What are similarties between harpsichord and organ?

Answer 1

There are many differences between the harpsichord and the piano, in fact, more differences than there are similarities.

First, a quick review of the similarities:
Both instruments have a keyboard, upon which the notes are laid out in this fashion: the 'natural notes', i.e., the notes of the C major scale, are laid out in larger keys which extend in front of the keys used to produce sharps and flats, which are colored differently from the natural notes and extend above them. The sharps and flats are grouped in 3's and 2's.
Both instruments have at least one version that holds the strings flat and parallel to the floor. (The piano has versions which hold the strings perpindicular to the floor, which are quite common, and the harpsichord had versions which held the strings in this orientation, although they were quite rare.)
Both instruments provide musical sounds by a mechanism which starts with the performer's finger on a key at one end and ends with a string vibrating on a soundboard at the other.

And there, the similarities end.

Harpsichords are tranditionally built from different woods from the piano, and are of much lighter construction, because the strings of the harpsichord are not under nearly so much tension as the piano. The key colors used for contrast between the naturals and sharps/flats is white/black for the piano and dark/light for the harpsichord, i.e., Middle C is ivory or ivorite-covered (white) on the piano, and C# is ebony or black plastic. On a harpsichord, Middle C will be a dark natural wood, and C# will be a much lighter natural wood.

The harpsicord makes a note by a plectrum called a "quill", mounted in a sliding apparatus called a "Jack", which is raised by the action of the key, causing the quill to "pluck" the string. The piano, on the other hand, strikes the string with a complex mechanism ending with a felt-covered hammer. The mechanism is called an "escapement", because it is designed to catch the hammer when it falls back and reset the mechanism for an immediate restrike without resetting all the way to the rest position. (The harpsichord jack, and therefore the key, must be able to fall far enough that the quill can 'reset' to restrike the note. The escapement mechanism is quite different between upright and grand pianos, but still more similar than either is to the Harpsichord's jack and quill arrangement.

The piano allows the hammer to strike the strings with different levels of force in direct proportion to the force that the player imparts to the key, while the harpsichord cannot be caused to pluck more vigorously or less vigorously. Because of this, the piano is capable of a great range of volume, and each note of the harpsichord is roughly the same volume, all the time. (Because of this, harpsichord players emphasized notes by adjusting timing, and increased the volume of notes by levers which added more sets of strings and jacks and quills to be plucked by each key.)

The piano's strings are thick and short and under high tension, causing the shorter ones to sound in a manner closer to bars of metal than strings. This causes the harmonics of the strings to be higher in pitch than they are on the harpsichord, so that octaves must be tuned sharper on the piano as you go up and flatter as you go down. This is called "stretch". If the harpsichord's A is tuned to 440 cycles per second, the next octave up's A will be 880 cycles per second. If the piano's A is tuned to 440 CPS, the next octave A will have to be tuned higher than 880, possibly as high as 881 or 882!

Prior to 1770 or so, the piano was practically non-existent (although another instrument, called the Clavichord, which struck the strings with a metal "tangent" which was mounted on the back end of the keys, existed. The clavichord was quiet, though, and can hardly be heard by modern concert-goers until after 15 minutes or so of utter silence!) So it is fairly safe to say that no music was written before then for the piano. The harpsichord went out of style nearly as fast as the piano came into style, so it is very rare to find music intentionally written for it after 1830-or-so. There are a very few modern compositions for harpsichord, and the majority of these are for film or TV scores, where the unusual-to-modern-ears sound of the harpsichord forms a characteristic backdrop to the scene in view.

A small harpsichord can be lifted easily by one man. The largest of them may require as many as 3 men to lift, but no heavy equipment. A modern upright piano of the smallest sort can be handled by one man with special devices, or two men without. The largest modern grand pianos cannot be lifted without the assistance of hydraulic lifting apparatus or chain-falls, and cannot be moved unless mounted on special large wheels even by 4 or 5 men.

Answer 2

They each have keyboards, and that's about it. Their sound is quite different as is their playing technique. The harpsichord makes sound by a quill plucking the strings ... the organ is a wind blown instrument - totally different.

Answer 3

All of them have a keyboard, are capable of producing at least 5 chromatic western scales (12 notes). All of them can be used with a pedal keyboard (the organ has it by default). They are all also capable of repeating a same note quickly.

Answer 4

Same note placement, same pitch,

keyboards don't usually have pedals, and pianos don't usually have volume control(unless it is an electric piano)

pianos have weighted keys, keyboards usually don't,

you can change the sound so the notes sound like different instruments on a keyboard,

sorry, i know most of these are difference's

Answer 5

Harpsichord was invented during the 15th century while the Piano relatively a new instrument built around the late 18th century. Unlike the Piano, the strings of the Harpsichord are plucked and not hammered.Harpsichord has a mechanism similar to the guitar plectrum that plucks the strings when the keys on the keyboard are pressed. Surprising the jack comes with a damper that stops playing the musical note when the key is released.Another peculiar thing about a Harpsichord is that the key stroke plucks two strings one at a time. The string arrangement is somewhat similar to the twelve string guitar. The keys architecture is the same for both,and the Harpsichord plucks it strings, the piano is percussive.

Answer 6

Only the sound is different. The keys architecture is the same for both.

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It's more than that. The Harpsichord plucks it strings, the piano is percussive.

Answer 7

They both have a wide range of notes.