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A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a
musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make Music, musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person ...
. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western
musical scale In music theory, a scale is "any consecutive series of notes that form a progression between one note and its octave", typically by order of pitch or fundamental frequency. The word "scale" originates from the Latin ''scala'', which literal ...
, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the interval of an
octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...
. Pressing a key on the keyboard makes the instrument produce sounds—either by mechanically striking a string or tine ( acoustic and electric piano,
clavichord The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance music, Renaissance, Baroque music, Baroque and Classical period (music), Classical eras. Historically, it was most ...
), plucking a string (
harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...
), causing air to flow through a
pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...
, striking a bell (
carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a musical keyboard, keyboard and consists of at least 23 bells. The bells are Bellfounding, cast in Bell metal, bronze, hung in fixed suspension, and Musical tuning, tu ...
), or activating an
electronic circuit An electronic circuit is composed of individual electronic components, such as resistors, transistors, capacitors, inductors and diodes, connected by conductive wires or Conductive trace, traces through which electric current can flow. It is a t ...
(
synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
, digital piano,
electronic keyboard An electronic keyboard, portable keyboard, or digital keyboard is an electronic musical instrument based on keyboard instruments. Electronic keyboards include synthesizers, digital pianos, stage pianos, electronic organs and digital audio work ...
). Since the most commonly encountered
keyboard instrument A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers that are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital piano ...
is the
piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
, the keyboard layout is often referred to as the piano keyboard or simply piano keys.


Description

The twelve notes of the Western
musical scale In music theory, a scale is "any consecutive series of notes that form a progression between one note and its octave", typically by order of pitch or fundamental frequency. The word "scale" originates from the Latin ''scala'', which literal ...
are laid out with the lowest note on the left. The longer keys (for the seven "natural" notes of the C major scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B) jut forward. Because these keys were traditionally covered in
ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and Tooth, teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mamm ...
they are often called the ''white notes'' or ''white keys''. The keys for the remaining five notes—which are not part of the C major scale—(i.e., C/D, D/E, F/G, G/A, A/B) (see Sharp and Flat) are raised and shorter. Because these keys receive less wear, they are often made of black colored wood and called the ''black notes'' or ''black keys''. Black keys form a pentatonic scale. The entire pattern repeats at the interval of an
octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...
. The arrangement of longer keys for C major with intervening, shorter keys for the intermediate semitones date to the 15th century. Many keyboard instruments dating from before the nineteenth century, such as harpsichords and pipe organs, have a keyboard with the colours of the keys reversed: the ''white notes'' are made of ebony and the ''black notes'' are covered with softer white bone. A few electric and electronic instruments from the 1960s and subsequent decades have also done this; Vox's electronic organs of the 1960s, Farfisa's FAST portable organs, Hohner's Clavinet L, one version of the Korg Poly-800 synthesizer and Roland's digital harpsichords. Some 1960s electronic organs used reverse colors or gray sharps or naturals to indicate the lower part (or parts) of a single keyboard divided into two parts, each controlling a different registration or sound. Such keyboards accommodate melody and contrasting accompaniment without the expense of a second manual, and were a regular feature in Spanish and some English organs of the renaissance and baroque eras. The break was between
middle C C or Do is the first note of the C major scale, the third note of the A minor scale (the relative minor of C major), and the fourth note (G, A, B, C) of the Guidonian hand, commonly pitched around 261.63  Hz. The actual frequency has d ...
and C-sharp, or outside of Iberia between B and C. Broken keyboards reappeared in 1842 with the harmonium, the split occurring at E4/F4. The reverse-colored keys on
Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...
s such as the B3, C3 and A100 are latch-style
radio button A radio button or option button is a graphical control element that allows the user to choose only one of a predefined set of mutually exclusive options. The singular property of a radio button makes it distinct from checkboxes, where the user ...
s for selecting pre-set sounds.


