Piano Keyboard Layout
So, you bought yourself a keyboard. You’re not blind, and you can see that there are some keys that are white, and some keys that are black. But why are some piano keys black and some piano keys white? Why are piano keys arranged that way?
how the piano Keyboard Layout Works:
The White Keys:
The piano keyboard, whether you are playing on a tiny workstation with 12 keys to a full 88-key keyboard or piano, has a repetitive pattern of white keys and black keys.
If you focus your attention on the black keys, you will see that the pattern is two black keys, then three black keys, then two black keys, then three black keys, etc.
You can use this repeating pattern to orient yourself around the keyboard, as the note with the same name will be in the same spot in the pattern. In the image above, you see two iterations, or octaves, of this pattern. To the left of the two black key sets, you see the letter C in both sets. The white key to the left of the two black key set is always C. This holds true for every note, from A to G! Try it yourself! Try to find every C on the piano. Now try to find every E. Do so every day with different notes, and you’ll find that you’ll learn the piano keyboard layout in a week or so.
The Black Keys:
No, this isn’t a tribute to the Ohio rock duo. Though they are a fantastic and accomplished band, so you should check them out if modern rock is your thing.
The black keys are named by their proximity to the white keys. As you can see above, each black key has two names, a flat (b) name, and a sharp (#) name. If a black key is to the right of a white key, that black key is named by the white key name plus a sharp. If a black key is to the left of a white key, the black key is named by the white key name plus a flat.
For example, notice the very first black key in the image. It is named Db or C#. This is because it is to the right of the white key named C, and to the left of the white key named D.
That’s it! You now have enough information to name every key on the keyboard.
However, you may have a few questions, such as:
Why are there only 7 notes, and why do they repeat?
Why are there only some black notes, and not a black note between every white key?
Why do black keys have two names? Wouldn’t it be easier if they just had one? Why do I need to learn both?
The answers are ahead.
Why are there only 7 notes? — The A-G Note Loop:
In most western music, notes are named A-G. If you have studied music from other cultures, you may have also heard of the Do-Re-Mi system, the German/Scandinavian system where B is called H, or even the Indian system (sa-re-ga-ma-pa-da-ni). All these systems evolved independently and, over the course of history, it’s very probable that there were plenty of other naming conventions for musical notes. These are the ones that have survived and are still in use today.
The major scale, which is what most music is written in, consists of seven notes, and that is where the seven note names come from. Each one of the systems mentioned above consist of seven names, which fit to each note of the major scale. However, why do the notes loop?
This is because of physics.
Each note has a fundamental frequency, or pitch, that the string (in the case of piano) or whatever is vibrating to create the sound in an instrument is vibrating at. For example, all of today’s instruments are tuned to A4 (A in the fourth octave, or the fourth A on the keyboard), which by convention has been set at 440Hz.
Octaves
The next note of the same name is always double the frequency of the previous note. So, in this case, the frequency of A5, the next A, is 880Hz. The next A, A6, vibrates at 1760Hz. This explains why the difference in frequency between A1 and B1 is only 6.7Hz, while the difference between A6 and B6 is a staggering 215Hz! This fundamental property is why the iteration of notes has been set up in this way. This distance (the distance between one note and the next note of the same name) is called an octave, which is because there are 8 notes in an octave.
Fifth
The next interval that is as important as the octave is the fifth. Examples of fifths include C-G, D-A, E-B, F-C, G-D, etc. You can find a fifth on the keyboard by picking a note , and finding the note five letters away. For example, starting from C, you just count to five, which would be C, D, E, F, G. From D, it would be D, E, F, G, A. So, D-A is also a fifth. Try to find a fifth from every note!
The reason this interval is important is because of the relationship between the frequencies. Let’s use A4 again. Its frequency is 440Hz, and the frequency of the note a fifth away, E4, is 660Hz, which is exactly 1.5, or 3:/2, times as much. This holds true for every fifth.
Fourth
The next interval is the fourth. Examples include C-F, D-G, etc. Using A4 again, the frequency of the note a fourth away, the note D4, is about 587Hz, which is exactly 1.333, or 4:/3, time as much.
If you’ve been paying attention, and trying to find a few of each interval, you’ll have found that each interval has a specific sound, regardless of the note you start from. This way, you can tell when you have calculated the interval incorrectly – it sounds wrong, doesn’t it? This is because when two frequency waves mix, which is what happened when you play more than one note at a time, they have an interaction, which either sounds consonant (pleasant) or dissonant (unpleasant) to you. Notes that have frequencies that mix in whole ratios such as octaves (2:1), fifths (3:2), and fourths (4:3) are pleasant, and frequencies that mix in less neat ratios will sound dissonant.
