The electric grand piano is a stringed musical instrument played using a keyboard, in which the vibration of strings struck by hammers is converted by pickups into electrical signals, analogous to the electric guitar's electrification of the traditional guitar.
Since electric amplification eliminates the need for a resonant chamber, electric grand pianos are smaller and lighter (around 300 pounds (140 kg)), and consequently more portable, than acoustic pianos. Electric amplification also bypasses the difficulty of having to mic a conventional grand piano, and thus makes an electric grand easier to set up with a sound system.
Experimental efforts to electrify the grand piano began in the late 1920s with the Neo-Bechstein. In 1939, the first commercially available model, the RCA Storytone, was introduced. These instruments featured the traditional hammered-string mechanism with pickups instead of a soundboard. In subsequent decades, other instruments now referred to as electric pianos were developed and saw wider use; these differ from electric grand pianos in that they produce sound by hammers striking metal tuning forks or reeds rather than strings. In the 1970s, hammered-string electric pianos returned to commercial production, beginning with Yamaha's CP-70 and CP-80, followed by models by Kawai Musical Instruments and Helpinstill.
In the 1980s, with the advent of the digital piano, the electric grand piano declined in popularity, and production ultimately ceased. The electric grand sound survives as part of the official General MIDI specification, with most instrument manufacturers licensing the CP-70 and/or -80 sound from Yamaha.
In 1939, U.S. dance band leader Shep Fields was using an RCA Storytone with his ensemble.[5]
Keane uses the Yamaha CP-70, and is band member Tim Rice-Oxley's primary instrument.[6] Lead singer Tom Chaplin also used a Yamaha CP-60, a smaller and upright variant of the CP-70, during the Under The Iron Sea era of the band. Swedish soloartist Jack L. Stroem and the band Tokyo Keys also uses the CP-70 (with guitar effects pedals and amplifiers) as an integral component of its sound. Michael Curtes of Polite Sleeper plays a CP-70B as his primary keyboard in live performances.
Tony Banks of Genesis used a Yamaha CP-70 from 1978 to the late 1980s in the band's music and his solo work, as did his bandmates Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel in their respective solo careers.
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Wolfgang Voigt (1988). "Oskar Vierling, ein Wegbereiter der Elektroakustik für den Musikinstrumentenbau". Das Musikinstrument. 37 (1/2): 214–221. (2/3): 172-176.
^"Off The Stand Jive." Down Beat, September 1939, 12.
^Ashworth, Steven (2008). Learn to Play Keyboards. Chartwell Books. p. 241. ISBN978-1-610-58368-8.
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