Are pianos and keyboards the same thing?

Answer 1

Yes ... and ... No.

Although the techniques for playing both are similar, the touch and feel of each is quite different. One is a mechanical instrument and the other is electronic. Read on:

"Keyboard" alone usually makes reference to an electronic instrument that has keys much like an organ or piano, and produces its sound through an amplifier and speaker(s).

"Piano" alone usually makes reference to a percussive instrument that requires physical exertion (energy) to create sounds, the tones from vibrating strings.

Although the sound that each makes may be similar, there is a huge difference between playing a keyboard and playing a piano ... they are not the same.

Answer 2

Not exactly. I personally prefer a nice keyboard to a piano though. The nicer keyboards record their piano sound right off of a piano, so it's very similar. Pianos have overwhelming echo thought that I don't like that drowns everything out. The action on a keyboard is also a little lighter to they're easier to play.

Answer 3

No. Normal keyboards make clickity-click noises (unless there is a sort of padding, in which a rubber-click sound is made). The pitch of a click does not change from keys next to each other, in the case of a normal-format QWERTY keyboard. Pianos use strings and keys to create a stringed-instrument noise that is uniquely identified as a piano sound. Keys, if correctly tuned by the strings, should have a pitch change, key-by-key.

Answer 4

Not necessarily. Construction of instruments differ due to factors related to how they make their strings sound.

Pianofortes and related instruments use a felted hammer to strike their strings, using other mechanism such as damper and sustain pedals to modulate the sound produced. In addition to this, the key mechanism is structured so that different degrees of pressure produce different levels of sound from the strings, this is why pianoforte keyboards are referred to as having an action - this refers to the response of an individual keyboard to playing pressure - some are quick and light, others are slow and heavy.

With other keyboard instruments, the purpose of the key is to move something against the strings, but not necessarily to hit strings. Generally, there are no mechanisms for modulating the sound either through dampening or sustaining. The harpsichord, for example, causes plectrums, small pieces of leather or wood, to pluck the string(s) related to the depressed key(s). They cannot be made to pluck harder or softer, just to pluck at the same intensity. Couple this with the generally poor amplification characteristics of original harpsichord sound-boxes and it becomes apparent why harpsichordists generally play all the time in baroque compositions; to sustain what is an otherwise poorly amplified, brittle sound.

At the latest level, we have the synthesiser keyboards. These make and break electrical switches. In better designed synthesisers, it is possible to measure the time between a key starting down and finishing (switches break at the start and make at the end and vice versa), giving rise to a velocity measure that can be used to modulate the perceived loudness of the sound. In so many ways, we have returned to the harpsichord, except we now have an overall volume control that can be turned up or down.

Answer 5

Pianos are under the category of keyboards but keyboards can include many other instruments. Other examples of keyboards are the harpsichord, clavichord, organ and electone. Dont forget the xylophone.

Answer 6

Of course they do. They are mainly the same but a piano has the little pedals and a keyboard is electric.

Answer 7

Every instrument that uses the twelve tones from the Western chromatic scale has the same notes (A-G and the sharps/flats).