Monthly Archives: March 2019

World Piano Day

Today is Piano Day – a day when we celebrate one of the few ‘normal’ stringed instruments we don’t sell (although it’ll come as no surprise to anyone who knows us that we have a Schatten Design pickup for it).

#DidYouKnow that it is celebrated on the 29th of March because this is the 88th day of the year? if we applied that to other stringed instruments the 4th and 6th of January would be very busy days – lol

The piano isn’t quite as old as many of the other stringed instruments with which we are so familiar. It began life, mainly through medieval times, as a dulcimer (for which we also do pickups); a fretted string instrument with three or four strings attached. From there it developed into the clavichord, the spinet, virginal, clavecin, gravicembalo, and finally, the harpsichord in the 15th century.

The harpsichord is considered to be to the closest predecessor to the modern day piano because the keyboard that activated the strings. However, it took a further 300 years of development for the harpsichord to become the modern piano.

So why not celebrate by rolling up your sleeves and giving the ivories a tinkle or, failing that, put your favourite piano sonata on and enjoy someone else’s playing.

29 - piano day