The piano is often wrongly identified as a member of the string family – this is incorrect. As the sound from a piano is created by a hammer hitting the strings it is a percussion instrument (or chordophone, to give it its technical name).
The piano has a range of instrument-specific instructions. These include:
| una corda | Press the left pedal |
| tre corde | Release the left pedal |
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Press the right pedal |
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Release the right pedal |
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Press the right pedal at the letter ‘P’ and release the pedal at the end of the bracket |
| mano | hand |
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Spread the notes of a chord quickly, starting from the bottom, in order, to the top |