88 Grandiose Facts About Musical Instruments That’ll Move Your Heart

Most likely, the reason Stradivarius violins are awesome is because of climate change. The wood used in them is denser than most because it grew during the "Little Ice Age," which caused trees to grow more slowly than typical.

77. In a 2014 study in Paris, top violinists could not distinguish a Stradivarius from a new violin.

78. When the Soviet Union was pushing towards Berlin, an SS soldier was forced to play piano for his captors. They made it clear in sign language that he would be executed the moment he stopped. He played for 22 hours, after which he collapsed in tears. They congratulated him, then shot him.

79. 87 years ago, there was a day that the BBC had no news to report. So they just played piano music.

80. When Sun Ra (American jazz composer) played a gig at a mental hospital, it prompted a patient to talk for the first time in years. The patient walked directly to his piano, and said ‘Do you call that music?’

H. Jon Benjamin (voice of Archer and Bob from Bob's Burgers) has an entire jazz album where he plays piano, despite not knowing how to actually play the piano.

82. Boston scientists have discovered that it may be possible to learn complex tasks, such as mastering Kung-Fu or the Piano, with little to no conscious effort, just like in The Matrix.

83. Krystian Zimerman, a Polish pianist was going to play at Carnegie Hall shortly after 9/11 but his Steinway grand piano was confiscated at JFK Airport and later destroyed because the glue smelled like explosives.

84. Tim Storms has the deepest human voice. He can hum 8 octaves below the lowest G on the piano; so low that humans can't hear it.

85. When Beethoven went deaf, he composed his music by hacking the legs off his piano and sitting on the floor so he could feel the vibrations.

A 4chan prank resulted in VH1’s Save the Music program donating $10,000 to buy musical instruments for Boston's Horace Mann School for the Deaf.

87. In 2006, Paul Nelson and Andrew Hunter climbed Ben Navis mountain (Britian's highest mountain) and discovered a piano on top of it.

88. A man named Dominic Owen Mallary said he always wanted Andrew W.K. to play during his funeral. So when he died in 2008, Andrew W.K. went to the wake and played classical piano the entire time, after paying his respects.