Learning to play the piano can be very satisfying. It gives a person a way to relax and something to do in their free time. However, many people deprive themselves of this happy pastime because they are overwhelmed by the number of keys on the piano. They see a dizzying pattern of black and white keys and assume that they would have to learn all eighty-eight of them in order learn to play. This, however, couldn’t be farther from the truth. There is a distinct pattern to these keys, and all it takes to learn piano keys is to understand it.

Although there are eight-eight keys on a full-size piano, there are not eighty-eight notes. There are only twelve. These notes continue to repeat as a person moves across the keyboard. They contain five black keys and seven white keys, and once a person has learned one group of notes they have learned them all. In order to learn piano keys, the first step is to locate the groups of black keys. Notice that they alternate between groups of three and groups of two. Take one group of each, and you have the five black keys in your pattern. The other seven keys are the white keys surrounding these keys.

Now, look at one group of twelve keys and find the white key directly to the left of the two black keys. This is the first note in the pattern, and the place where most scales start. It is known as a C. The next white key is a D, followed by E, F, G, A and B. These are the most important notes to know when trying to learn piano keys, because the black notes are not distinct notes in and of themselves. They are simply modifications of the white notes. They make the notes next to them sharp, or higher, if they are to the right and flat, or lower, if they are to the right. For example, the note between C and D can be either C sharp or D flat, depending on the key signature.

Once you know how to find each group of notes in the piano pattern, there is one more note you need to be aware of. To find it, go to the center of your piano, somewhere in the vicinity of your manufacturer’s logo. Locate the group of twelve notes there, and find the “C” in that group. This note is middle C, and it is the best place to start when trying to learn piano keys. If there is one note on the piano that is more important than the others, this is it. Not only do most songs start near this note, but it is the division between the left and the right hand.