Music Theory 101: All About Those "Black Keys" On Piano

This week's post will talk about the black keys on the piano, or more formally, "accidentals". Technically, that term doesn't refer as specifically to those keys as they do to these icons...

But because the black keys are identified by the two icons above, they do fall under the term "accidentals" when it comes to the piano.

With an interval, or how far one note is from another note, each interval is measured by what are called "half steps" and "whole steps". For example, from C to that black note to the right of it is a "half step". If you go another half step, you'll run into D. From C to D is a "whole step", because it took you two half steps to get from C to D.

Wait.... What does this have to do with the black keys??? Each black key is named based on the white key that is a half step to the left and the white key that is a half step to the right. Since the black key is a half step higher (to the right) the white key on the left, it will be referred to as a "sharp" (the "hashtag" looking thing in the image above). And, since that black key is a half step lower (or to the left) of the white key on the right, it's called a "flat" (see image above). In essence, since each black key has a white key on each side, it has two names, and can be referred to as either one. The black key 1/2 step above C is called "C sharp" (C#), but since it's also 1/2 step lower than D, it's also called "D flat" (D♭). All the other black keys are named accordingly, as shown below:

Now here's where it gets a little more confusing: there are "accidentals" on the piano that aren't necessarily black keys (well, technically, every key can be an "accidental", but that's a whole nother post). For example, B is also "C flat", because B is a half step lower than C (notice there's no black key between them), and C can also be "B sharp", since it's a half step higher than B. Same concept with E/"F Flat" and F/"E sharp".

Before I finish this post, there's another accidental you should know about called the "natural":

The natural is used if a particular note has been "sharped" or "flatted" in sheet music and the composer wants you to play the original, or natural, note rather than the "sharp" or "flat". For example, say you see a "C sharp" in one measure. If you see another C in that measure after the C sharp that does not have a sharp next to it, you still play it as a sharp until the next measure kicks in, then everything goes back to normal. But say the composer wants you to play that next C as a regular C instead of C sharp. He'll put a natural next to it.

I hope this shed some light on how accidentals work. Be sure to check out some of my tabs above that talk more about who I am, my youtube videos/tutorials/piano covers, and the private Skype lessons I offer!