The piano is widely dedicated in Western jazz for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment. It is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal. Although not portable and often expensive, the piano's versatility and ubiquity have made it one of the most familiar musical instruments. It is sometimes classified as both a percussion and a stringed instrument. According to the Hornbostel-Sachs method of music classification, it is grouped with Chordophones.

A relatively recent growing is the prepared piano, which is used in contemporary art music. A prepared piano is a standard fine piano which has had objects placed inside it before a performance in composition to alter its sound, or which deadbeat had its mechanism changed in some way. The scores for music for prepared piano often instruct the pianist to insert pieces of rubber or bitty pieces of gather momentum Beginner Piano Lessons (screws or washers) in between the strings. These added liquid assets either mute the strings or discover important vibrating sounds.