Piano Notes

On the piano, the notes are the same seven as on any instrument: C, D, E, F, G, A and B. What changes is where they are placed. The keyboard repeats one pattern of 12 keys (7 white and 5 black) over and over, so once you learn that pattern you know the whole piano.

(In Spanish-, French- and Italian-speaking countries the notes are called by the fixed-do syllables: Do = C, Re = D, Mi = E, Fa = F, Sol = G, La = A, Si = B. This page uses letters. If you want to see the piano among the other keyboards, read the guide to keyboard instruments: organ, harpsichord, accordion, synthesizer and celesta.)

• The white keys are the 7 natural notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, B.
• The black keys are the accidentals (sharps and flats): there are 5 in each octave.
• The 12-key pattern repeats: each repetition is an octave.

Try the full piano (88 keys, from A0 to C8): press any key to hear it and see its name and octave, or press “Show note names” to see them all. It starts centered on middle C; scroll it sideways to travel along the whole keyboard.

Sound: Salamander Grand Piano samples by Alexander Holm, licensed CC BY 3.0.

The trick for finding your way: groups of 2 and 3 black keys

The black keys are not spread evenly: they come in blocks of 2 and 3. That pattern is the compass of the keyboard, because it tells you exactly where you are without counting from the end:

• The white key just to the left of the group of 2 black keys is always a C.
• The white key just to the left of the group of 3 black keys is always an F.

From those two landmarks the rest follows, going up in order: C, D, E (then you reach the group of 3, where F begins), F, G, A, B, and back to C.

The white keys: the 7 natural notes

From left (low) to right (high), the white keys run C – D – E – F – G – A – B and start again. They are the same natural notes you read on the staff (UK: stave). If you want to review what they are called in Spanish, English and German, see the names of the musical notes.

The black keys: sharps and flats

Each black key sits between two white keys and has two names, depending on where you look from: it is the sharp (♯) of the note on its left and the flat (♭) of the note on its right. These are enharmonic notes: they sound the same but are written differently depending on the context.

Notice an important detail: there is no black key between E and F, or between B and C. Those pairs are natural half steps (UK: semitones), which is why the groups of black keys are separated by a gap. Every other pair of neighboring white keys is a whole step (UK: tone), with a black key in the middle.

Middle C (C4)

Middle C is the C near the center of the keyboard (the exact center of an 88-key piano falls between E4 and F4). It is the reference note that joins the right hand (which usually reads in treble clef) and the left hand (usually in bass clef): on the staff it sits on a ledger line between the two clefs. In the international scientific pitch notation used on this site, that note is called C4 (about 261.6 Hz). Some manufacturers and music programs number the octaves differently and call it C3, so check the convention when you read an octave number somewhere else.

Octaves: why the notes repeat

Each time the 12-key pattern is completed, the notes start again one octave higher. A standard piano has 88 keys (52 white and 36 black), a little more than seven octaves, from A0 (the lowest note, on the far left) to C8 (the highest, on the far right). The octave number changes at every C: B3 is followed by C4.

How to find any note, step by step

1. Find a group of 2 black keys.
2. The white key to its left is C.
3. From there, go up the white keys in order: D, E, F, G, A, B.
4. For a black key, think of it as the ♯ of the white key on its left or the ♭ of the one on its right.

Want to practice? Test the names in Spanish, English and German with the note equivalence quiz, or identify notes on the staff with the note-reading exercises.