Rhodes piano

Mark I, 73-key "stage" model, 1970.

The Rhodes piano is an early electromechanical piano invented by Harold Rhodes which saw a lot of use in 1970s jazz, soul, and rock music. Like a conventional piano, pressing a key moves a hammer, however, unlike a piano with strings, the hammer strikes thin metal tines which are amplified via an electromagnetic pickup plugged into an external keyboard amplifier and speaker. This novel method of generating tones gives the instrument a very unique timbre, and, because it is mechanical, each piano will have a slightly different sound.

The piano was developed by Harold Rhodes who based it on a small teaching piano he built in 1946. In 1959, Rhodes entered a joint-venture with Fender and built a 32-key "Piano Bass." In 1965, the company was sold to CBS, and they released the full-sized 73-key Mark I model. In 1970, a stage model was made, in 1972 an 88-key model was made, and, in 1979, the Mark II was released. The Rhodes fell out of favor in popular music during the 1980s as synthesizers became more popular (the Yamaha DX7 even had a patch that simulated the Rhodes), and the last model to be made under CBS was the Mark V in 1984. In 1985, the company was closed down and sold to Roland in 1987 who released the MK 80 which Harold Rhodes did not contribute to or approve of. Harold Rhodes bought back the rights from Roland in 1997, but, due to poor health, he was unable to release a new model before he died in 2002. The Mark 7 was released in 2007.

Personal

Although I grew up in a family where music was frequently played, and I heard plenty of songs which used the Rhodes piano, nobody in my family was trained in instrumentation, so I never knew much about the technical details of music or how to identify the sound. I remember seeing the term "Rhodes" on synthesizers, but I didn't know what that meant. As an adult, I noticed that I really enjoyed the sound of electric pianos, and, after seeing the term Rhodes again, I decided to research it to get a better ear for the keyboard's timbre.

Songs

Songs in this table feature the Rhodes piano. Obviously, there are many more songs, but these are the ones I'm familiar with.

In song credits, the specific model of Rhodes is almost never credited, in fact, they commonly use the term "electric piano," which makes it difficult to distinguish the Rhodes from other electronic keyboards like the Wurlitzer, or synthesizers simulating a Rhodes.

Title	Artist	Player	Published	Example
Angela (Theme from Taxi)	Bob James	Bob James	1978-07-20	Link
Babe	Styx	Dennis DeYoung	1979-09-??	Link
Dreams	Fleetwood Mac	Christine McVie	1977-03-24	Link
Get Back	The Beatles	Billy Preston	1969-04-11	Link
Just the Way You Are	Billy Joel	Billy Joel	1977-09-29	Link
Killing Me Softly with His Song	Roberta Flack	Roberta Flack	1973-08-01	Link
My Slumbering Heart	Rilo Kiley	Jenny Lewis	2002-10-01	Link
Riders on the Storm	The Doors	Ray Manzarek	1971-04-??	Link
Shake a Tail Feather (The Blues Brothers soundtrack)	Ray Charles	Ray Charles	1980-06-20	Link
Sheep	Pink Floyd	Richard Wright	1977-01-23	Link

Media

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  The "stage" model of the Mark I with 73 keys, produced in 1970.

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  The "stage" model of the Mark I with 88 keys, produced in 1972.

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  A Rhodes recreation with a clear top to expose the hammers and metal tines.

Links