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{{Short description|Musical instrument played using a keyboard}}
[[File:D274.jpg|thumb|The [[piano]], a common keyboard instrument]]
[[File:Hammond b3 con leslie 122.jpg|thumb|[[Hammond organ]] with part of a [[Leslie speaker]] shown]]
[[File:Bandoneonphoto3.jpg|thumb|[[Bandoneon]]]]
A '''keyboard instrument''' is a [[musical instrument]] played using a [[musical keyboard|keyboard]], a row of levers that are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the [[piano]], [[organ (music)|organ]], and various [[electronic keyboard]]s, including [[synthesizer]]s and [[digital piano]]s. Other keyboard instruments include [[celesta]]s, which are struck [[idiophone]]s operated by a keyboard, and [[carillon]]s, which are usually housed in [[bell tower]]s or belfries of churches or municipal buildings.<ref name="kelzenberg">{{cite web |last=Kelzenberg |first=David |title=What are Historical Keyboard Instruments? |url=http://www.mhks.org/whatare.htm |access-date=2012-10-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130212121344/http://www.mhks.org/whatare.htm |archive-date=2013-02-12}}</ref>

Today, the term ''keyboard'' often refers to keyboard-style [[synthesizer]]s and arrangers as well as work-stations. These keyboards typically work by translating the physical act of pressing keys into electrical signals that produce sound. Under the fingers of a sensitive performer, the keyboard may also be used to control [[Dynamics (music)|dynamics]], [[Phrase (music)|phrasing]], shading, [[Articulation (music)|articulation]], and other elements of expression—depending on the design and inherent capabilities of the instrument.<ref name="kelzenberg" /> Modern keyboards, especially digital ones, can simulate a wide range of sounds beyond traditional piano tones, thanks to advanced sound synthesis techniques and digital sampling technology.

Another important use of the word ''keyboard'' is in historical musicology, where it means an instrument whose identity cannot be firmly established. Particularly in the 18th century, the [[harpsichord]], the [[clavichord]], and the early piano competed, and the same piece might be played on more than one. Hence, in a phrase such as "Mozart excelled as a keyboard player", the word ''keyboard'' is typically all-inclusive.

The term keyboard classifies instruments based on how the performer plays the instrument, and not on how the sound is produced. Categories of keyboard instruments include the following families (of which this is only a partial list):
*'''[[aerophone]]s''' ([[pipe organ]], [[pump organ]], [[accordion]]);
*'''[[idiophone]]s''' ([[celesta]], [[carillon]], [[glasschord]]);
*'''[[String instrument|chordophones]]''':
**''[[plucked string instrument]]s'' ([[harpsichord]], [[tangent piano]], [[lautenwerck]]);
**''[[bowed string instrument]]s'' ([[hurdy-gurdy]], [[bowed clavier]]);
**''[[percussion instrument#Chordophone|struck string instruments]]'' ([[clavichord]], [[piano]]);
*'''[[Electronic musical instrument|electrophones]]''' ([[electric piano]]s, [[Electric organ|electric]] and [[Electric organ#Electronic organs (1930s–)|electronic organs]], [[synthesizer]]s, [[mellotron]]).

== History ==
{{see also|History of keyboard instruments}}
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| caption = Late 4th century AD "Mosaic of the Female Musicians" from a [[Byzantine]] villa in [[Maryamin, Hama|Maryamin]], [[Syria]].
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}}{{See|Piano history and musical performance}}
The earliest known keyboard instrument was the Ancient Greek [[hydraulis]], a type of [[pipe organ]] invented in the third century BC.<ref name="Apel Tischler 1997 p. 9">{{cite book |last=Apel |first=W. |last2=Tischler |first2=H. |title=The History of Keyboard Music to 1700 |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-253-21141-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rRvj70n4yY0C&pg=PA9 |access-date=2019-03-25 |page=9 |quote=According to almost unanimous reports, Ctesibios, a Greek engineer who lived in Alexandria during the 3rd century B.C., was the inventor of the first organ, the so-called hydraulis.}}</ref> The keys were likely balanced and could be played with a light touch, as is clear from the reference in a Latin poem by [[Claudian]] (late 4th century), who says ''magna levi detrudens murmura tactu . . . intonet,'' that is "let him thunder forth as he presses out mighty roarings with a light touch" (''Paneg. Manlio Theodoro,'' 320–22). From its invention until the fourteenth century, the organ remained the only keyboard instrument. Often, the organ did not feature a keyboard at all, but rather buttons or large levers operated by a whole hand. Almost every keyboard until the fifteenth century had seven [[natural (music)|naturals]] to each octave.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/keyboard-instrument|title=Keyboard instrument|website=Encyclopedia Britannica }}</ref>

The [[clavicymbalum]], [[clavichord]], and the [[harpsichord]] appeared during the fourteenth century—the clavichord probably being earlier. The harpsichord and clavichord were both common until the widespread adoption of the piano in the eighteenth century, after which their popularity decreased. The first template for the modern piano was introduced in 1698 in Italy by [[Bartolomeo Cristofori]] as the ''gravicèmbalo con piano e forte'' ("harpsichord with soft and loud"), also shortened to ''pianoforte'', as it allowed the pianist to control the dynamics by adjusting the force with which each key was struck. In its current form, the piano is a product of further developments made since the late nineteenth century and is distinct in both sound and appearance from the instruments known to earlier pianists, including [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]], [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]], and [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]].<ref name="kelzenberg" /> Beginning in the twentieth century, early electromechanical instruments, such as the [[Ondes Martenot]], began to appear as well. Later in the 20th century, [[electronic keyboard]]s appeared.

== See also ==
* [[Enharmonic keyboard]]
* [[Hammered dulcimer]]
* [[Keyboard percussion instrument|Keyboard percussion]]
* [[Musical keyboard]]
* [[Orchestrina di camera]]
* [[List of keyboard instruments]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* Young, Percy M. ''Keyboard Musicians of the World''. London: Abelard-Schuman, 1967. ''N.B''.: Concerns celebrated keyboard players and the various such instruments used over the centuries. {{ISBN|0-200-71497-X}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Keyboard instruments}}
*[http://www.bikexprt.com/music/bosanqet.htm The general keyboard in the age of MIDI]
*[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/renk/hd_renk.htm Renaissance Keyboards] on the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, [[The Metropolitan Museum of Art]]
*[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cris/hd_cris.htm The Pianofortes of Bartolomeo Cristofori] on the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, [[The Metropolitan Museum of Art]]

{{Instrument tunings}}
{{Musical keyboards}}

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[[Category:Keyboard instruments| ]]
[[Category:Amplified instruments]]
[[Category:Electric musical instruments]]
[[Category:Electronic musical instruments]]