How many keys does a keyboard have?
You have probably seen a pianist with fingers flying over the keyboard. Do you know how many keys such an instrument has?
Usual layout of keyboards
No matter what instrument it is and how many keys it has, most keyboard instruments have a few things in common:
- There are always two different button colors. Typically, the shorter keys are black and the longer keys are white. The longer keys are called "front keys" or Called "sub keys", but often simply referred to as "white keys". The other are the "black keys", also known as "back keys" or "upper keys".
- The long keys belong to the notes of the C major scale C-D-E-F-G-A-H- (C). The short keys belong to the semitone steps in between. Since there are semitones between E and F and between B and C, there are no short keys between the tones.
- So every keyboard always has 12 keys per octave. The total number of keys on the keyboard depends on the range of the instrument in question. If this has 8 octaves, the instrument has 8 x 12 keys, i.e. 96 keys.
- This arrangement of keys is usually referred to as a keyboard, and the term keyboard is also often used for modern instruments such as electronic organs.
How many keys does a keyboard have? - Interesting facts about piano and keyboard keys
A keyboard does not have as many keys as a piano, but also from keyboard to ...
How many keys an instrument has
- As you now know, you have to inquire about the range of an instrument, then you can easily determine the number of keys yourself. Upright pianos, including electric pianos, have a pitch range of 7 1/2 octaves, which results in exactly 88 keys. Of these, 52 are white keys and 36 are black keys. The keyboard begins with the notes A ", AIS" and B "and ends with c" "'(5-stroke c). The four tones complement the 7 octaves of the piano.
- Older instruments often have fewer octaves, while Renaissance instruments usually only had 4 octaves. The number of buttons has increased over the years.
- Number of keys on modern keyboard instruments: piano and digital pianos have, as already mentioned, in the Usually 88 keys, some large concert grand pianos can have up to 97 keys (8 octaves plus a c).
- Beginner models of digital pianos, also known as semi-professional keyboards and better known as synthesizers, usually have 73 or 76 (6 resp. 6 1/2 octaves), rarely 73.
- Standard-size keyboards and most midi keyboards are designed for the hobby area and have only 61 keys (5 octaves), some keyboards are even only equipped with 49 keys or less.
The organ keyboard has more keys
With organs you will find almost no matches. On some models there are even some keys that are not in the usual arrangement, known as the keyboard.
- Organs often have up to 3 keyboards arranged one above the other, which are called manuals. Even with newly built organs you will find a different number of keys per manual, the number of manuals can range from 1 to 3.
- Keyboards between 56 and 61 keys are common per manual, so that an organist can have up to 183 tones available.
- Then there are the pedals, which can also be seen as keys on the organ. Some organs have a pedal keyboard that spans 3 octaves. All in all, an organ can have 219 keys.
