Easy Piano Lessons

The black keys on the keyboard are named after the white keys and because of this there are always two possible way to name a black key as there is a white key to the left or the right of the black key. In spite of the two different names the black keys note remains the same.

If you name the black key after the white key to its left it is written with a sharp (#) or after the white key to its right is is written with a flat (b).

So for example the black key between C and D is called either C sharp or D flat.

What is a piano scale?

A scale is simply a row of notes in some consistent order. The word “scale” comes from a Latin word meaning “ladder”, so the notes of a scale ascend or descend the ladder rung by rung.  The most-used scale is the C major scale, which is a row of notes  in the following order:?-

The following chart shows the notes of all 12 major scales:-

In this Easy Piano Lessons article we will learn about Sharps (#) and Flats ().

As you may have read in an earlier article on this web site the white keys are labelled A, B, C, D, E, F and G. The black keys also use these labels with one addition they are either Sharp (#) or a Flat ( ) of the note name. So for example if you locate the C white key there are 2 black key to its right, the first of these black keys (the one actual next to the C key) is called C# (C sharp). The next black key just to the right of the D white key is called D# (D sharp). The sharp therefore meant raise a note by half a step.

The Flat symbol means lower a note by half a step, so the black key to the left of the white D key is called D (D Flat). This means therefore that the black keys actually have two names in this example C# is also D (up a half step from C or down a half step from D).

All sharp and flat notes are played on the black keys with the exception of B#, C, E# and F. As you will know there is no black key between the B and C white keys and the E and F white keys. There is in effect only a half step between these notes, so for example a B# is actually the C white key.

When a note on a sheet of music is a sharp or a flat the sharp or flat symbol appears before the note.

There are different scales that you can play on the keyboard. The C Major scale is played by playing the 8 white keys starting from the C key.

Another scale is the G Major scale, when you play this scale you start on the G white key, but you play F# and not F. When a Composer writes a piece of music in G Major rather than put a sharp sign in front of every F, they write a Key Signature after the Clef sign.  So the G Major Key Signature just has a single # on the F.

As there are no sharps of flats in the C Major scale there are no sharps of flats in the Key Signature after the Clef sign.

This was another easy piano lesson in which we learnt about sharps and flats and is another step in learning how to read piano music. But we have still only scratched the surface and for a full teach yourself piano course, click the following for a full set of easy piano lessons.