The piano or piano, like keyboard instruments, has long been one of the most preferred. Having carefully studied the question of how many keys a piano has, it will immediately become clear that regardless of tonality, you can write music of any genre.
Classical piano keyboard
The fact is that modern pianos and pianos often do not support the standard arrangement of the lower and upper case keys.
In the classical version, the lowest note is the note “la” of the subcontract, and the highest note is the “before” of the seventh octave. This is only due to the fact that other sounds are outside the range of audibility of the human ear. The range of audibility in the classical version looks like this: subcontroctava, starting with the note “la”, controctava, large octave, small octave, first, etc. octaves. Everything ends on the fifth octave. What follows is an incomplete sixth octave, and sometimes an incomplete seventh octave, represented by only one key.
Piano and piano
In most cases, do not think about how many white keys a piano has and how many black ones. The fact is that all the keys are arranged according to several principles, which provide a clear division into octaves, which are used in playing the instrument or in writing music. So the piano octaves correspond to the basic rules for the distribution of notes on the keyboard.
The question about how many keys a piano has can be answered as follows: the standard keyboard contains 88 keys. They are distributed over special segments called octaves. Pay attention to the position of notes on the keyboard and the number of octaves. The fact is that a real piano keyboard is a standard. It starts with the note “la” in the lowest register and ends with the note “do” located on top. It is believed that the lowest and highest notes are on the threshold of hearing, which is perceived by the human ear. In other words, the range of notes played and audible sounds ranges from 16 Hz to 20 kHz. Actually, the entire piano keyboard also works in this range. Electronic pianos are capable of reproducing the same sounds in the specified range.
With all this, it is necessary to understand the principle of gamma construction. More than 12 notes cannot be present in any key, as these are seven white and five black keys. Let's start, for example, from the note “to”. Here it becomes clear that such a separation is very arbitrary, since not all notes can correspond to the original scale, especially when it comes to the maximum number of key characters or keys like B-sharp minor. In fact, in terms of sound it will be the usual C sharp minor or D flat minor, although it is now taken into account precisely the sharp keys in which the flats are not provided at all. Accordingly, there will be much more signs of alteration . When determining how many keys a piano or piano has, you need to pay attention to the specifics of the instrument itself, since different keyboard instruments may not exactly match the number of keys.
Without a doubt, it is impossible not to note the classical pianos, which have become a kind of standard instruments. The first in this regard were Steinway and August Forster. The most interesting thing is that the so-called “forsters” are made in single instances of ivory from the body to the keys. If you count how many keys a piano has (a concert grand piano or an ordinary piano), you will notice that almost always the keyboard fully corresponds to the classic 88-key look. Exceptions are met, but extremely rare.
Gamma on the keyboard
Many novice pianists may not even know the theory of music and the basics of scales or modes. However, even despite such ignorance, one can use many variations, arpeggios, triads or chords with their appeals, without even thinking about what a non-standard harmonic series or fret will be. The most interesting thing is that many beginners almost intuitively use certain chords or transitions. But in order to approach the construction of scales from the point of view of music science, here it is necessary to start from the classical rules of music theory.
In the case of an unfolded major or minor scale, the sequence is played according to key signs with the condition of respecting the fingering. When playing speed chromatic sequences, things are much simpler. Here, as a rule, only three fingers are used for pianists. It starts with the thumb, and then there is the alternation of the thumb, index and middle finger.
Electronic synthesizers
Modern synthesizers, which are electronic pianos, use a variety of keyboard options. Keyboards of the lower and middle level do not have a fully-weighted keyboard, which is typical for real pianos. But real workstations (Digital Workstation) for the most part use just the standard number of keys. A striking example of such tools can be Korg Kronos, Yamaha Motif, Kurzweil K2500 / 2600, etc.
Modern pianos and home pianos only to a small extent convey all the shades that they got from medieval harpsichords and clavichords. At that time, it was believed that these instruments had an unnatural sound, and having a piano at home was an exceptional luxury.
Nevertheless, it can be said right away that over time the pianos and piano entered our life very tightly. And now we can see notes and hear sounds that are in the range of the standard keyboard.
Octaves and their use
It is interesting regarding the use of harmonies and octaves that many musicians have tried. The same King Diamond can easily jump from one note to another in the range of four and a half octaves. Moreover, he still manages to change his voice, which should correspond to each character of his concert. In this case, we are talking about how many octaves can fit in the range of the human voice. And this singer uses octaves so simply that sometimes you wonder. The very notes in the octaves of the piano can very often serve to emphasize the emotional perception of a particular composition.
If you look at how many octaves the piano has, the octave of the piano can be present on the keyboard in greater numbers, as different manufacturers sometimes produce non-standard instruments. But many musicians prefer them, considering them easier to use when long scales and arpeggios are not required.
MIDI devices and workstations
With the advent of the control format for “iron” instruments based on the transmission of signal and data to a specific channel, virtual studios and input devices connected to them became commonplace. They are usually available in several basic keyboard options that can simply connect to a computer or laptop using a USB cable, MIDI cord, and ASIO4ALL drivers with Full Duplex support. This is the best option. However, despite this, the driver itself allows you to use not only a special keyboard, but also a virtual one.
Virtual Keyboards and VST Synthesizers
Today you can find a lot of virtual programs for sound recording and synthesizers that reproduce completely unrealistic sounds and effects. It doesn’t matter how many keys this type of piano has. And here it is worth paying attention to the very popular Kontakt 5 tool. In one person, it combines a sampler, a romler, and an editor that can work regardless of the load on the VST host.
In addition, most virtual plugins are designed specifically for a professional keyboard in the form of a plug-in module or the ability to play on a standard laptop keyboard. Such applications usually have their own virtual keyboard, on which you can extract sounds by pressing the mouse cursor or the association of letter keys on the main keyboard.
Conclusion
As already clear, the answer to the question of how many keys a piano has depends on the type of instrument (piano, piano or synthesizer). In the most common version, you can even find electronic keyboards with a layout of 88, 76, 49 or 25 keys. Naturally, a full-weighted piano keyboard is preferable, however, in some cases, for the convenience of the game, you can use the simplest instruments to get the required sound from a virtual synthesizer through the use of a MIDI controller.