How Piano Keys Sound

Lesson 1-2:  How Piano Keys Sound

In the previous video we have learned to locate the C note in different parts of the keyboard. We are seeing this in the Yamaha PSR-E453, but obviously it works for any type of keyboard, be it electronic or an acoustic piano. This is very important to be clear from the beginning, you can use the trick of sticking small post-it labels with the name to help us at the beginning. These labels are then very easy to remove, and you can put them back if necessary, but over time we will do without them because we will learn the name of each piano key well.

In the Yamaha PSR-E453 there are a total of 6 C notes, spread over 5 octaves. The first note from the left and the last note from the right are the C note as well. This may vary on other keyboard types, they may be larger or smaller, thus having more or less octaves. Acoustic pianos typically have more octaves than electronic keyboards.

The concept of octave is also important, we call octave the distance between one note and the next of the same name, that is to say that from one C to another C there are 8 notes and we call this an octave. In the Yamaha PSR-E453 there are five octaves as we said before, which is usual in most keyboards. Acoustic pianos usually have seven octaves, in some cases more.

In this video we are going to see how the notes of the white keys sound starting on a C and going up to the next C. Do the exercise as in the video, and listen carefully to the sound of each note. At the same time say the name of the note out loud, that way we will get used to relating the sound, the position of the key and the name of the note. It is good to practice this exercise daily, even if it is only for a few minutes, in this way we will memorize the notes and sounds without even noticing.

The names of the notes are A, B, C, D , E F, and G which are 7, and at the end we can repeat the do again. We call the set of these seven notes and the repetition of the C the scale. We have to familiarize ourselves with the sound of the scale, for example using the piano sound that the Yamaha PSR-E453 has, which is really very good, or if we have other sounds on our keyboard, with the sound of strings, wind instruments , etc.