The piano is an instrument that dates back through the centuries; there is no debate about this statement. Nevertheless, there are several different views on what begins the history of the piano. In his book Pianos and Their Makers, Alfred Dolge begins with the monochord in 582 BC, used by Pythagoras. However, Ernest Closson begins his History of the Piano with the clavichord and devotes only five paragraphs to earlier influences. Everyone has their own interpretation of the history of the piano; however, an instrument is just a mechanical item without the music played on it. The modern piano is a strange mix of instrument types; it is both a percussion and stringed instrument. When a key is pressed, a hammer hits a string, producing the note. We know that percussion instruments such as drums were made as soon as we discovered written records and probably long before. However, it is more difficult to determine exactly what the stringed instruments sounded like. We have records found in the Bible that speak of harps and lyres, but there is no concrete knowledge of the tuning or style of music played; we can only guess using the few written sources that survive. We do, however, have drawings of the lyres and harps used. Harps used by the Assyrians for example were held or suspended against the player's chest while playing, which also allowed them to dance or walk easily during ceremonies. Conversely, Egyptian harps were made in different sizes and were either placed on the ground or placed on a stand. The player stood or crouched to play it in more intimate contexts. (Blom 8) The Greek lyre, however, was pinched compared to that of the harp...... middle of paper ......siconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/12420Creese, David. No. Internet. February 28, 2014. “Definition of the plectrum”. Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Internet. April 13, 2014. .Ripin, Edwin M., John Barnes, Alfons Huber, Beryl Kenyon de Pascual and Barry Kernfeld. "Clavichord." Grove Music Online. 2014. Hanning, Barbara Russano and Donald Jay Grout. Concise history of Western music. 4th. New York: WW Norton & Co Inc, 2010. print. Bach, Johann S. “NaxosMusicLibrary.com: Unauthorized.” Recent additions to the Naxos music library. Naxos Digital Services, nd Web. April 13. 2014.