When it comes to learning and playing the piano, there are some clear differences between acoustic and electric instruments. For practical reasons, future owners of a piano or keyboard should consider which instrument is easier to own, maintain, and play.
There are several musical styles that you can learn on an electric keyboard and some that better fit an acoustic piano. Subtle differences in the feel of the keys may also factor into your purchasing decision. Review the following tips to discover if playing on a piano or keyboard is best.
The Musical Style You Want to Play
A digital piano is a versatile option for those who would like to learn many styles, or for those who have not yet discovered their musical preferences.
A pianist can successfully learn traditional styles, such as classical, blues, or jazz piano, as well as more modern electronic music with a keyboard. The latter style isn’t accomplished as easily on an acoustic piano without quality recording equipment and a knack for mixing software. Tip: Despite there being some excellent electronic replicas of the piano’s sound, as well as the option to buy standard foot pedals, many classical pianists prefer the feel of an acoustic piano.
Size and Feel of the Keys
Portable keyboards often have small, thin keys with a light, plastic feel. Fortunately, many modern digital pianos offer a more realistic experience with full-sized, weighted keys that feel like a real piano. For those who can only afford a keyboard but plan to eventually play on an acoustic, weighted keys are the way to go. Switching to an acoustic instrument might prove to be a bit of a challenge while your hands adjust to the added labor if you first learn on light and unweighted keys.
Tip: Keyboards with graded hammer-action, also known as scaled hammer-action, take the realistic feel a step further by giving the bass octaves a heavier touch than treble notes.
Keyboard Range
A piano has 88 notes, which range from A0 to C8 (middle C is C4). Many digital pianos can be found in this size, but smaller ranges such as 61 or 76 keys are more common and cost-friendly alternatives. A lot of piano music can be played in full on 76-key models, as the highest and lowest keys on the board are often ignored by composers. Early classical piano and harpsichord music may even be played on 61-key models since the range of early keyboard instruments was a couple octaves shorter than today.
Tip: When planning to use a keyboard to mix and record with music-editing software, a smaller range is suitable. Pitch and octave can be manipulated easily during the editing process.
Purchasing and Maintenance Budget
Whether buying one new or used, you can expect to pay at least a couple thousand dollars, which does not include the cost of tuning and repairs, for a decent acoustic piano. The latter depends on the piano’s condition and how often it needs to be tuned in a specific climate. Portable keyboards range from $100 to $500, and digital pianos average $300 to $1,000. The 76-key models offer a wide range of notes while still remaining cost-effective, but price tends to jump up considerably for a full set of 88 keys.
Tip: For a full-sized keyboard with a lower price tag, use a capable computer with 88-key MIDI controllers. These can be found for as low as $300 to $500 on M-Audio’s line of instruments.
Present and Future Living Arrangements
Keyboards are more convenient spatially, and some apartment landlords do not allow tenants to keep an acoustic piano in their residences. One reason is the issue of sound-transmission through floors and walls, and headphones are simply not an option. Another reason is the dilemma of getting the instrument into the building itself. Moving a piano up or down tight stairwells and through doorways can damage walls, door frames, or the piano itself. Even if the move is a successful one, it will undoubtedly be a costly one.
Tip: A 50-pound keyboard can usually be shipped to your new home for anywhere between $50 to $150 if you are planning to move long-distance.
The Mind-Blowing Virtual Piano Keyboard App
New version! Play, learn and record using the most advanced virtual piano keyboard app. Session Town has the best online piano games, including the piano simulator. But, to be honest, this is much more than a game.
These are some of its features:
Change the sound of the online keyboard.
Play the online piano with a mouse, with your fingers if you have a touch screen, with your computer's keyboard, or even with a real piano (to learn the songs).
Record your songs.
Search among thousands of songs.
Learn to play piano songs with the easy step by step method.
The Sounds of the Online Keyboard
The Virtual Keyboard can produce many, not only piano. These are the available sounds:
Piano
Organ (such as church organs)
Sawtooth (used widely in Rock)
Flute
Vintage
Electro
We would love to hear from you. If you are interested in new sounds, please follow us on social media or please leave a comment at the end of this page.
