I am often guilty of assuming too much. Since I’ve been around music and the piano since I was old enough to walk, I tend to assume that everyone else knows the basics of piano notes and the piano keyboard. But it’s not necessarily so.

Some time ago I was talking about the piano, and a friend said to me “I don’t know Middle C from Tweedle Dee.” It slowly dawned on me that there are thousands of people who didn’t grow up with a piano in their homes, so how in the world could they know where various piano notes are located?

So here is Piano Notes 101: The piano keyboard is divided into white keys and black keys. The white keys start at the far left of the keyboard with a note called “A.” That is followed by B, C, D, E, F, and G, and then repeats over and over nearly 7 times until you reach the very top key on the keyboard which is a “C.”

The black keys are sharps and flats. Each black key has two names depending upon how it is used. If you move down from a white key, the black key next to it is called a flat. If you move up from a white key, the black key next to it is a sharp. (For you who know the piano, you will see that I am oversimplyfiing here so beginners won’t become confused.) There are 7 different white keys and 5 different black keys, making a total of 12 different keys which are then repeated in each octave up the keyboard until you reach the top “C.” There are 88 total keys on a standard piano keyboard. (Some electronic keyboards have fewer keys.)

Please watch this short 2-minute video IF you, like my friend, don’t know Middle C from Tweedle Dee.

Piano note names on the piano keyboard from chordman on Vimeo.