Keyboard
Piano
- Family
- Keyboard
- Range
- A0–C8 (sounding), standard 88 keys
- Its role
- Solo, chamber, accompaniment and composition.
- Technique
- Pedals, voicing and hand independence.
- Practice
- Balance the melody against the accompaniment.
Pipe organ
- Family
- Keyboard
- Range
- Depends on the instrument: manuals, pedals and stops
- Its role
- Sustained polyphony in church and concert hall.
- Technique
- Stops, manuals and pedalboard.
- Practice
- Coordinate pedal technique with registration.
Harpsichord
- Family
- Keyboard
- Range
- Varies; commonly about five octaves (about F1–F6)
- Its role
- Plucked keyboard tone central to early music.
- Technique
- Articulation and registration; touch barely changes the volume.
- Practice
- Shape phrases with timing and articulation.
Celesta
- Family
- Keyboard
- Range
- C4–C8 (sounding) on the common five-octave model; written an octave lower
- Transposition
- Sounds an octave higher than written
- Its role
- Bell-like orchestral keyboard color.
- Technique
- Felt hammers strike steel bars; a damper pedal.
- Practice
- Keep attacks even and pedal with care.
Synthesizer
- Family
- Keyboard
- Range
- Depends on the controller and the patch
- Its role
- Programmable electronic sound source.
- Technique
- Oscillators, filters, envelopes and MIDI.
- Practice
- Shape the sound on purpose rather than relying on presets.
Accordion
- Family
- Keyboard
- Range
- Varies with the model and its reed sets
- Its role
- Portable free-reed keyboard with expressive bellows.
- Technique
- Bellows, buttons and the bass system.
- Practice
- Match bellows pressure to the phrasing.
Other chapters: Strings · Woodwinds · Brass · Percussion · Voice · Global and Contemporary
Ranges are a guide. They vary with the player, the instrument and the style, and a voice type is never decided from a range chart alone. Ranges are given in sounding pitch unless the entry says otherwise.
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