Sunday 18 August 2013
A piano keyboard diagram is shown and explained below.
Let's first of all take a look at an unlabeled piano keyboard layout, i.e. without the note names. The one shown in the first piano keyboard diagram has two octaves, a total of 24 notes. In an 88 key piano, there are 36 black notes and 52 white notes. 76 key keyboards come with 31 black notes and 45 white notes, 61 key keyboards come with 25 black notes and 36 white notes, while 49 key keyboards have 20 black notes and 29 white ones.
Keys can be easily remembered as they are repeated.
The white notes are all labeled. If you look closely, you will realize
that the same note names are being repeated over and over. These notes
are A, B, C, D, E, F and G. Whether it's a 49, 61, 76 or 88 key
keyboard, this is the note pattern of a piano.
In the piano keyboard layout immediately below this paragraph, I have
ventured to add a more complete piano keyboard diagram. As you will see,
both the black and white notes have been named. As for the black notes,
they each have two note names. There's D-Flat (or C-Sharp), E-Flat (or
D-Sharp), G-Flat (or F-Sharp), A-Flat (or G-Sharp) and B-Flat (or
A-Sharp).
What is the note that is one semitone higher than C? The answer is C-Sharp. What is the note that is one semitone higher than D? The answer is D-Sharp. Let's go the other way around. What is the note that is one semitone lower than D? The answer is D-Flat. One semitone lower than E? It's E-Flat.
A whole tone means a distance of two semitones, i.e. the distance between two notes which are separated by one other note in pitch. For instance, C and D, D and E, and F and G are each one whole tone apart.
A piano comes with a 12 note pattern. This can be seen in the
piano keyboard diagram above. While there are many notes on a piano,
it's really 12 notes being repeated over and over. On an acoustic piano
it is repeated over 7 times. We see in our piano keyboard layout above
that the 12 notes are C, C-Sharp (D-Flat), D, D-sharp (E-Flat), E, F,
F-Sharp (G-Flat), G, G-Sharp (A-Flat), A, A-Sharp (B-Flat), and B. Take a
look at the piano keyboard chart below. It consists of the 12 notes of a
piano or music keyboard.
To better understand the piano keys layout see how the black keys on a
piano are grouped together in groups of two's and three's. Do you
notice how many groups of two's there are? How about the groups of
three's?
You will also notice that the note C always comes before the group of 2 flats (or sharps), while F always comes before the group of 3 flats (or sharps). On a 49 key keyboard, there are 5 C's, on a 61 and 76 key keyboard there are 6 C's, and there's 8 on an 88 key keyboard.
The piano keyboard diagram below shows the various piano notes C, D, E, F, G, A and B. There's a treble clef, a bass clef and a grand staff. Notice that the "C" in the treble clef and the "C" in the bass clef are the same note. This is the point where they cross and meet on the Grand Staff. It is known as Middle C.
The following is the layout of notes on a 49 key piano keyboard.
Piano Keyboard Keys Layout - 61 Key Piano Keyboard Notes
The following is the layout of notes on a 61 key piano keyboard.
