The piano or, (1) **in** its full name, the pianoforte has played a central role in European music since the early 1700s. Its development can be traced back to an Italian harpsichord maker, Bartolomeo Cristofori. Cristofori (2) **had** (3) **for** a long time wanted to combine the mechanisms of two different (4) **instruments**: the dulcimer, which relies on strings and hammers to produce its sound, and the harpsichord, (5) **where** music is produced through a keyboard.

In 1709 Cristofori worked out that this could be done successfully, and the piano was born. The piano player (6) **presses** a key on the keyboard, which (7) **makes** a hammer strike a string, producing a note. The idea seems obvious to us today, but in 1709 it was revolutionary.

The piano quickly became extremely popular, and (8) **improvements** continued to be made to it. Foot pedals were (9) **added** at the end of the eighteenth century. Although pianos have been (10) **built** in a wide variety of different shapes and sizes, today there are really only two main types of piano, the Grand and the Upright.