Layout Piano KeysLayout Piano Keys: Why are the piano keys arranged the way they are? Let's look at the layout of the piano keys and design of the piano keyboard and how it has changed over time.The Piano Keyboard Layout:The piano keyboard may have many keys, but there are actually only 12 different ones;7 white keys (the diatonic c-major scale) and 5 black keys (a pentatonic scale. The black keys also makes it possible to play in many key tonalities). This is all in all 12 different pitches. The black keys are placed so that you can easily see groups of 2 and 3 black keys. This makes it easier to locate the notes on the piano. This pattern is then repeated all over the piano. Most pianos today have 88 keys, but there are variations.
But why is the layout of the piano keys the way it is??One of the questions I often get as a piano teacher is why the keys on the piano are arranged the way they are. Actually, throughout time piano keys have gone through many transformations and there have been many variations in the piano keyboard design and layout. All the way from the ancient Hydraulis to the modern piano of today, the piano keyboard and design has changed after the scales used, what materials were available, tuning of the time, as well as different ideas on how to best play those notes. The pattern of the black and white keys has also changed. At times the pattern was inverted, instead of the five black keys, they where white and the other way around. The white keys were traditionally made from Ivory (Yes- elephant tusks!) and Ebenholz or Ebony, a very strong black wood. Today the keys on a piano are made from synthetic man-made materials and wood. The scale on the white keys, from C to C, is the diatonic 7 note scale, also called C-major scale or Ionian mode, and from A to A, there is an a-minor scale (natural minor) or Aeolian mode.
Pretty clever, huh? However, there are two important compromises; one is you can not play intervals smaller than a half step, and the other is that the modern piano is tuned in a well tempered tuning- resulting in that the notes in between them are all a tiny bit false. This small falseness is hardly noticeable for a modern ear, but makes it possible to smoothly play in many tonalities. (This is why J.S Bach wrote the Well-Tempered Clavier by the way!)
Learn more about older keyboard instruments here.
The size of the keys themselves has also varied. So basically the piano and the layout piano keys has gone through enormous changes, and still continues to evolve!
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