Keyboard instruments appeared quite a long time ago and gained enormous distribution. They are characterized by a keyboard sound system using special levers. As a reference, you need to clarify that such tools have a keyboard - an ordered set of keys arranged in a strictly defined order.
Keyboard instruments have a rather rich history that dates back to the distant Middle Ages. By right, one of the first such devices is considered to be an organ. The first organs were equipped with special valves. They had large dimensions and were extremely uncomfortable. The valves were quickly replaced by levers, which were still not pleasant enough to push. Already in the eleventh century, levers were replaced by wide keys. They could even be pressed with a hand. However, comfortable, narrow keys familiar to contemporaries appeared only in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Therefore, the first keyboard musical instrument with a modern system of keys is an organ.
One more ancient instrument can and should be called the clavichord. If the organ is basically based on pipes for sound extraction and can be considered to some extent wind, then clavichords are the first stringed keyboard instruments. They appeared between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Unfortunately, even music researchers and historians cannot provide more accurate dates. The clavichord device resembles a modern piano. It is characterized by a soft, quiet sound. Clavichord is rarely used when playing for large audiences. Since such keyboards are quite compact, they were often played at home. Rich people and nobles preferred to play music on small “home” clavichords. Especially for such instruments, wonderful musical works of such famous Baroque composers as Mozart, Beethoven, Bach were created.
One cannot but mention such keyboard musical instruments as harpsichords. They appeared in the fourteenth century in Italy. Harpsichords are plucked-type keyboards. The sound is extracted due to the fact that the string is plucked by the mediator at the moment when the key is pressed. In the Middle Ages, a pick was made from a bird feather. Harpsichord strings are already parallel to the keys, unlike a piano or clavichord. His sound is sharper and fainter. Harpsichord was often used as an accompaniment in chamber music. In many cases, this tool was considered even as a decor element.
Naturally, one cannot fail to mention such an instrument as a piano. It was designed in Italy at the beginning of the eighteenth century. It was the piano that helped the keyboard instruments withstand the competition with the violin. The impressive range and dynamics have raised it to a high level of popularity. Inventor Bartholomew Christophie gave the name to this instrument, saying that he can play "both loudly and quietly." The principle of operation of the piano is simple: when you hit the key, the hammer is activated, which makes a certain string vibrate.