Size and historical variation

The chromatic range (also called ''
compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with No ...
'') of keyboard instruments has tended to increase. Harpsichords often extended over five octaves (>60 keys) in the 18th century, while most pianos manufactured since about 1870 have 88 keys. The lowest pitch (frequency: 27.5 Hz) of an 88-key piano is equivalent to a sub contrabass in the range name. Some modern pianos have even more notes (a Bösendorfer 290 "Imperial" has 97 keys, and a Stuart & Sons model has 108 keys). While modern synthesizer keyboards commonly have either 61, 76 or 88 keys, small MIDI controllers are available with 25 keys (digital systems allow shifting octaves, pitch, and "splitting" ranges dynamically, which, in some cases, reduce the need for dedicated keys. However, smaller keyboards will typically limit which musical scores can be played). Organs normally have 61 keys per manual, though some spinet models have 44 or 49. An organ pedalboard is a keyboard with long pedals played by the organist's feet. Pedalboards vary in size from 12 to 32 notes or 42 on a touring organ used by Cameron Carpenter. In a typical keyboard layout, ''black note'' keys have uniform width, and ''white note'' keys have uniform width and uniform spacing at the front of the keyboard. In the larger gaps between the ''black'' keys, the width of the natural notes C, D and E differ slightly from the width of keys F, G, A and B. This allows close to uniform spacing of 12 keys per octave while maintaining uniformity of seven "natural" keys per octave. Over the last three hundred years, the octave span distance found on historical keyboard instruments (organs,
virginals The virginals is a keyboard instrument of the harpsichord family. It was popular in Europe during the Renaissance music, late Renaissance and early Baroque music, Baroque periods. Description A virginals is a smaller and simpler, rectangular o ...
,
clavichord The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance music, Renaissance, Baroque music, Baroque and Classical period (music), Classical eras. Historically, it was most ...
s,
harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...
s, and
piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
s) has ranged from as little as to as much as . Modern piano keyboards ordinarily have an octave span of , resulting in the width of black keys averaging and white keys about at the base, disregarding space between keys. In recent years, there has been evidence of a correlation between pianists with smaller hand spans and hand or arm injuries. Several reduced-size standards have been proposed for these pianists. A 7/8 size ( octave span) keyboard was developed by Canadian Christopher Donison in the 1970s. This size, along with the 15/16 size ( octave span) and a smaller size (130 mm (5.1 in) octave span) have since been developed and marketed by Steinbuhler & Company in Pennsylvania. These three sizes are registered as DS6.0, DS5.5 and DS5.1. The company was converted to the non-profi
DS Standard Foundation
in 2018. Hailun USA manufactures pianos in the two alternative DS6.0 and DS5.5 sizes through an agreement with the DS Standard Foundation. Since 2013, a global network of pianists, teachers and performing arts health professionals has been increasingly advocating for change to the 'one size fits all' approach to piano keyboard manufacturing by major companies. This network is known as PASK
Pianists for Alternatively Sized Keyboards
. U.S. pianist Hannah Reimann has promoted piano keyboards with narrower octave spans and has a U.S. patent on the apparatus and methods for modifying existing pianos to provide interchangeable keyboards of different sizes. Narrower keyboards are available from Steinway & Sons USA in new grand pianos or as a retrofit to existing pianos. There have been variations in the design of the keyboard to address technical and musical issues. The earliest designs of keyboards were based heavily on the notes used in
Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek language, Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed main ...
(the seven diatonic notes plus B-flat) and as such would often include B and B both as diatonic "white notes", with the B at the leftmost side of the keyboard and the B at the rightmost. Thus, an octave would have ''eight'' "white keys" and only four "black keys". The emphasis on these eight notes would continue for a few centuries after the "seven and five" system was adopted, in the form of the short octave: the eight aforementioned notes were arranged at the leftmost side of the keyboard, compressed in the keys between E and C (at the time, accidentals that low were very uncommon and thus not needed). During the sixteenth century, when instruments were often tuned in meantone temperament, some harpsichords were constructed with the G and E keys split into two. One portion of the G key operated a string tuned to G and the other operated a string tuned to A, similarly one portion of the E key operated a string tuned to E, the other portion operating a string tuned to D. This type of keyboard layout, known as the enharmonic keyboard, extended the flexibility of the harpsichord, enabling composers to write keyboard music calling for harmonies containing the so-called ''
wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, includin ...
'' fifth (G-sharp to E-flat), but without producing aural discomfort in the listeners (see Split sharp). The "broken octave", a variation of the aforementioned short octave, similarly used split keys to add accidentals left out of the short octave. Other examples of variations in keyboard design include the Jankó keyboard and the chromatic keyboard systems on the chromatic button accordion and bandoneón.


Electronic keyboards

Simpler electronic keyboards have switches under each key. Depressing a key connects a circuit, which triggers tone generation. Most keyboards use a keyboard matrix circuit, in which 8 rows and 8 columns of wires cross — thus, 16 wires can provide 8 × 8 = 64 crossings, which the keyboard controller scans to determine which key was pressed. The problem with this system is that it provides only a crude binary on/off signal for each key. Better electronic keyboards employ two sets of slightly offset switches for each key. By determining the timing between the activation of the first and second switches, the velocity of a key press can be determined, greatly improving the performance dynamic of a keyboard. The best electronic keyboards have dedicated circuits for each key, providing polyphonic aftertouch. Advanced electronic keyboards may provide hundreds of key touch levelsDigital piano specs
(100 pressure levels specified).
and have 88 keys, as most pianos do.


