Seven letters

The piano keyboard uses only seven letter names for its notes: A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

After G, the sequence does not continue to H — it starts again at A.

This is not arbitrary. Those seven notes cover a span of sound after which something remarkable happens: the eighth note sounds almost identical to the first, just higher in pitch.

If you play an A, then count up seven white keys and play the next note, it sounds like an A again — higher and brighter, but unmistakably the same note.

This span of seven steps is called an "octave" — from the Latin for ‘eight’, because we count both the starting and ending notes.

Because the eighth note sounds the same as the first, it makes sense to give it the same letter name. Eight white keys above an A is also an A; eight white keys above a D is a D, and so on.

So seven letters are enough to name every note on the entire keyboard — from the lowest to the highest.

Find your way around

On the keyboard, those seven letter names are assigned to the white keys.

Even though the alphabet starts on A, on the keyboard — and right across music theory — C is the simplest place to start. So we usually count the white keys from C: C D E F G A B C.

Now practise spotting each one. Every C sits just to the left of a group of two black keys.

Every D sits just to the right of a C, nestled between those two black keys.

Then count up the rest — E, F, G — and on to A. G and A sit either side of the group of three black keys.

The white notes

The black keys

The black keys sit between some of the white keys, and each is named as a modification of a white-key neighbour.

A black key immediately to the right of a white key is that note sharpened (written ♯, meaning raised by one small step) — ♯ is the sharp sign, not a hashtag.

A black key immediately to the left is that note flattened (written ♭, meaning lowered by one small step). Don’t confuse the flat sign with a lowercase ‘b’: it is smaller, pointier, and sits raised like a superscript — A♭, B♭, and so on.

Notice that the black keys sit in groups of two, then three — and that not every white key has a black key beside it.

There is no black key between E and F, and none between B and C.

This asymmetry turns out to be exactly what gives the major scale its characteristic sound — but we will come to that shortly.

The black keys on the keyboard

Tap the black keys to hear them — as a group, they sound distinct from the white notes.

Practise naming each black key as a sharpened version of the white key to its left: the black key just right of C is C♯. Then name each as a flattened version of the key to its right: the black key just left of G is G♭.

Yes — that means every black key has two names! We will explain why, and which to use when, later in the course.

The five black keys form the “Amazing Grace” / “Auld Lang Syne” sound. (trad./public domain)

You have been finding these notes on the keyboard. Here is the other way music gets written down — the one your exam uses. No need to master it yet; just start to recognise it.

Higher notes sit higher up

That one rule explains almost everything about reading pitch on the stave.

The five lines, bottom to top, spell E G B D F; the four spaces spell F A C E.

That is enough for now. From here you will see these little staves next to the keyboard, so the sound, the keys and the written notes all line up. You will learn to read them fully later, in ‘The ladder’.

Twelve notes in an octave

Putting the white and black keys together, one octave contains exactly twelve notes before the pattern repeats. Counting up from C, every step is one semitone:

C   C♯/D♭   D   D♯/E♭   E   F   F♯/G♭   G   G♯/A♭   A   A♯/B♭   B

After B the pattern returns to C, one octave higher, and repeats all the way up the keyboard.

Three counts are worth holding onto, because they explain several names you will meet:

Different musical traditions divide the octave in different ways. In modern Western music the standard is twelve equal semitones, and that is the system the piano is built on.

Two names for one key

You will have noticed that each black key above carries two names — C♯ and D♭ are the same key. A "sharp" (♯) raises a note by one semitone; a "flat" (♭) lowers it by one semitone. The black key between C and D can therefore be reached either by raising C (making it C♯) or by lowering D (making it D♭). Same key, same sound, two names.

This is called being "enharmonic" — two different spellings for one pitch. Which name is correct depends on the musical context, and that is something the later sections on scales will make clear. For now, the important point is simply that a sharp and a flat can land on the same key.

The "semitone": the smallest step

A "semitone" is the smallest distance between any two notes on the piano. It is the gap between any key and the very next key — regardless of colour.

From C, the next key to the right is the black key C♯. That gap is a semitone. From E, the next key to the right is F (a white key — there is no black key between them). That gap is also a semitone. Colour is irrelevant; what matters is adjacency.

See it on the keyboard

Here is the span from A below middle C to A two octaves up. Middle C (C4) is highlighted in blue. Black keys are labelled with their sharp name. Every adjacent pair of keys — white or black — is exactly one semitone apart.

C to C♯ (the black key immediately to its right) is one semitone. E to F (both white, no black between them) is also one semitone. Colour is irrelevant; adjacency is everything.

Two semitones: the "tone"

A "tone" is simply two semitones added together — a gap of two steps rather than one. From C, a tone lands on D (skipping over C♯). From D, a tone lands on E (skipping over D♯). The word "tone" here means a whole step, not a musical note.

The tone on the keyboard

C to D is a tone (skips C♯). D to E is a tone (skips D♯). Each curved arrow hops two semitones.

The complete 12-note palette

You now have all the pieces: seven letters, sharps and flats, semitones and tones. Put them together and one octave contains exactly twelve notes. On the piano keyboard there are 12 distinct pitches within every octave — every white key and every black key. Play them all in order, one by one, and you are playing a chromatic scale.

Every pitch is exactly one semitone from its neighbours. No note is a tonic; none has more gravity than any other. This is the raw material — the full palette before any choices are made.

All other scales are selections from these 12. The major scale picks 7 of them in a particular pattern. Minor scales pick a different 7. Pentatonic scales pick 5. The chromatic scale itself is the only one that uses all 12.

Every key lit: C C♯ D D♯ E F F♯ G G♯ A A♯ B — twelve semitones, then back to C an octave up.

Going up, the chromatic scale uses sharps; going down, flats. C♯ going up is D♭ going down — same key, different name, a convention not a contradiction.