With three white keys and two black and one pedal, composers would struggle to come up with a catchy tune.
The world’s narrowest piano only has 5 keys ????????5️⃣????
This piano became integral to the creation of Lennon’s solo music and is best remembered today as the instrument on which he composed his visionary plea for world peace, “Imagine”.
You can see the piano today on display at the MIM Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, AZ.
On December 15, 1970, Lennon purchased a Steinway Model Z upright piano and had it delivered to his home outside of London.
The Model Z piano was built by Steinway and Sons. Though a fairly ordinary upright piano made from ordinary walnut.
It seems that “The Immortal Piano” is for sale on with a price tag of $2 million usd. Over the years this unique instrument has also been called: “The Siena Piano”, “The King’s Piano”, and “The Harp of David Piano”.
The intricate design included portraits of Handel, Mozart, Gluck, Artino and Cherubini. Multiple variations of classical symbols including cherubs, lions, gryphons, mascarons [masks], and arabesques [ornamental motifs] also appear. A detailed carving of the “Harp of David” [aka Kinnor David] features in the centre of the bottom panel.
The instrument has, rightly or wrongly, achieved legendary status over the years. This is primarily as a result of a semi-autobiographical book entitled The Immortal Piano, by Israeli piano technician Avner Carmi.
According to Carmi, the piano was conceived by Italian harpsichord maker Sebastiano Marchisio in Turin at the beginning of the 19th century
The Flying Fazioli, a truly incredible master-piece of design, was made for Vancouver House, a high-end mixed-use project located on Vancouver’s new waterfront Beach District.
Sarah Nicolls launches an online campaign to fund the Standing Grand Project. It is aimed at the development of an upright piano that has a grand’s fullness of sound, but which is also compact, portable and lightweight.
Ten years ago Fazioli, with the Canadian firm of architects McFarlane, Green and Biggar, designed a special edition piano for the Fairmont Hotel. This became known as The Fairmont Fazioli
The $225,000 white satin piano had many parts plated in18K gold, but the stand-out feature was the elaborate three-dimensional laser-cut walnut inlay inside the instrument’s lid.

Origami Master Joseph Wu was invited to contribute some ideas in the making of this piano.

The new Origami Fazioli and the original Fairmont Fazioli (inset)

