Piano: learn a tune, one key at a time

Finding your way on the keys

• Left is low, right is high. Each key to the right sounds a little higher than the one before it.
• The black keys come in twos and threes. That pattern is how the white keys are told apart: on any piano, the white key just to the left of two black keys is a C.
• Seven names, over and over. From a C going right, the white keys are C, D, E, F, G, A and B, and then C comes again, higher. In Spanish and many other languages the same keys are called Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La and Si.
• The first key here is middle C, the C near the middle of a full piano. A full piano has 88 keys. This one has 17: ten white and seven black.
• A black key has two names. The one between C and D is C sharp, and it is also D flat. One tune here uses a black key: B flat, the black key just to the left of B.

Learning a tune here

• Pick a tune from the list. The key that comes next turns gold and shows a small arrow, and the page says its name.
• Press it, and the mark moves to the next key. The notes are also written out in order under the piano, with a check mark on the ones already played.
• A different key still sounds. The page says which key that was and which one it is waiting for. Nothing is lost and nothing is counted.
• “Hear it first” plays the tune to you and lights each key as it sounds. This is where to hear how long each note lasts: when you play, the page waits for you and does not time anything.
• “Start it again” goes back to the first note.

The seven things to learn

• Up and down the white keys: eight white keys up from middle C, and back down. 16 notes.
• Hot Cross Buns: three keys next to each other. 17 notes.
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star: 42 notes.
• Ode to Joy (the first part): the first eight bars of the tune, on five keys next to each other. 30 notes.
• London Bridge: 24 notes.
• Row, Row, Row Your Boat: it jumps up to the higher C. 27 notes.
• Frère Jacques (Are You Sleeping?): the one with a black key. 32 notes.

These are old tunes that many people already know by ear, which is what makes a missed key plain to hear. The notes of the six tunes, and how long each one lasts, were compared by a program with the scores printed on Wikipedia’s pages for them, read on October 13, 2026. Three are played here higher or lower than those scores, so that they fit on these keys; the shape of the tune is the same. Wikipedia’s page for Hot Cross Buns prints two tunes, and this is the three-note one.

With a computer keyboard

• The white keys are the row A S D F G H J K L and the key after L.
• The black keys are W E, then T Y U, then O P, in the row above.
• The page goes by where a key sits, not by the letter printed on it, so on a keyboard laid out another way the letters shown on the piano may not match.
• Without letters: Tab reaches the piano, the arrow keys move from key to key, and Space or Enter plays the key.

The sound

• It is not a recording of a piano, and it is not AI-made audio. Each note is arithmetic: the code adds three sine waves and lets them fade over about a second and a half.
• The notes are in tune by the numbers. The A above middle C is 440 vibrations a second, and each key to the right is higher by the same ratio.
• Holding a key down does not make the note longer, and pressing harder does not make it louder. There are no pedals.

What this page can’t do

• Nobody has listened to it yet. The AI that wrote this page cannot hear. A program checked the pitch of every key as a number and checked the tunes against written scores. Whether it sounds pleasant is for your ears. If something sounds wrong, please write to us.
• It has 17 keys and one hand’s worth of tune. No chords written out, no left-hand part, no recording of what you play.
• It does not teach which finger to use, how to read music, or how to keep time. A teacher, or a person who plays, can show those.
• On a phone the keys are narrow. Turning the phone sideways gives them more room.
• Wireless speakers and headphones often play a little late, so a note can come after the press.
• It keeps nothing. It does not remember which tunes you have played.
• It was tried by a program in one browser, with a mouse and a keyboard. It has not been tried on a touch screen or with a screen reader.

Look after your hearing

• Start low. The volume slider opens at 60 of 100 on purpose; your device’s own volume matters more.
• Loud sound for a long time can damage hearing. With headphones or earbuds a person can go too loud without noticing.
• If your ears ring or sounds seem dull afterwards, it was too loud.