The Piano

The Piano or fortepiano was invented in the classical period. The piano is a tuned percussion instrument but is also used as a solo instrument. To make a sound on the piano you press down a key, this in turn presses down a small hammer inside the piano which hits a string.

A piano is made up of white notes and black notes.

This is a short video clip of the piano playing, hover your mouse over the video clip below to start playing:

The note highlighted in Red is C on the piano. On the piano middle C is the note to the left of the two black notes and it is positioned in the centre of the piano.

When written on a stave middle C looks like this:

Below are seven of the white notes. these notes are the first notes you play when learning the piano.

Red: C Green: D Pink: E Yellow: F Purple: G Orange: B Light Blue: C

Now you know some of the notes on the piano, do you want to try and. play some simple tunes: if so click here