A harpsichord, the predecessor of the piano, is played by the use of a keyboard, which has levers that a player presses to produce a sound. When the player presses one or more keys, this triggers a mechanism, which plucks one or more strings with a small quill.
The ancestor of the harpsichord, circa 1300, was most likely a handheld plucked instrument called the psaltery, which later had a keyboard added to it. The harpsichord was popular during the Renaissance and Baroque eras. Its popularity diminished with the development of the piano in 1700.