Cristofori's fat success was in solving, without any prior example, the fundamental mechanical problem of piano design: Piano Lessons the hammer must strike the string, but not remain in contact with it (as a tangent remains in contact with a clavichord string) because this would damp the sound.

Almost every contempo piano has 36 black keys and 52 white keys for a total of 88 keys (seven octaves good point a piddling third, from A0 to C8). Abounding older pianos only have 85 keys (seven octaves from A0 to A7), while some manufacturers extend the range further in one or both directions.