Editing Toy piano (section)

== History ==
Early toy pianos used glass bars to produce their sound, but Albert Schoenhut, son of a German toy-making family, introduced metal sounding bars to make the instrument more durable.<ref name=glass>{{cite web | url=http://www.philipglass.com/music/recordings/toy_piano.php | title=The art of the toy piano | publisher=Dunvagen Music Publishers | date=1997 | access-date=20 February 2015 | last=Leng Tan |first=Margaret | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150303185648/http://www.philipglass.com/music/recordings/toy_piano.php | archive-date=3 March 2015 | url-status=dead }}</ref> One popular model used metal xylophone bars, struck by a wooden sphere thrown up by the piano key to make its sound. In 1866 he was offered employment in Philadelphia, United States, to repair German toy pianos which had been damaged in transit. In 1872 he established the [[Schoenhut Piano Company]] to manufacture toy pianos, diversifying into other instruments.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.toypiano.com/about_history.asp|title=About Schoenhut: History|publisher=Schoenhut|access-date=17 June 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015220751/http://www.toypiano.com/about_history.asp|archive-date=15 October 2009}}</ref>  By 1917, Schoenhut produced a catalog showing 10 pages of upright and grand pianos of all shapes and sizes, with one page devoted to miniature piano stools alone. The models had nicknames beginning with "P", such as Packer, Padder, Papa and Poet. Keys were made of imitation ivory.{{citation needed|date=February 2015}} By 1935, Schoenhut had produced over 40 styles and sizes of toy piano, with prices ranging from 50 cents to 25 dollars.<ref name=glass />

In 1930, a toy piano metal rod design was patented by Alice Violet Bennett.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument?CC=GB&NR=325631A&KC=A&FT=D&ND=3&date=19300227&DB=worldwide.espacenet.com&locale=en_EP |title=Espacenet - Original document |publisher=Worldwide.espacenet.com |date=1930-02-27 |access-date=2014-05-12}}</ref>
   
During the 1950s, [[J. Chein & Company]] of Burlington, NJ manufactured the PianoLodeon, a child's piano remarkable for the fact that it operated by a mechanism closely related to an actual player piano. The child could play the keys or let a small piano roll take over, the metal rods being struck by hammers propelled by a vacuum driven by a blower.{{citation needed|date=February 2015}} In the 1960s, the Tomy Toy Company offered the Tuneyville Player Piano using organ music, in which air blows through pipes. The child can play the keys manually or insert a plastic disk to play a recognizable tune.{{citation needed|date=February 2015}}

By the 1950s, the toy piano market was dominated by two main toy piano makers: Jaymar and Schoenhut, counterparts to the Steinway and Baldwin for adult pianos. Wooden keys and hammers were replaced by moulded plastic ones. In the late 1970s, Schoenhut was acquired by Jaymar, although the two retained their distinct identities. Jaymar/Schoenhut experienced difficulty during the recession of the 1980s, folding and eventually re-emerging as the Schoenhut Piano Company in 1997.<ref name=glass />{{citation needed|reason=Additional or better source needed to cover all of the specific details present.|date=February 2015}} Today, Schoenhut Piano Company is still the leading manufacturer, with other toy piano manufacturers: Hering from Brazil, Zeada from China, and New Classic Toys from Netherlands.{{citation needed|date=February 2015}}

From 1939 to 1970, Victor Michel improved toy-piano conception. [[Michelsonne]] French toy-pianos are known for their uniquely distinctive sound.{{citation needed|date=February 2015}}

Launched in 2000, the annual Toy Piano Festival, held in [[San Diego]] at the [[University of California, San Diego]]'s Geisel Library, features a collection of toy pianos, recordings of compositions, and live performance of existing and new works written for toy pianos. The Festival influenced the Library of Congress to designate, in 2001, a dedicated subject heading and call number, Toy Piano Scores: M175 T69.<ref name=sdreader /><ref name="Friedman2005">{{cite book|last=Friedman|first=Jan|title=Eccentric California|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m5RItbVQZdIC|access-date=29 August 2011|date=1 September 2005|publisher=Bradt Travel Guides|isbn=978-1-84162-126-5|page=145}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://libraries.ucsd.edu/blogs/events/toy-piano-festival/ | title=Toy Piano Festival | publisher=University of California, San Diego Geisel Library | access-date=20 February 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/aug/27/uc-san-diego-toy-piano-festival/ | title=Toy Piano Festival not kidding around | newspaper=San Diego Union-Tribune | date=27 August 2013 | access-date=20 February 2015 | last=Chute | first=James}}</ref>