The first thing you want to do as a beginner piano student is to thoroughly learn the names of the white keys.  These names need to be so deeply imprinted and ingrained into your long-term memory and subconscious that identification and recognition of each key is instantaneous.

In the same way that your ID’ing and recognizing any member of our 16-letter alphabet takes less than a “billisecond”, your identification and recognition of the piano key names should be just as fast or faster! (:-)

The inevitable question of, “How to study and achieve this task of knowing the piano keys?”, is usually among the first questions asked by enquiring minds.  In this post, I’m going to recommend cue-cards as a method of study.

Cue-cards have been used in the movies and TV since the 30s and 40s but they were also used in many walks of education for years and years and more years upon years before that!. Like wire recorders pre-dated tape recorders, cue-cards pre-date all of the modern computer study methods like Flash and Java applets. However, using computer technology to recreate the old-fashioned card study method only enhances it and makes it more efficient and fun!

I’ve brought three ready-made cue-card helpers into the blog this week to help you get started with really getting to know the piano key names. This activity is mainly for beginners but if you’re further along and you need a refresher, or if you’re just curious, then, by all means, please visit this page as often as you like.

I suggest that you thoroughly work your way through each of the three itemized applets in numerical order. Of the four on-board study modes, I found the Flashcard and Scatter modes worked best. Have fun!

Piano Key Name Practice Item #1 (White Keys aka Natural Keys)

Piano Key Name Practice Item #2 (Keys named as Sharps and/or Flats)

Piano Key Name Practice Item #3 (All Piano Key Names)