Finding the Notes | PianoMadeEasy

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The piano looks like it has a hundred different keys — but it doesn't. It's really just one 12-key pattern, repeated over and over from one end of the keyboard to the other. Learn the pattern once, and you already know the whole keyboard.

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Octave

C#
Db D#
Eb F#
Gb G#
Ab A#
Bb C#
Db D#
Eb F#
Gb G#
Ab A#
Bb

A220Hz

A440Hz

Two octaves of a piano keyboard — click any key to hear it! The pattern to the left of Middle C is identical to the pattern to the right of it.

🔊 Piano sound: Salamander Grand Piano samples by Alexander Holm (CC BY 3.0)

🎯 Try it: based on what you just read, click the key you think is Middle C.

The pattern, broken down

White keys are the 7 "natural" notes — C, D, E, F, G, A, B — and then it just repeats: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C...
Black keys are the sharps and flats. Each one has two names for the same key — C# is the same key as Db, just two different names depending on the context.
Octave is the distance from one note to the next note with the same name — from one C to the next C, for example. Every octave repeats the exact same pattern of white and black keys.
Middle C is your home base. It sits roughly in the middle of the keyboard, and almost everything you'll learn is described as "above" or "below" Middle C.

Try it yourself

Find any group of two black keys on a real piano or keyboard. The white key just to the left of them is always a C. That one trick lets you find any C on the entire keyboard — and every other note is just a short hop from there.

Next: Hand Position & Fingers →