A thin surface on a wooden key
An old piano key was not a solid piece of tusk. Its white playing surface was typically a thin ivory covering attached to a wooden key, which pivots like a small lever when pressed. The ivory covered the top and, on many keys, the front edge—the part a player’s fingers could see and touch.
That arrangement made use of a costly material without making each key entirely from it. Ivory could be cut and shaped into smooth, pale pieces, while the wood beneath supplied the key’s structure. Its fine surface also gave the keys a distinctive feel under the fingers, helping make the material part of the instrument’s familiar image as well as its construction.
From material to expression
As plastics became practical for piano manufacture, makers could produce white key surfaces without using tusk. Older pianos, however, may still have ivory coverings, while many newer instruments use plastic. The change reflects a broader shift in what piano keys are made from—not a change in how the keyboard works.
“Tickling the ivories” survives because the material name outlasted the material itself. It turns a row of keys into a vivid image: a pianist’s fingers lightly moving across a surface that once came from an animal tusk.
