Lesson 3: The Keyboard

A solid understanding of the principles of music theory requires a solid understanding of the piano keyboard. You may already have this solid understanding, but I'd recommend reading this lesson anyway.

Notice that a piano keyboard is a collection of white and black keys. Unless you are a being from another planet, you will know that pressing a key causes the piano's key mechanism to operate. This causes a small felt-covered hammer to strike a string (or set of strings) inside the piano, and you hear a sound.

It is the black keys that help you understand "where you are" on a keyboard. The black keys are grouped together in alternating groups of two and three. The note 'C' is the white note that is just to the left of each group of two black notes. Here is a piano keyboard with the white notes properly labeled:

Now, you've often heard that term 'MIDDLE C'. If you sit roughly at the middle of a piano and look down, you should be looking at MIDDLE C. As you can see there are several C's as you glance up and down the piano keyboard. The one in the middle is called MIDDLE C.

The naming of the black notes requires that you understand what sharps, flats and semitones are. In our western culture, the smallest space (interval) between two pitches is called a semitone. Looking at a piano keyboard, you will see that a semitone above the note 'B' is 'C'. That is because there is no note between them; therefore, the distance between 'B' and 'C' is one semitone. Similarly, the notes 'E' and 'F' are as close together as they can be: there is no note between them, so they are said to be one semitone apart..

Want more semitones? Look at the note 'C' (doesn't matter which one). The semitone above 'C' is that black note, the lowest of the group of two black notes. What do we call that note? We call it 'C-sharp'. So the answer to the question, "Tell me the name of the note that is one semitone higher than 'C'" is 'C-sharp'. What's the note that is one semitone higher than 'F'? 'F-sharp'! One semitone higher than 'A'? 'A-sharp'. Any black note can be named for the white note that is just below it in the manner just described.

Now, look at the note 'G'. The semitone down from that note would be the black note which is the lowest of the group of three black notes. We would call that note 'G-flat'. Did you notice? 'F-sharp' and 'G-flat' are the same pitch! All of the black notes on the piano keyboard have two different names. Give two names for the black note which is the middle of the group of three...The answer would be 'G-sharp' and 'A-flat'.

Here is a picture of a keyboard with all of the keys properly labeled, with a staff showing where each note is located. In printed music, we use this sign to indicate 'sharp':  , and this sign to indicate 'flat':  

Make sure you study this lesson carefully before going on to the quiz. The quiz requires you to fully understand the following:

Middle 'C'; semitone; sharp; flat; A complete understanding of the piano keyboard.