Keyboard Notes - Learn to Identify and Play Keyboard Notes

Keyboard Notes - Major and Minor Scales

The variation between two contiguous keyboard notes can be either a tone or a semi-tone, depending on which particular notes are being referred to. At any rate, the smallest distance between any two keys is a semi-tone - for example, this is the distance between F and F#, or that between D and D flat.

Remember, if you're going up from the root note, it's a sharp and if you're going down then it's a flat. The octave is another measurement of separation, and in technical terms is a doubling of frequency. Within any octave, we have only twelve distinct notes to work with before coming to the same note again, albeit at a higher pitch. Despite this seemingly limited range of notes to choose from, most music actually uses even fewer - in most cases, seven. Which seven notes these are determines the key of a piece.

Most people will be familiar with the concept of scales; Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do is the classic example. The original meaning of scale was that it formed a ladder, taking you from one octave to the next, with the last note being a repetition of the first, but an octave higher (doubling the frequency). The particular notes that take you up are the rungs of this notional ladder. Small changes to these rungs can greatly affect the quality and mood of the scale as a whole.

Perhaps the most common scale is the major scale, and the simplest way to generate one is by starting at C on the piano keyboard and playing all the white notes up to the next C an octave higher. This is, of course, the scale of C Major.

What Is a Keyboard? Definitions

• Keyboard - The rows of keys of a pianoforte, organ, or similar instrument.
• Keyboard, chromatic - An attachment applied to the keys of a piano for the purpose of enabling players of moderate skill to execute chromatic scales and passages with facility and correctness.