DDEX Data Dictionary, 19-12-03

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Intro

Keyboard

Any instrument primarily distinguished by its use of the Western musical keyboard.

Relationships
Parents	Instrument	A musical instrument.
Children	Organ	Keyboard instrument which produces sound by blowing air through pipes or across reeds.
	Piano	Keyboard instrument with chromatic keys which, when pressed, move hammers to hit strings in the body of the instrument. There are also foot pedals for dampening and sustaining the sound.
	StringedKeyboardInstrument	A keyboard Instrument with strings.
Instances	AcousticKeyboard	Keyboard instrument which produces sound by plucking or striking strings.
	Celesta	Soft and twinkly-sounding small 3-5 octave keyboard in which hammers strike steel bars placed over wooden resonators.
	Chamberlin	Developed by Wisconsin inventor Harry Chamberlin and produced from 1956 up to the early 80s. An innovative keyboard instrument with key-triggered tape heads that activate and play back seconds-long clips of instrument recordings. Harry Chamberlin recorded most of the sounds himself in his home studio. Only officially distributed in the US and Canada. The famous Mellotron was developed as a somewhat illicit copy of Chamberlin instruments brought to the UK by a Chamberlin salesman. The Chamberlin can be heard on David Bowie's Low, as well as on many other major recordings from the 60s and 70s.
	Dulcitone	Keyboard instrument designed in the 1860s. It produces sound with felt hammers which strike pitched tuning forks.
	ElectricPiano	Keyboard instrument in which struck strings, reeds, or tines are electronically amplified.
	Mellotron	Keyboard instrument that reads tape loops of recorded instruments to generate sound. It also has preset loops of full bands. The Mellotron was developed in 1963 as a somewhat illicit copy of tape-based Chamberlin instruments stolen and brought to the UK by a Chamberlin salesman. Prominently featured on 'Strawberry Fields Forever' by The Beatles and 'Space Oddity' by David Bowie, in addition to many other rock recordings of the 60s and 70s.
	Optigan	Consumer-focused keyboard instrument produced in the 1970s by Optigan Corporation, a subsidiary of Mattel. Plastic discs could be loaded in, from which preset accompaniments and sounds could be played. Despite its intention for the consumer market, sounds recorded for and on the Optigan have found their way into many professional recordings, including recordings by Fiona Apple and Blur, and the soundtrack to the third season of David Lynch's Twin Peaks.
	Pianet	Electric piano produced by Hohner from the 60s through the 80s. There are two primary designs, those prior to 1977, and those from 1977 to the end of production. The earlier models feature stainless steel reeds for producing sound, variable capacitance pick-ups, and leather activation pads. The later models feature rolled spring-steel reeds, electro-magnetic pick-ups, and molded silicone rubber activation pads. It can be heard on recordings such as 'Let It Be' by The Beatles and 'Joy to the World' by Three Dog Night.
	Rhodes	Keyboard instrument with hammer-struck metal tines which are amplified via an electromagnetic pickup plugged into an external amplifier and speaker. The first proper Fender Rhodes was released in the mid-1960s, as an improvement on an earlier design that Harold Rhodes created to provide an affordable keyboard for the military to use in therapy for recovering soldiers. The Fender Rhodes has a warm, distinctive sound that has played a major role in jazz since the late 1960s, and which has been prominently used by other popular artists and bands such as Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, and Steely Dan.
	SampledKeyboard	Any keyboard instrument which produces sound by playing back recorded samples when keys are pressed.
	ToyPiano	Small piano meant to be played by children, with sound produced by small pitched metal rods instead of strings.
	VakoOrchestron	Developed as a professional version of the Optigan (a consumer-focused organ which reads optical discs containing instrument and band recordings to produce sound). The Orchestron's violin sounds can be prominently heard on Foreigner's 'Cold as Ice'. Compared to the more popular and common Chamberlin and Mellotron, the Orchestron is known primarily for its low fidelity and murky atmospheres.
Belongs to AVS	avs:InstrumentType	A Type of musical instrument.

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