This particular system of dividing the octave into twelve notes (this counts the 7 white keys and 5 black keys) has proliferated across the whole world, but the reason why the notes loop in this way is because of the way that the frequencies of each note interact. Keep reading to find out where the 12-tone system came from.
Why are there Only Five Black Keys on a keyboard?
The most important thing to know when you look at a piano is that although the white keys have letter names and black keys are named by their relationship to the nearest white keys, they are just button. The particular organization is just there to make it easier to both see where you are on the keyboard, as well as play (our hands are only so big – feel how much you have to stretch to play an octave now, imagine if all the buttons were wide white keys without little black keys in between – it would be impossible to stretch to a whole octave).
What is the 12-tone system?
The 12-tone system comes from repeated application of the relationship between two notes in a fifth. If you multiply a frequency by 3:2 twelve times, you get very close to a note seven octaves away. This covers each of the 12 notes. Try it yourself! Pick a note low down on the keyboard and go up by exact fifths – in 12 fifths you’ll be back to the same note you started from. Here is the formula:
(3/2)^0 = 1
(3/2)^1 = 1.5
(3/2)^2 = 1.125 (after dividing by 2, to go down an octave)
(3/2)^3 = 1.6875 (after dividing by 2)
(3/2)^4 = 1.2656 (after dividing by 4, to go down two octaves)
(3/2)^5 = 1.8984 (after dividing by 4)
(3/2)^6 = 1.4238 (after dividing by 8, to go down three octaves)
(3/2)^7 = 1.0678 (after dividing by 16, to go down four octaves)
(3/2)^8 = 1.6018 (after dividing by 16)
(3/2)^9 = 1.2013 (after dividing by 32, to go down five octaves)
(3/2)^10 = 1.8020 (after dividing by 32)
(3/2)^11 = 1.3515 (after dividing by 64, to go down six octaves)
(3/2)^12 = 1.0136 (after dividing by 128, to go down seven octaves)
the equal temperament system
In today’s system, called the equal temperament system, the ratio used for fifths is actually closer to 2^(7/12)=1.49..., slightly less than 3:/2, and 12 repetitions of this ratio gets us exactly back to where we started (after dropping down 7 octaves). The reason that this system is used now is because using exactly 3:/2 starts to get a little off when you compare one of the lower notes to a higher note, which doesn’t sounds very good when you have ensembles of instruments where one instrument is playing high and another low. The equal temperament system works much better for ensembles, which is why it is still in use today.
the emergence of new piano notes
Ok, so you’ve read all this math, but it still doesn’t answer why those particular black keys were chosen. This is because the major scale was used long before note names were invented. Note names began as somewhat modular – people familiar with the movable “Do” system used in music education in America today will find this as review – but basically the first note of the scale was always “Do”, regardless of what frequency you started with. Then you just name the next six notes of the scale until you get to an octave away, at which point you just start from “Do” again.
This is the way that the note names used to work – with the only notes being whole letter names, without sharps, or flats.
Over time, as people started writing music in keys other than the major scale, more note names were required – so those notes started being in relation to the notes of the major scale already in existence, and with the 12-note system proliferating throughout western music, you arrived at the system we use today, with five black (or sharp/flat) keys and seven white keys.
Why do black piano keys have two names?
The reason why they have two names is because sharp and flat aren’t just names, they are actions – to flat something means to go lower, and to sharp something means to go higher. Think about in movies and TV where you have scenes where two people are singing and they disagree on who is singing wrong (you’re flat! No, you’re sharp!). One of them thinks the other person is singing too high (you’re sharp!) and the other one thinks the other person is singing too low (you’re flat!). Major keys require one of each note, so if you take the key of F major (which contains the notes F, G, A, Bb, C, D, and E) you can see that it wouldn’t make sense to call the Bb an A#, because then you would have two notes named A and no notes named B.
important notes for learning the piano keyboard
The most important takeaways from this article are:
· The piano keyboard is a repeating series of the notes A-G
· The black keys are named for their relationship to the closest white keys
· All the keys are just buttons, each step is equidistant to the one next to it regardless of if it is a black or white key
· There are several naming conventions for the notes, but A-G is the one in use in Western music today
That’s it! Now you’re able to find and name any key on the keyboard. All that’s left is to learn some music. And the best way to do that – learn to read sheet music.
Of course, if you’d like an even more in-depth explanation or the assistance of an expert piano instructor as you begin to learn the piano keyboard layout and read sheet music, you can always schedule a music lesson at our piano school near Arlington!