There are 7 letters in music – alphabets A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. A typical keyboard has around 61 keys and a piano 88 keys. Now you must be wondering how to work 7 letters into that many keys? What is the nomenclature to be followed, how do you refer to each key individually?

We’ll start with these basic 7 letters which are all played on the white keys. First, we need to identify the A key. Locate the three adjacent black keys, go to the middle one, and proceed one step to the right and down to the white key. That brings you to A.

Play each key from here in the ascending order to get B, C, D, E, F, and G. What happens after the G is that you start all over again from A, B, C, and so on. Similarly, if you go backwards or in the descending order from A, you get G, F, E, D, C, B, and A again. While the concept of sharps and flats will be covered in later blog posts, it is important to understand stave lines in sheet music at this stage.

Grand Staff, Treble Clef and Bass Clef

As a beginner keyboard player, if you get a lesson/course book, you will notice what is called the grand staff or a staff line or stave in it. On the staff line will be two clef symbols – the treble clef and the bass clef. The top line is usually the treble clef, and the bottom line the bass clef, as illustrated in the images above. In terms of fingers and keys, it is important to note that the right hand is used for the treble clef, while your left hand takes on the notes in the bass clef.

Finger Numbers

Along with notes, you also need to get acquainted with finger numbers which will be useful when going through later blog posts to understand which finger to place where on the keyboard. For the purpose of playing the keyboard, we count 1 to 5, starting from the thumb and proceeding to the little finger. This is true for both the right hand and the left hand.

Getting familiarised with notes and finger numbers is a fundamental exercise in this journey of yours to master playing the keyboard. For now, identify the seven letters in both ascending and descending order from the A key on your keyboard. In the next post, we will go through the concepts of counts and beats in keyboard. Continue reading and practising what you learn.