Learn ALL 88 Keys Of The Piano

                It can be overwhelming to think that piano has 88 keys. 52 white keys. 36 black keys. But in reality, it has only 12 unique notes. It's just repetition of these 12 notes that form the 88 keys. So you just need to learn 12 notes. JUST 12!! That's less than half of English alphabets. It's that easy.

Learn ALL the white keys first (That's not racist)

In the 12 unique notes, 7 are white keys and 5 are black keys. Those 7 white keys are named using the first 7 English alphabets. A B C D E F G. Now you just need to learn which ones are which.

Notice the black keys carefully. They are always in patterns of 2s and 3s. This pattern continues for the whole piano. First step is to notice the patterns of 2 black keys.

The next step is to find the left one in the sets of 2 black keys.

Now the final step is to find the white key which is to the left of it.

This key is called 'C'. Now just fill the keys before and after 'C' note with the alphabets (A B C D E F G) in the alphabetical order.

   

Learn ALL the black keys now

Notice that the black keys are always present in between 2 white keys. Let's take this black key and try to find it's name.

This black key is AFTER 'C' note and BEFORE 'D' note. Now replace the word "after" with "sharp" and "before" with "flat". We get C sharp (C#) and D flat (Db). That's right. Black keys can be named in 2 ways. And both are equally valid.

Similarly, all the black keys are named with reference to its adjacent white keys.

Ready to test yourself?

Try out these exciting 1 min challenges.

White keys test - Take it slow. First get thorough with the white keys.

Sharps test - Now it's time for the sharps.

Flats test - At last the flats.

The ultimate final test - This is the one test that really matters. ALL THE BEST!!

Result

Accuracy : Anything below 100% is unacceptable. Knowing the names of the keys is the basic foundation of learning music. So no room for doubts and mistakes here.

Score > 25 : You cannot be more confident than that. Proceed to learn something new.

Score > 20 : Excellent!!

Score > 15 : Good!

Score > 10 : Got nervous? Give another try. Be calm and quick this time.

Score > 5 : Not very confident? No problem. Go back and do the previous tests again. You've got all the time in the world.

Why do we have 2 different names for black keys?

I know you used only the sharps for the black keys in the ultimate final test.  Why do we have 2 different names for same note? Just why? Why do we need to unnecessarily complicate things? Long story short, the answer is simplicity. Though it sounds counter-intuitive, it really simplifies things like circle of fifths which we will see in the near future.