Piano has long since been seen as a symbol for traditions, craftsmanship, and luxury. For centuries now, the design has mostly remained consistent. It has a wooden cabinet with 88 black & white keys along with a series of strings and hammers hidden inside it. Still, not all pianos follow this rule. Some creative creators and designers have broken from the norms to create instruments that are visually strange and unique. Today, we will be telling you about the strangest and most unique pianos ever made.

1. The Crystal Piano: A Million-Dollar Marvel

This is an unusual piano in the world, the Crystal Piano, featuring a body of acrylic glass. A Canadian manufacturer by the name of Heintzman designed it, who played it during the 2008 Beijing Olympics ceremony. It looks breathtaking at a single glance, as if sculpted from ice. The acrylic, unlike the wood, doesn’t absorb the vibrations. This results in cleaner and sharper tones. It does lack the warmth of the wooden body, but it certainly looks makes it hard to forget. It has also become the most expensive piano ever sold, with a price tag of 3 million dollars.

2. The Grand Piano That Plays Sideways

This is the ‘’Borgato L282’’, an Italian piano that is the total opposite of a traditional piano layout. It features a horizontal string alignment along with a set of additional vertical strings. This unique design gives it an expansive tonal range. The player will use the foot pedals to control this extra set of strings to blend two piano types in a single one, making it an ambitious grand piano design. This setup allows the piano to create symphonic-like textures by a single performer.

3. The Round Piano: A Circular Take on Tradition

The circular piano is a different approach to the standard piano shape. Instead of being straight or rectangular, the strings are arranged circularly around a central axis. This makes it resemble a flower or a spiral. The action mechanism is re-engineered so that each hammer will move inwards and towards the center. Strings are tensioned to a whole new geometry, which makes the vibrations shift to create more resonance across the soundboard. This is difficult to play and often serves more as a decorative piece rather than a playing instrument.

4. The Burning Piano: Performance Art Meets Music

This one is not a commercially available design, instead, it’s used as a theatrical piece for the performance arts. Annea Lockwood, one of the pioneer artists, introduced the idea of setting aflame an old broken piano. The pianist would then play the piano as it burns. The sound of the piano changes as its structure gets obliterated and the strings start to snap. The performance is not about a perfect rhythm or the pitch, it’s to offer raw transformation of material and sound. As the strings and soundboard start to degrade, the character of the sound changes to surreal and then to haunting.

5. The Gold Leaf Piano: Blending Luxury with Sound

This one’s a striking creation, often made on demand by interior designers for royal palaces and luxury hotels. It features 24-karat gold leaf wrapping, making them a statement of wealth as well as of music. The gold doesn’t affect the tone directly, but its thin layer over the wood cabinet does affect its weight and heat sensitivity of the outer shell. Temperature changes cause the shifts in tuning stability, especially for expansive large spaces. Such instruments are kept more for ceremonial use or show, instead of everyday performance.

6. The LEGO Piano: A Playful Twist on Engineering

This is a piece that offers a subtle blend of toys and instruments. This fully functional Lego piano has been a fan favorite for many years now. This piano is made entirely of Lego bricks, including its legs, frames, and parts of its key mechanism. Some of the versions are even motorized or feature MIDI connectivity with digital sound modules. The LEGO plastic is not sturdy, and so it cannot hold the brunt of full-tension piano strings. This is why the sound for them is simulated electronically.

7. The Vertical Grand Piano: An Optical Illusion

This one’s a truly clever design – a completely vertical grand piano. At first, it looks like a standard upright, but it has full string length and the soundboard of a grand piano. It is also tuned on the side and fits inside a tall cabinet. This hybrid design is easily accommodated within smaller spaces to give a rich tone of a grand piano. It has an advanced action system that mimics the grand hammer mechanism in responsiveness.

Conclusion

These 7 are the strangest and most unique pianos ever made – they are not what you see in music schools or concert halls. Still, they are a great representation of the imagination of what the piano can be. Whether it’s a bold design, luxury materials, or a change in design and internal mechanics, each of these pianos offers something fresh for the world of music.

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