The pianoforte is a keyboard instrument. The sound is produced by pressing on keys which move little hammers, making them strike against stretched metal strings. For this reason the pianoforte can be grouped as either percussion or a string instrument.

The pianoforte took several hundred years to perfect. Its ancestors include the spinet, the clavichord, the virginals and the harpsichord. The man generally regarded as having invented the pianoforte was an Italian called Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731). He called his instrument the ‘gravecembalo that played quietly and loudly’ (piano and forte). The loudness of the sound could be controlled by the pressure of the fingers striking the keys. Pedals were then added to the instrument to control its sound quality. The hammers, which had been previously covered in leather, were later covered in soft felt. These innovations and improvements helped to make the pianoforte much superior in range and quality of sound to other instruments of this group.