A clavichord is an old keyboard instrument, from the years before the piano was common. You press keys, and tiny pieces of metal tap the strings. The sound is very soft — quieter than a piano, quieter than a harpsichord — so people kept it at home for practice and private music, not for a big hall. It was loved in Europe from about the 1400s through the 1700s. Though actually, it is not “a small piano.” The piano came later, and the two hit the string in different ways. Today you mostly meet a clavichord in early-music concerts, museums, or recordings that try to sound as Bach might have heard at home.

擊弦古鋼琴、古鍵琴（別和大鍵琴 harpsichord 搞混：大鍵琴是撥弦、聲音較亮）