History                 The creation of the first piano in the early 1700’s was at the hands of Bartolomeo Cristofori, a repairing craftsman for Italy’s royal court. He was born in Padua in the Republic of Venice and became recruited to work by Prince Ferdinando who was a devout fan of music. A mystery hides behind how the two met, historians postulate that Ferdinando ran into Cristofori while attending the Carnival in Padua. The prince was not only looking for a repairman, but also a potential innovator in the realm of instruments.                                                         http://www.torgny.biz/Tuning,%20regulation%20of%20the%20piano_3.htm          After Cristofori began work it didn’t take long for him to begin inventing new styles of keyboards, and then soon the first piano. The instrument closely resembled a harpsichord with a combination of dampers, hammers, two keyboards, and plays through a range of four octaves. Cristofori was credited as being an artistic genius from his ability to solve many puzzling technicalities that challenged up-and-coming piano designers. One of his pianos from 1722 rests comfortably at the Museo degli Strumenti Musicali in Rome. The ultimate grandpa of pianos!                                                        http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cris/hd_cris.htm         Both the piano and harpsichord are string instruments, but use different mechanisms to give off their melodic tunes. The piano strikes its strings with a small hammer while the harpsichord plucks the strings. The piano can hold and sustain a tone, which is a steady periodic sound.         As pianos became increasingly popular instruments, it led to the pursuit of improvements from many famous piano builders. The Industrial Revolution played a huge role in advancements, mostly from the invention of a high-quality piano wire made of steel and cast iron piano frames. As a result, the tonal range of pianos went from five octaves to seven or more.