Playing techniques

Despite their visual similarity, different keyboard instrument types require different techniques. The piano hammer mechanism produces a louder note the faster the key is pressed, while the harpsichord's plectrum mechanism does not perceptibly vary the volume of the note with different touch on the keyboard. The
pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...
's volume and timbre are controlled by the flow of air from the bellows and the stops preselected by the player. Players of these instruments therefore use different techniques to color the sound. An arranger keyboard may be preset to produce any of a range of voices as well as percussion and other accompaniments that respond to chords played by the left hand. Even though the keyboard layout is simple and all notes are easily accessible, playing requires skill. A proficient player has undertaken much training to play accurately and in
tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...
. Beginners seldom produce a passable rendition of even a simple piece due to lack of
technique Technique or techniques may refer to: Music * The Techniques, a Jamaican rocksteady vocal group of the 1960s * Technique (band), a British female synth pop band in the 1990s * ''Technique'' (album), by New Order, 1989 * ''Techniques'' (album), by ...
. The sequences of movements of the player's hands can be very complicated. Problems include wide-spanned chords, which can be difficult for people with small hands, chords requiring unusual hand positions that can initially be uncomfortable, and fast
scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...
, trills and
arpeggio An arpeggio () is a type of Chord (music), chord in which the Musical note, notes that compose a chord are individually sounded in a progressive rising or descending order. Arpeggios on keyboard instruments may be called rolled chords. Arpe ...
s. Playing instruments with ''velocity sensitive'' (or ''dynamic'') keyboards (i.e., that respond to varying playing velocity) may require finger independence, so that some fingers play "harder" while others play more softly. Pianists call this control of touch velocity ''voicing'' (not to be confused with a piano technician's "voicing" of a piano by modifying the hardness of the hammers). Keyboardists speak of playing harder and softer, or with more or less force. This may accurately describe the player's experience—but in the mechanics of the keyboard,
velocity Velocity is a measurement of speed in a certain direction of motion. It is a fundamental concept in kinematics, the branch of classical mechanics that describes the motion of physical objects. Velocity is a vector (geometry), vector Physical q ...
controls musical dynamics. The faster the player depresses the key, the louder the note. Players must learn to coordinate two hands and use them independently. Most music is written for two hands; typically the right hand plays the
melody A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of Pitch (music), pitch and rhythm, while more figurativel ...
in the treble range, while the left plays an accompaniment of bass notes and chords in the
bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...
range. Examples of music written for the left hand alone include several of Leopold Godowsky's 53 Studies on Chopin's Etudes,
Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...
's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand and
Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''. , group=n ( – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who l ...
's Piano Concerto No. 4 for the left hand. In music that uses counterpoint technique, both hands play different melodies at the same time.


Other uses

A number of percussion instruments—such as the xylophone,
marimba The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...
,
vibraphone The vibraphone (also called the vibraharp) is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using Percussion mallet, mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone ...
, or
glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( ; or , : bells and : play) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a Musical keyboard, keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the v ...
— have pitched elements arranged in the keyboard layout. Rather than pressing a key, the performer typically strikes each element (e.g., a metal or wood bar) with a
mallet A mallet is a tool used for imparting force on another object, often made of rubber or sometimes wood, that is smaller than a maul or beetle, and usually has a relatively large head. General overview The term is descriptive of the ...
. There are some examples of a musical keyboard layout used for non-musical devices. For example, some of the earliest printing telegraph machines used a layout similar to a piano keyboard.The House Printing Telegraph (image)
/ref>


Keyboards with alternative sets of keys

There are some rare variations of keyboards with more or fewer than 12 keys per octave, mostly used in microtonal music, after the discoveries and theoretical developments of musician and inventor Julián Carrillo (1875–1965). Some free-reed instrument keyboards such as
accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...
s and Indian harmoniums include microtones. Electronic music pioneer Pauline Oliveros played one of these. Egyptian belly-dance musicians like Hossam Ramzy use custom-tuned accordions so they can play traditional scales. The small Garmon accordion played in the music of Azerbaijan sometimes has keys that can play microtones when a "shift" key is pressed.


See also

* Archicembalo, instrument with alternate keyboard with 36 keys *
Electronic keyboard An electronic keyboard, portable keyboard, or digital keyboard is an electronic musical instrument based on keyboard instruments. Electronic keyboards include synthesizers, digital pianos, stage pianos, electronic organs and digital audio work ...
* Isomorphic keyboard * Enharmonic keyboard * Fokker organ, 31TET tuned organ with alternate keyboard *
Keyboard instrument A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers that are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital piano ...
*
Keytar A keytar (a portmanteau of ''keyboard'' and ''guitar'') is a keyboard instrument similar to a synthesizer or MIDI controller that is supported by a strap around the neck and shoulders, similar to the way a guitar is held. Overview Though the ...
*
Piano key frequencies This is a list of the fundamental frequencies in hertz (cycles per second) of the keys of a modern 88-key standard or 108-key extended piano in twelve-tone equal temperament, with the 49th key, the fifth A (called A4), tuned to 440 Hz (refe ...


References

*


External links

{{Authority control Human–machine interaction