A complex arrangement of raised pentagons adorns the casework
A 1928 Kimball Piano Company grand piano plated with 24K gold leaf and played by Elvis Presley while in the music room of his Graceland home in Memphis, Tennessee.
Queen Victoria was born on 24 May 1819. And various exhibitions and festivities were taken place throughout 2019 to celebrate this 200th Anniversary. And pianos play their part.
Grand Piano by Isaac Mott. Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019
Stephen Hough played the royal piano, and the concert took place in August of 2019.
This rare 1916 baseball card found inside an old piano, and featuring Babe Ruth, sold at auction for USD 130,000.
In 92′, Ellen Kelly of Maryland purchased the piano she played as a child from the estate of her late aunt. She paid just 25 dollars. The piano was neglected and she decided to have it looked over. And it was then the card, one of around 100, was found stuffed behind the pedals.
For 33 years the piano was owned by a local family. But, in 2016 they decided to donate it to a nearby college, who subsequently had the instrument tuned. And during the process, the gold coins were discovered under the keyboard.
Back in 2017 a Shropshire (UK) based piano tuner found 913 gold coins in a 1904 Broadwood upright piano. These were estimated to be worth around half a million UK pounds (USD 650,000).
The modified keyboard and the locations of the various instruments
We often think of a hybrid as an acoustic and a digital piano, typically using an acoustic action to trigger digital sounds. But here we have a different kind of hybrid, and it is all acoustic, no electricity is used what so ever.
An upright with just one string per note, instead of the usual three. As a result, this piano has a unique, more subtle and delicate sound, which many composers particularly desire.
The late great pianist Liberace’s swimming pool, located at his home in Sherman Oaks, California.
The Beethoven Broadwood, manufactured in London in 1817
Broadwood is the world’s oldest surviving piano firm. It was founded in 1728. The company has held a Warrant for supply and maintenance of pianos to the various British Royal Households
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist; his music is amongst the most performed of the classical repertoire, and he is one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music. His works span the transition from the classical period to the romantic era in classical music.
Despite this ill-treatment, the piano still exists, and features in this year’s 200th Anniversary celebrations, which are taking place across Europe.
The Alma-Tadema Steinway Piano with original stools, well worth over 1 million usd.
Prince’s custom Yamaha grand piano.
Julien’s Auctions is selling a very unique upright piano once owned and played by Liberace. The instrument features in their upcoming Music Icon Auction.
Giving new meaning to the name “baby grand,” “Grand Pianist” features 88 tiny keys that you can (barely) play by yourself. It also includes an SD port and several pre-recorded songs that pour out of a small speaker.
The manufacturers at Sega, have coined the world’s smallest grand piano clocking in at an astonishing 9.8 inches.
The largest piano measured 2.495 m (8 ft 2 in) in width, 6.07 m (19 ft 10 in) in length and 1.925 m (6 ft 3 in)in height and was constructed by Daniel Czapiewski (Poland) and played in a concert at Szymbark, Poland, on 30 December 2010.
The construction of the instrument oversaw outstanding master of piano construction – Józef Wilk from piano factory in Kalisz (Poland). The instrument was modeled on “Steinway & Sons” soundboard. Bass strings made by special calculations and wound on an extendable winder. The mechanism hammer type Renner. In the production of the piano used various species of seasoned wood, among others: alpine spruce (resonance), birch, pine, hornbeam, mahogany, bubinga.
Just like many 7-year-olds, Xiaoyan Liu, of Great Neck, New York, loves being outside and drawing, but her time spent tickling the ivory sets her apart from other kids her age.
This 7-year-old girl from Long Island brings joy to health care workers by sharing her talents on the piano. The prodigy has garnered national attention for her skills.
Xiaoyan, who goes by the stage name Lele, which means happy in Chinese, started playing piano when she was just 3. By age 5, she had received national and international recognition in competitions. Since then, she has continued making a name for herself.
Alicia Keys and John Legend’s duelling piano battle to celebrate Juneteenth 06/19/20.
John Legend pictured playing his Ohio Buckeyes custom upright piano in is home back in 2011.
Alicia Keys playing this beautiful upright piano live in concert 2016.
The Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona filled its nearly 2,300 seats with plants for a June 22 concert, which was also broadcast online. When Barcelona’s Liceu opera opened on Monday for its first concert since mid-March, it did so to a full house — of plants.
The Gran Teatre del Liceu filled its 2,292 seats with plants for a performance by the UceLi Quartet, which it called a prelude to its 2020-2021 season.
The plants came from local nurseries and will be donated along with a certificate from the artist to 2,292 health care professionals, specifically at the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona.
Carabin is primarily known for his ceramic and bronze sculptures but it is his rare furniture commissions that garner the most attention.
It may have taken some seventy years, but the piano now has pride of place at the Musee alongside the masterworks of Majorelle, Galle, Serrurier-Bovy et al.
Carabin was not as successful at integrating his sculptural forms into a piece of furniture as say Emile Galle, but nonetheless his works are dramatic and exceedingly rare.
French cabinetmaker, who gave his name to a fashion of inlaying known as Boulle or Buhl work. The son of Jean Boulle, a member of a family of ebenistes who had already achieved distinction – Pierre Boulle, who died c. 1636, was for many years tourneur et menuisier du roy des cabinets d’ebene, – he became the most famous of his name and was, indeed, the second cabinet-maker – the first was Jean Mace – who has acquired individual renown.

The gilt-bronze figures of the Seasons on the Wildenstein meubles d’appui are cast from models first used by Boulle for a set of bas d’armoires with two doors, a pair of which, seized during the Revolution from the Noailles family, is now at Versailles.

A French 19th Century Napoleon III Ebonized and Ormolu Mounted Single-Front-Door “Boulle” Style Side Cabinet with Marble top, After the antique in the manner of André Charles Boulle (1642-1732). Circa: 1880.

This association of Boulle furniture and cabinets d’amateurs lasted well into the early, XIXth century.

