - 1993-2001, Baldwin Grand in the Governor's Mansion, Arkansas

43rd President - George W. Bush - No Personal Piano, Steinway Grand in White House

44th President - Barack H. Obama - Unnamed Baby Grand Piano