Understanding The Piano Keyboard

A standard piano keyboard has 88 keys: 52 white keys and 36 black keys. Each key plays a specific note, and the keyboard arranges these notes into a pattern.

The Piano’s Repeating 12-Note Pattern

A piano keyboard contains seven groups of 12 notes each. Each group is made up of seven white keys and five black keys. Within a group, each key has a unique note. This pattern of notes is then repeated in each of the seven groups.

Though the notes within each group are identical in letter name, they are higher or lower in pitch depending on the group’s location on the keyboard. The farther to the left a group sits on the keyboard, the lower in pitch the notes it contains will be.

The Other Four Keys

Seven groups of 12 notes each make up a total of 84 keys, but a piano keyboard contains a total of 88 keys. Two additional keys at either end of the piano account for these final four keys. These four keys do not belong to any group and are rarely used in most piano music.

The Piano’s White Keys

The white keys on a piano play what are called natural notes. There are seven natural notes, one for each of the seven white keys in a group of 12. The seven natural notes are named with the first seven letters of the alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.

The seven white keys in a group of 12 do not follow alphabetical order, though. The first white key in each group of 12 is a C, followed by D, E, F, G, A, and B. The next group begins with the following C.

C and Middle C

The C key closest to the center of the entire piano keyboard is known as middle C.

Most beginner piano music is designed to be played near middle C because it’s an easy location on the keyboard for beginners to recognize and remember.

The Piano’s Black Keys

The black keys play notes that come between the natural notes played on the white keys. These “between” notes are called either sharps or flats.

Sharps and Flats

On the piano, an interval is the distance between any two notes on the keyboard. The interval between any two adjacent notes on the piano is called a half step. The interval between any two notes with one note between them is called a whole step.

• Sharp: A note that’s half a step higher than the white key to its left
• Flat: A note that’s half a step lower than the white key to its right

This means that every black key can actually be described as either a sharp or a flat. For instance, a black key that’s to the right of an F and the left of a G can be called either an F sharp or a G flat.

Sharp and Flat Notation

In musical notation, sharps and flats are marked by these symbols: # for sharps, and b for flats. The symbols are written after the note’s name. For instance, the first black key in the piano’s 12-note pattern is both a C# (C sharp) and Db (D flat). The image below shows the five black keys in a group of 12 and the sharp and flat name of each:

Sharps and Flats in Piano Music

Written piano music will refer to a particular black key by using either its flat or sharp name—never both. For instance, if a Db appears in a piece of piano music, C# won’t appear.

Most piano music written for beginners will include neither sharps nor flats, but more advanced pieces often include all five black keys, written as either sharps or flats (for more information on how to identify sharps and flats in piano music, see How to Read Piano Music).