Play the Online Piano with your Computer's Keyboard
You can use the keyboard of your computer to play the online piano. To see which letters and numbers activate each notes, please activate the 'physical keyboard' button. Use the following image for reference.
As you can see, we have highlighted some keys in red and others in black. You can change the pitch of the notes using the arrow keys. The left and right arrows change the pitch of the black keys. The up and down arrows modify the red keys.
Record Your Songs Using the Virtual Piano Keyboard
Record your songs online. We will use your Facebook account to store your songs. But don't worry, we will never post on your Facebook account. We only use your Facebook account to be able to store your music.
When you record a song, you have two options:
Mark the song as a public song. This way your song will be included in the library and people will be able to search for it.
Mark the song as private. Your song won't appear in the search results.
Don't mark as public any song that may have copyrights. Keep in mind that you are responsable for every public song that you record. You are legally responsable if there are copyright claims.
To start recording, click on the 'Record Song' button. Then play your song. When you are done, click on the 'Stop Recording' button. Now you can write a title for your song and select if is is a public or private song. The app will store the notes and also the sounds that you have selected.
Learn to Play Piano Songs Online
Search among thousands of songs. We are not overreacting, our users have recorded more than 50.000 songs!
You can learn to play piano songs online with the virtual keyboard. When you click on the 'play' button of any recorded song, you will see the played notes highlighted on the keyboard. If that is too fast for a given song, you can try the previous or next note buttons.
With the Learning Mode turned on, the following note that has to be played will be highlighted. If you play the right notes, the piano app will highlight the following note.
Play with a Real Piano using MIDI
If you have a real piano, the virtual keyboard is a great addition to learn new songs. You can play the Online Piano using a real piano keyboard that supports the MIDI technology (Most of them do). MIDI is the technology that makes possible for musical instruments to communicate among each other. Connect your real musical keyboard using a USB cable.
If it is not working, click on the 'MIDI' button, this will detect new connections. Or try realoading the page.
The Notes on the Piano Keyboard
If you want to learn the piano notes and keys in depth, check this awesome guide.
The musical notes names are: A, B, C, D, E, F and G. We use the white keys on the keyboard to play those notes in that same order. If you see a music keyboard, you will notice that black keys make groups of two black keys followed by a group of three black keys. It is always a pattern of two and then three black keys. The white key that is just before the last black key in the group of three black keys is the note A.
The musical notes on the black keys use the same names but adding accidentals: sharps (#) and flats (b). The black key after A is A sharp. Think of the term sharp as the closer note to the right. That is why A sharp is the key after A. That same black key is B flat. Think of the term flat as the closer note to the left. That is why B flat is the note just to the left of B.
You can also name the musical notes using syllables:
A: La
B: Ti
C: Do
D: Re
E: Mi
F: Fa
G: Sol
You can find many keys on the keyboard that use the same note name, but when played, they don't sound exactly the same. The complete set of music notes names is called an octave. The piano keyboard has many octaves. Our virtual piano has six octaves.
Learning music theory is very useful to play any instrument, including the virtual piano. Learning the musical notes on the piano is the perfect starting point.
If you don't know anything about music, we have the solution. You have two options:
Complete our free and easy music theory course.
In a hurry? Learn the musical notes on the piano on YouTube.
Solving problems with the Online Piano
We have tested the online piano keyboard in many devices to ensure the best experience. Including smartphones, tablets, iPads, laptops and desktop computers. The best Web Browser to play the virtual piano keyboard is Google Chrome.
But we know that things can go wrong. If by any chance you are not able to play the virtual piano, the following tips can help you:
Be sure to use the latest version of a modern browser like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge.
Facebook has its own browser that does not support the technology of the virtual keyboard. If you got here using Facebook, please copy the link and paste it in your favorite browser.
If you don't hear any sound, the volume might be too low. When only some keys of the piano are not producing any sound, it is because of your device speakers. Please use headphones instead.
