Where does this come from, and can I check it?

The escapement lets the felt head fall back so the string can ring freely. The figure is taken from Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a music fact?

Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

What else can I read about it?

The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

A piano hammer strikes and drops away instantly

The escapement lets the felt head fall back so the string can ring freely A felt covered wooden hammer swings up when a key is pressed and is released a millimetre before contact. Without that release the hammer would damp the string. A grand repeats a note faster than an upright because gravity helps the action reset. It sits in Mondo's music collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Britannica

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

Go further

Music trivia

More facts like this

Trumpet valves add short lengths of tubingThree valves give seven combinations and a full chromatic range A harp changes key with seven pedalsEach pedal shifts every string of one letter by a semitone A modern piano has 88 keysThat range developed in the nineteenth century as composers asked for more The piano was invented in Florence around 1700Bartolomeo Cristofori built the first one for the Medici court A piano has about 230 stringsIts 88 keys span just over seven octaves A grand piano carries around 20 tonnes of string tensionA cast iron plate holds the load so the case does not fold

Tags: piano, mechanism, action

A piano hammer strikes and drops away instantly: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: The escapement lets the felt head fall back so the string can ring freely. The figure is taken from Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a music fact?: Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.