The term “electronic keyboard” refers to any instrument that produces sound when keys are pressed or struck and uses electricity, in some way, to facilitate the creation of that sound. The use of an electronic keyboard to produce music follows an inevitable evolutionary line from the earliest keyboard musical instruments, the pipe organ, the harpsichord, and the harpsichord. The pipe organ is the oldest of these, initially developed by the Romans in the 3rd century BC. C., and called hydraulis. The hydraulis produced sound by forcing air through reed tubes and was powered by a manual water pump or a natural water source such as a waterfall.

From its first manifestation in ancient Rome until the 14th century, the organ remained the only keyboard instrument. It often featured no keyboard at all, instead using large levers or buttons that were operated with the whole hand.

The later appearance of the harpsichord and harpsichord in the 1300s was hastened by the standardization of the 12-tone keyboard of natural white keys and sharp/flat black keys found on all keyboard instruments today. The popularity of the harpsichord and harpsichord was eventually overshadowed by the development and widespread adoption of the piano in the 18th century. The piano was a revolutionary advance in acoustic musical keyboards because a pianist could vary the volume (or dynamics) of the sound the instrument produced by varying the force with which each key was struck.

The rise of electronic sound technology in the 18th century was the next essential step in the development of the modern electronic keyboard. The first electrified musical instrument was thought to be the Denis d’or (built by Vaclav Prokop Dovis), dating from around 1753. This was followed soon after by the “electric harpsichord” invented by Jean Baptiste Thillaie de Laborde around 1760 The ancient instrument consisted of more than 700 temporarily electrified strings to improve its sound qualities. The latter was a keyboard instrument with a plectrum, or plectrums, that were electrically activated.

While electrified, neither the Denis d’or nor the harpsichord used electricity as a sound source. In 1876, Elisha Gray invented an instrument called the “musical telegraph,” which was essentially the first analog electronic synthesizer. Gray discovered that she could control the sound of a self-vibrating electromagnetic circuit, so he invented a basic single-note oscillator. Her musical telegraph created sounds from the electromagnetic oscillation of steel reeds and transmitted them through a telephone line. Gray went on to incorporate a simple speaker in his later models that consisted of a diaphragm that vibrated in a magnetic field, making the pitch oscillator audible.

Lee De Forrest, the self-styled “Father of Radio”, was the next great contributor to the development of the electronic keyboard. In 1906 he invented the electronic triode valve or “audio valve”. The audion valve was the first thermionic valve or “vacuum tube”, and De Forrest built the first vacuum tube instrument, the “Audion Piano”, in 1915. The vacuum tube became an essential component of pianos. electronic instruments for the next 50 years until the emergence and widespread adoption of transistor technology.

The 1920s brought a host of new electronic instruments to the scene, including the Theremin, the Ondes Martenot, and the Trautonium.

The next big advance in the history of electronic keyboards came in 1935 with the introduction of the Hammond organ. The Hammond was the first electronic instrument capable of producing polyphonic sounds, and remained so until the invention of the Chamberlin Music Maker and the Mellotron in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Chamberlin and Mellotron were the first keyboards in playback of samples intended to make music.

The electronic piano made its first appearance in the 1940s with the Rhodes (later Fender Rhodes) “Pre-Piano”. This was a three and a half octave instrument made from 1946 to 1948 that came equipped with self-amplification. In 1955, the Wurlitzer Company introduced its first electric piano, “The 100”.

The rise of musical synthesizers in the 1960s gave a powerful impetus to the evolution of electronic musical keyboards that we have today. The earliest synthesizers were extremely large, unwieldy machines used only in recording studios. Technological advances and the proliferation of miniaturized solid-state components soon allowed the production of synthesizers that were self-contained portable instruments capable of being used in live performance.

This started in 1964 when Bob Moog produced his “Moog Synthesizer”. Lacking a keyboard, the Moog Synthesizer was not really an electronic keyboard. Then, in 1970, Moog debuted its “Minimoog”, a non-modular synthesizer with a built-in keyboard, and this instrument further standardized the design of electronic musical keyboards.

Most early analog synthesizers, such as the Minimoog and the Roland SH-100, were monophonic, capable of producing only one pitch at a time. Some, like the EML 101, ARP Odyssey, and Moog Sonic Six, could produce two different tones at once when two keys were pressed. True polyphony (the production of multiple simultaneous tones that allow chords to be played) could only be obtained, at first, using electronic organ designs. Several electronic keyboards were produced that combined organ circuitry with synthesizer processing. These included Moog’s Polymoog, Opus 3, and ARP Omni.

In 1976, further design advances allowed the appearance of polyphonic synthesizers such as the Oberheim Four-Voice and Yamaha’s CS-50, CS-60, and CS-80 series. The first truly practical polyphonic synthesizer, introduced in 1977, was the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5. This instrument was the first to use a microprocessor as a controller and also allowed all knob settings to be saved to computer memory and recalled simply by pressing a button. The Prophet-5 design soon became the new industry standard for electronic keyboards.

The adoption of the musical instrumental digital interface (MIDI) as the standard for the transmission of digital codes (which allows electronic keyboards to be connected to computers and other devices for input and programming) and the ongoing digital technological revolution have produced advances tremendous in all aspects of electronics. keyboard design, construction, function, sound quality and cost. Today’s manufacturers such as Casio, Yamaha, Korg, Rolland, and Kurzweil are now producing a host of well-built, lightweight, versatile, great-sounding, and affordable electronic keyboard musical instruments and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. . .