Vanessa Carlton: Puzzle of the Day

[AisforAdrn]

http://www.kendenmead.com/2011/12/vanessa-carlton-a-google-a-day-puzzle-for-dec-22/



What? I have no idea what this is, and this question is really hard.

An orchestra or band may consist of as few as 50 players and as many as 100 plus. What percussion instrument can reproduce much of the scale of the orchestra by striking a steel string with a felt tipped hammer?

[Arwen]

Piano, maybe?

ETA: Has to be piano! From wiki:

Pressing a key on the piano's keyboard causes a felt-covered hammer to strike steel strings. The hammers rebound, allowing the strings to continue vibrating at their resonant frequency.

[sarab]

but is a piano a  "percussion instrument?"

[joey]

Surprisingly it is.

[AlexanderLaska]

I knew it was piano right when I saw "felt-tipped hammer."  If you open up a piano, you can see the little mallets striking the strings when you push down a key.  And yes, a piano is percussion because you hit the keys, and it's also technically a string instument because the vibrations of the steel strings is what's making the sound.

(I've been playing piano for a decade or so, so please forgive my complete geekiness haha)

[sarab]

I had always just thought of it as string.  good to know!