The neoclassical Boulle bas d’armoires used old elements (coming from the cannibalised tall wardrobes or cabinets), such as tortoiseshell marquetry and bronze motifs (mainly figural), applied on a modern breakfront structure following the tripartite division invented by Boulle.
After years of meticulous construction David Klavins will unveil to the world the Klavins M450 Vertical Concert Grand, a 4.5 metre tall vertical piano.
Longer strings enable due corde (the striking of two strings per note) in the bass octaves
The pianist sits on a platform 3 metres (10 ft) above the ground. The total height of the instrument is 4.5 metres (14’ 9”), and it weighs 980 kg. A Steinway Model D, buy comparison, is 2.74 metres (8’ 11-3/4”) long and weighs 480kg.
Most, butterfly pianos are symmetrical grands. They get their name from the two-part “winged” lid which gives the piano a butterfly appearance. They are attractive to look at but the symmetrical grand is to some extent a compromised instrument.
The LEGO Ideas Grand Piano set, to give it its official name, has been in development for several years. It was initially conceived by music teacher and LEGO enthusiast Donny Chen, and made it to market thanks to the LEGO Ideas platform.
Chen’s original prototype utilised 2798 bricks. Whilst, as mentioned, the final production instrument has 3662.
Elvis purchased the piano, a grand built in 1912 by Wm. Knabe and Co., in 1957 for $818.85. He refurbished it and installed it in the music room at Graceland.
Graceland have now announced that they are the new owners of the instrument. It is not clear whether they were the eBay bidder, or purchased it following the sale.
A statement on the piano reads: “It was played constantly by Elvis and many friends for practice sessions, friendly sing alongs and untold numbers of jam sessions by Elvis and visiting celebrities to Graceland and became one of Elvis’s most loved, personal musical instruments.”
In 2009 the Alexander piano was, arguably, the largest piano in the world. It was build by Adrian Mann in a friend’s farm shed in Dunedin, New Zealand. Incredibly Mann was just 20 when he completed the instrument.

Daniel Czapiewski’s “Stolëmowi Klawér”, in Poland, officially holds the title of “The World’s Largest Piano”, but the Alexander piano can still claim to be the world’s longest single manual piano.
Mann currently runs a piano business (sales, tuning, restoration etc.) in Dunedin, and the Alexander piano now resides in the company’s showroom.
The Pianodrome is an amphitheatre made from over 50 unwanted pianos. And the structure includes five actual working instruments.
The world’s first amphitheatre made entirely from up-cycled pianos. Such a great way to let go of a piano, and re-use it for an other creative purpose.
National Hispanic Heritage Month traditionally honors the cultures and contributions of both Hispanic and Latino Americans as we celebrate heritage rooted in all Latin American countries. In honor we would like to celebrate some of the biggest latin pianist
Osorio is the recipient of many international prizes, including the Rhode Island International Master Piano Competition and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Gina Bachauer Award.
Technically speaking, J.S. Bach was not actually a pianist. He was first and foremost an organist, as well as a harpsichordist.
However, Bach did play several early pianos built by Gottfried Silbermann, who studied early piano (“hammer harpsichord”) designs by the piano’s inventor, Bartolomeo Cristofori (see Who Invented the Piano?).
Bach did not like Silbermann’s first piano making efforts of the early 1730s, though he went on to give his later pianos his wholehearted approval.
The solid brass lyre (left) and one of the legs (right) from the Kravitz Grand
Back in 1817, Thomas Broadwood met the 47 year old Beethoven in Vienna. Upon discovering that the famed composer was almost deaf and somewhat impoverished, Broadwood decided to give Beethoven a new grand piano. At that time an English grand was noticeably louder than any of the Viennese instruments used by Beethoven.
Beethoven’s Broadwoood: Specifications
This is one of the most famous early grand pianos. Broadwood’s pianos were now much stronger. The string tension of this instrument would be at least half as much again as in a piano of 1805.
Broadwood is the world’s oldest surviving piano firm. It was founded in 1728. The company has held a Warrant for supply and maintenance of pianos to the various British Royal Households since the reign of George II (1683-1760). It can name among its customers the composers Haydn, Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, Elgar, Holst and Vaughan Williams.
“My dearest friend Broadwood,
“I have never felt a greater pleasure than that given me by the anticipation of the arrival of this piano, with which you are honouring me as a present. I shall regard it as an altar on which I shall place my spirit’s most beautiful offerings to the divine Apollo. As soon as I receive your excellent instrument, I shall send you the fruits of the first moments of inspiration I spend at it, as a souvenir for you from me, my very dear B., and I hope that they will be worthy of your instrument.
“My dear sir and friend, accept my warmest consideration, from your friend and most humble servant,
Louis Van BeethovenVienna, 3rd February 1818.”
If you haven’t already done so, please watch Mark Rober’s incredible YouTube video (below).
The little issue here is that each note produced by a piano is a rich blend of harmonics rather than a pure sine wave. However, math (math—US) can allow for this to some extent.
Each note in the PianoDisc Prodigy system has a whopping 1024 levels of expression. Chopstix uses this resolution to piece together genuine words.
The PianoDisc self-playing system on Edelweiss pianos can trigger up to 30 notes at once.
However, for the video, Rober required the piano to play all 88 notes at the same time.
To accommodate this request, the engineers at PianoDisc upgraded the software of their Prodigy piano player system.
The video starts off with a quick explanation of how pianos and player pianos work.
It’s well done, but most pianists are aware of this.
However, the section about getting the piano to talk/sing is brand new.