The Piano: Percussion Or Strings? - Jerry Evans School Of Music

Today I’d like to tackle the age-old debate:  is the piano a percussion instrument or strings instrument?  According to the dictionary, a percussion instrument is a musical instrument (such as a drum, xylophone, or maraca) sounded by striking, shaking, or scraping.  A strings instrument is a musical instrument (such as a guitar, cello, or violin) that has strings and that produces sound when the strings are touched or struck.  These definitions apply to all of the instruments that typically fit into those instrument families.

A piano is a musical instrument having steel wire strings that sound when struck by felt-covered hammers operated from a keyboard.  Pianos have strings, but also hammers that strike those strings.  Many pianists have argued that the piano technically fits into both families, while others take sides.  Even other keyboards like the harpsichord and the organ are part of this debate!

Raluca Bojor, our own piano teacher, has a different opinion altogether:

“The piano belongs to a different category –keyboard instruments.  Other instruments that belong to this family are the organ, harpsichord, and the celeste.”

This stance has been growing in popularity, especially with the electric keyboards being so common.  Despite this, musicians do not necessarily recognize keyboards as their own instrument family.  The beauty of pianos and other keyboards is that they are a mixture of the different instrument families.

Piano Lessons with Raluca Bojor

We are blessed to have Raluca as an instructor at the JESM. We invite students from Wheaton, Carol Stream, Glen Ellyn, Lombard, Lisle, West Chicago, Naperville and the other suburbs of DuPage to contact us for their first lesson. Call us today at 630-359-7725 or email us at [email protected] to schedule your first lesson.