The keyboard and note names – free music theory course

Look at a piano keyboard: the black keys are not placed at random. They form an alternation of groups of two and groups of three, repeated from left to right across the whole instrument. This pattern is your road map: thanks to it you can find any note without counting.

The seven notes

Western music uses seven note names that repeat in a loop: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, then C, D, E again… These seven names belong to the white keys. Black keys take the name of a neighbouring white key, modified by a sharp or a flat (more on that later).

C is the white key just to the left of a group of two black keys.
F is the white key just to the left of a group of three black keys.
Between the two black keys of the small group lies D; between the 2nd and 3rd black keys of the large group lies A.

Two naming systems

There are two ways of naming notes, and a musician today should know both.

Letter names (A, B, C…), used in English- and German-speaking countries, and everywhere in jazz, pop and chord charts. The alphabet starts at A, which is why the "first" key you learn, C, is the third letter.
Solfège syllables (Do, Re, Mi…), used in France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Latin America… The syllables come from a Latin hymn to Saint John the Baptist, Ut queant laxis, each line of which started one note higher: UT queant laxis, REsonare fibris, MIra gestorum, FAmuli tuorum, SOLve polluti, LAbii reatum, Sancte Iohannes. The monk Guido of Arezzo used it around the year 1000 to teach his pupils to sing. "Ut", awkward to sing, became "Do" in the 17th century. (In English-speaking countries, "movable do" solfège — Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti — is used for singing scale degrees, as in The Sound of Music.)

Letters	C	D	E	F	G	A	B
Solfège (fixed do)	Do	Re	Mi	Fa	Sol	La	Si

Classic trap: in the German system H means B natural and B means B flat. That is how Bach could sign his name in music: B-A-C-H = B♭, A, C, B♮. On a German score, "B" is therefore not your B!

Listen and sing

M:4/4
L:1/4
Q:1/4=90
K:C
C D E F | G A B c |]
w: C D E F G A B C

Quick drill: with your eyes closed, put your hand on the keyboard, feel for a group of two black keys and play the C just to its left. Repeat in five different octaves. Then do the same with the Fs (group of three). In two minutes you will never hunt for a note again.

If you read French or Italian music books, keep the correspondence table handy: "Do = C" is the anchor; from there just recite the alphabet: C-D-E-F-G, then A-B.