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Thus, from C to D is a whole step because there is a key in between, whereas E to F is a half step because there is no key between them. The distance from any one key on a piano to the very next one is a half step, and two half steps make a whole step. Today’s piano keyboard (and organ, and harpsichord…) thus has a total of twelve keys within each octave, seven white keys and five black keys. (The above description is a bit of a simplification, since B-flat was not raised on all early keyboards in other cases, the only raised key was B-flat.) The keyboard as we know it today was used by the 14th century and gradually became a convention. It’s also possible to start on the black keys. With them, it is possible to start on any key and play any scale in any of the music modes. It turns out that we need only five “in-between” keys, or black keys. This pitch ( not piano key, since the keys are not the notes!) is B-flat in this case – flat because the B is lowered.
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Hence, we need a pitch right between A and B… so another black key is born. Here, the B is too high and needs to be lowered. In this case, there would again be one note out of place: F G A B C D E F. Now let’s say we want to play in the Ionian mode (major) but start on F. This note couldn’t be G-flat in this case, since we’d use G twice and F not at all.) (We need all diatonic notes in each traditional scale – that is to say, some form of each note A through G.
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Thus, the first black key was born, midway between F and G. The next to last note is too low and needs to be raised, so we need a pitch between F and G on the piano. If we start on G and try to play an Ionian scale, we’ll be fine up until the very end: G A B C D E F G. What if music were intended for a voice, and that singer couldn’t reach all the pitches in the C scale? The composer might need to start, say, on G. That’s where the second row of keys (the black keys on the modern piano) come into play. Now, music would be very limited if every time a composer wanted to use, say, the Ionian mode (or major as we know it today), he or she were forced to use C as the basis. Hence, if you start on F and play all the white keys up to the next F, that would be a Lydian scale. Here is a list of the music modes, with the starting key on a piano: Key
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C to C is Ionian (which we now call major). If you played all the keys from A to the next higher A, that would be the Aeolian mode (which we call natural minor today). (Keyboards then weren’t white, but we’ll call them the white keys so as to avoid confusion.) These keys corresponded to the notes A through G.Īt that time in Western musical history, music existed in modes. The earliest keyboard instruments, before pianos existed (see Who invented the piano?) had only one row of keys, which corresponded to the lower row on a piano as we know it today. In order to understand this point it is useful to know something about how the piano keyboard came to be. A scale is simply a specified sequence of intervals from one note to the same note an octave higher, say, from A to the next higher A. Nonetheless, it makes for an interesting and unique instrument.Why does a piano keyboard look the way it does? The answer has to do with music modes. And with no separation of black and white keys, you must have to relearn all your note references. With no 24 major and minor keys – let alone so many rich colours – any change in tone can only be achieved by playing the white keys. So, you can literally only play in C major. “But I can’t help but feel that it’s quite different from the original song.”Īccording to her blog, the instrument has the same number of strings as a normal piano, but with the black key hammer action removed. The pianist, who blogged about her find in 2014, says: “I can play almost all songs in C major without a black key.
#WHITE KEY SYNTHESIA SONGS SOFTWARE#
In the video above, uploaded to YouTube by Japanese software company Micronet Co., Ltd, a pianist plays an arrangement of ‘Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum’ from Children’s Corner Suite by Debussy, which develops everything in C major. But it’s also incredibly disorienting to play. At first glance, it looks quite strange and beautiful.
#WHITE KEY SYNTHESIA SONGS FULL#
With no tail to allow space for black keys over the top, the keys are ‘all head’, so to speak – full oblongs, the same width from top to bottom. It’s called the “Sinhakken” model- With no black keys fitted, the 52 remaining white keys are all that’s left. Now, we have news that a company in Japan has developed a piano with no black keys whatsoever. The other day, we reported on a piano with 102 keys, breaking the 88-key norm.