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Piano notes chart
Every white key on a piano is named with a letter from A to G, repeating up the keyboard. Every black key is the sharp of the white key below it and the flat of the white key above it. The chart below labels each one and plays it when you click, so you can connect the name, the position and the sound at the same time.
Click any key to hear it. Your computer's A to K row works too.
How are piano keys named?
Seven letters, A to G, over and over. Once you reach G the next white key is A again. Each repetition is called an octave, and notes are numbered by octave so that middle C is C4 and the C above it is C5. That numbering is how you tell two identical letters apart when writing them down.
What are the black keys called?
Each black key has two names. The one between C and D is C sharp or D flat, and it is the same key either way. Which name is used depends on the key of the piece, because written music spells a scale using each letter once. It sounds identical whichever name you use.
How do I find a note quickly?
Use the black key groups as landmarks. The white key left of a pair of two is C. The white key left of a group of three is F. From either of those you can count to anything within a second or two, and after a few weeks you will stop counting entirely.
Do I need to memorise all 88?
No. Learn the seven letters and the two landmarks and the rest follows automatically, because the pattern repeats. Nobody memorises 88 separate facts, and anyone who appears to has simply internalised the pattern.
Keep going
Read next
A piano has 88 keys, 52 white and 36 black, repeating one pattern of twelve. Find any note Open → ♪ Where is middle C on the piano?
Middle C is the white key just left of any pair of black keys, nearest the centre. Here is Open → ♪ Piano chord chart
Every common major and minor chord with its notes and fingering, shown on a keyboard you c Open → ♪ Black keys on the piano
The 36 black keys are the sharps and flats. What they are, why they come in twos and three Open →
Put it into practice in the practice room, or start at the beginning with the five minute walkthrough.
Questions
Common questions
What are the names of the piano keys?
The white keys are named A to G, repeating up the keyboard. The black keys are the sharps and flats between them.
What note is between C and D?
C sharp, which is the same key as D flat.
How do I remember which white key is which?
Find the pair of black keys and the white key to its left is C. Then count up in letters from there.