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Piano Keyboards

The most obvious ways to identify the piano is by the keyboard. The piano keyboard was not always as long as its modern incarnation of slightly over eight octaves. The original piano was only five octaves with and as such was far shorter than the current setup. However, the expansion quickly took place in the course of the competition between John Broadwood and the Viennese makers. The keyboards grew throughout their productive engagement to continually one up one another resulting in broader and more diverse keyboards.

The original keyboards were made from ivory from elephants’ tusks. The popularity lead to widespread hunting of the elephants primarily for their tusks. After widespread poaching lead to a massive murder of the elephants, the industry sought a cleaner substance that wouldn’t enrage animal activists. The answer came in the form of the modern plastic polymers which were able to emulate the structure and lightweight composition of the keys. In fact, the new keys can receive a high gloss paint makes them more desirable to the eye, while having none of the positive incentives for poaching.

 

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