I know most of you probably already know what is covered in this article, but this is meant for the newbies. You might call this Level 1 of learning to play your piano or keyboard. With 88 keys on the piano, it may seem very difficult to learn, but fear not! Notice I show the picture of just one octave. There are 7 white keys and 5 black keys = 12 total. This repeats 7 times on the piano. So the only way you know your way around the keys is by the pair of two black keys followed by a set of three black keys. I will teach more about the black keys other posts, but for now we will just focus on the basics. Look at the first white key on the left, letter C. Now notice next comes D, E , F, & G. The highest letter of a white key is G. Now it starts over at A, B, &….this image would start over again at the next “octave.” The next note would be a C. You may be wondering, “why don’t we just start with an A in this picture and say A, B , C, D, E, F, &G…and then start over at A again?” It has to do with scales which I will cover in another article. Go to your piano and keyboard and find C. Now play all the way up to the next C. It’s like Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do…(hope I spelled those right).

The amount of space between each note gives it that constant going up sound, so it sounds great. Now try to start a scale with an A. Next play B, C, D, E, F, G, & A. Notice anything? It didn’t sound so good at the end there. That was not a major scale like C, but again read my article about major scales.

Plus, be sure and check out the post with my video of each of the major scales so you see how it works, and you will understand more songs and their structure.