Sounds come late (Latency): when you play a key and the sound does not play inmediatly, but after a second, that is because your device is running out of memory. Try to close all other apps or restart your device. If that does not solve the latency, then you will need a more powerful device to play the keyboard.
If you get a mesage saying that the browser does not support the technology to play the virtual keyboard, your only option is to use another browser.
Please cntact us below and leave comments if you have any problem.
More virtual instruments
We have other virtual instruments and piano games for you to play online. Play the virtual drum. Improve your timing using the online metronome app.
We are always happy to hear from you. Please follow us on social media.
A full size keyboard usually refers to some of the larger keyboards that are purchased with computers. They typically include all alphabet keys, most often arranged in the QWERTY configuration, which include the row of numbers and symbols above the letters, function keys, shift, space, directional keys with arrows, and a number pad located to the right of the keys, which may be helpful in ten-key and data entry operations. Such keyboards are generally at least 17 inches (43.18 cm) wide and about 6 inches (15.24 cm) or more deep.
There are distinct advantages to a full size keyboard because it contains all the extra keys, and plenty of space to type with generous spaces in between keys. It’s roughly similar to key space and width of typewriters, though a bit smaller, and it may be appreciated by those who learned to type on a typewriter instead of smaller computer keyboards. Smaller keyboards are certainly widely available, and they may save space by eliminating some keys, shrinking space in between keys or doing both. These may not be as easy to work with for those used to full sized keyboards, though they have their advantages too, and have been particularly appreciated for use with small-sized laptops. Shrinking the keyboard can mean reducing overall weight and size of a laptop, though there’s been some movement back toward larger ones, especially for people who want larger screens or larger keyboards.
Home » Piano Notes » Layout Piano Keys
In this page (which is a crucial part of both our piano courses) I will draw a piano keyboard template that will show you where each keys is located on the piano along with it name.
But first I'd like to point at the directions of the piano so that you'll understand what I mean when I say: 'Go higher or lower on the piano.'
So, you want me to layout piano keys for you?
Directions
Going up on the keyboard means we are playing higher and thinner sounds.
When we go down the sound gets deeper and lower.
Remember these directions as we continue in our piano lesson. From now on we will name them so.
How to Tell One Key from the Other?
When you layout piano keys one after the other, can you see a pattern in the way the keyboard is organized?
Now if you look at the keyboard you'll notice there are black keys and white keys. The black keys are divided to groups of 2's and 3's.
This pattern helps us to orient ourselves on the keyboard.
We name the keys after the first seven letters of the alphabet.
Try to call out the letter from A to G as fast as possible. Now try to do the same but backwards. Harder, right? :) This is a funny exercise to do and will help you to realize faster where you're at on the piano.
A is the lowest white key on the piano. The other keys are named respectively after that first A.
It's easy to spot the white keys by the black ones. Look at the images. This layout piano keys shows you where a specific key is located.
'This printable piano keyboard template was the ultimate answer for my needs. You really layout piano keys for me!'
Click here if you haven't signed to Piano Playground, our free E-zine yet. Make sure you do that in order to get the username and password codes for the printable layout of piano keys I provide here under.
This is a Printable Piano Key Chart. Click here to view it.
Try to find all the C keys on the piano. There are 8 of them. (Maybe less if you have a keyboard or a smaller instrument).
Middle C
Let me continue to layout piano keys for you. The C key, which is located nearest the middle of the piano (under the brand name of the piano) is called 'middle C'. You can see it here in the image next to its fellow keys.
Play an orientation game to get familiar with the piano keys. Press on a key blindly, open your eyes and try to figure out as fast as possible which key you're playing.
Done with this Layout Piano Keys Page? Perfect.
The good news is that know that you know the different piano keys you can play piano by ear. I know that many student don't like the idea of reading notes. Happily, the '300pg Piano By Ear Home Study Course' by Hear and Play is made for this purpose exactly. It is accessible for beginners and you'll hear yourself playing beautiful songs before you know it. See for yourself - take a look at the 'Piano By Ear' Piano Course Now!