Harpsichord

A harpsichord is like a big piano that was popular a long, long time ago. Instead of having metal strings that get hit by hammers like a modern piano, it has thin pieces of metal in the shape of little hooks called "jacks" that pluck the strings when you press the keys. The harpsichord was really good at playing music that had a lot of fancy, intricate patterns that needed to be heard very clearly. Even though we have modern pianos now, the harpsichord still gets used sometimes in fancy or historical music.