How Many Keys on a Piano? Find Out with These Fun Facts-Musicalhappy

Piano is a melodious musical instrument which produces sound by hammer and damper mechanism. If you are on this page that means you are a beginner who wants to learn piano playing as early as possible.

Moreover, you can also check out our article- how long does it take to learn piano if you need more information. It is important to have prior information about anything you want to learn, same in the case of piano. You must know the number of keys, different frequencies they produce and many other things.

How many Keys are on a Piano? [Detailed Answer]

It doesn’t depend if you have an acoustic piano or a digital one the basics never change. A full-sized piano has a total of 88 keys with 52 white keys and 36 black keys. They are also known as flats and sharps.

Moreover these 88 keys are divided into 7 octaves each having 7 white keys and 5 black keys. The 7 octaves range from A0 to A7. moreover, there are three lower notes too, namely: B, B flat and A.

A piano with a total number of 108 keys is also available which is a world record for having the maximum number of keys. Additionally it has 9 octaves.

Additionally, there are also pianos with a number of keys as less as 25, 36, 49, 66.however, you can’t cover all ranges with such fewer keys and octaves. Moreover, if you want to learn a piano you can go for one with 66 keys and a digital piano. Check out our article- what is a digital piano for detailed information.

Names of the keys on piano

The piano keys are simply labelled by English alphabets. Therefore, they are easy to remember. All the 7 octaves have 7 white keys or flats and 5 black keys also known as sharps because they produce sharp sounds.

The white keys are named A, B, C, D, E, F, G. however, they are not placed in an alphabetical order. They are placed as C, D, E, F, G, A, B. With the C note as the starting note.

Why only 7 octaves with 88 keys in a piano ?

The human ear can only listen to the sounds produced between these 7 octaves because the frequencies are either too high or too low for us to hear. Moreover, the music produced fits well in these 7 octaves so no need for more octaves. There are also pianos with 97 and 108 keys available but the ones with 88 keys are more popular and efficient too.

History of piano

Piano was invented in Italy in 1700 by Bartolomeo Cristofori who was a famous Italian musical instrument maker. When a musical instrument harpsichord was popular but was not able to cover all the music notes with its 4 octaves range. The name piano is short form of pianoforte as what they said earlier.

FAQ [How many Keys are on a Piano?]

Is a 76 key piano good?

Yes, if you are mostly going to play pop music then a 76 key piano is perfect for you as modern pop music doesn’t go above 5 octaves.

What are the three types of pianos?

Pianos are of three types namely: grand piano, upright piano and digital piano

How many octaves does a full sized piano have?

A full sized piano mostly has 7 octaves with 7 white keys and 5 black keys in each octave.

What are the names of white keys on a piano?

The white keys are namely C, D, E, F, G, A, B as per their sequence.

Conclusion

Doing a good research about anything before buying it is a very good practice. You should know more about pianos not only about its keys but also cleaning, maintenance, other parts etc. a beginner like you should definitely read our article- how long does it take to learn a piano.

Piano is a fragile musical instrument which requires good maintenance and frequent tuning. However, the digital ones don’t require any tuning as they don’t have any strings in them.

You can check out our article- how much does it cost to tune a piano for detailed information about tuning a piano, its price and benefits. The keys of a piano are equally delicate and need to be taken good care of while transporting. Check out our article- how to move a piano for a detailed guide on how to shift a piano from one place to another without professional help.