Memorize Notes
A note is marked on the keyboard — pick its name from the buttons below. Your score and answer speed are tracked as you go. Use the gear button to choose which keys to practise, and the speaker button to hear each note.
About the piano keyboard
Every key is one semitone, so twelve keys make an octave: the thirteenth key up from any note is that same note again, one octave higher. That repetition is why the whole keyboard can be learned from one octave of information.
The black keys are the map. They alternate between groups of two and groups of three, and that pattern never breaks, so every white key can be identified from the group beside it: C sits left of a pair, F sits left of a triplet. Learning to read those groups at a glance is faster than counting up from the bottom of the keyboard.
Naming notes on sight is the foundation everything else rests on. Once you can find any note anywhere, chords and scales become something you build rather than something you recall, and a shape you have never played before stops being a mystery.
Using this tool
Use the gear button to narrow the practice range to a few keys, drill until the answers come without counting, then widen the range. Working one small region at a time is far more effective than covering three octaves at once.
Frequently asked questions
Why do the note names repeat up the keyboard?
Twelve semitones make an octave, and each key — white or black — is one semitone. Twelve keys up from any note is therefore the same note name again, one octave higher.
How do I find a note without counting from C?
Use the black keys as landmarks. They sit in alternating groups of two and three: C is always the white key immediately left of a group of two, and F is the white key immediately left of a group of three.
What is the fastest way to learn the keyboard notes?
Restrict yourself to a single octave and drill it until recall is automatic, then widen the range. Learning the white keys first pays off quickly, since every black key is then named relative to a white one you already know.
Practice this on your own piano
Pianolytics listens to your instrument and drills notes, scales and chords.