Piano Notes: All 88 Piano Keys Labelled

The piano notes are named with the letters A to G, repeating up the keyboard. A full piano has 88 keys, 52 white and 36 black, from A0 to C8. Middle C (C4) is key 40. Find C to the left of any two black keys and F to the left of any three; black keys are sharps or flats.

Updated 1 November 2026 · By the Classfern Music Department

UKUSWorks in the UK and the US. This version uses UK music words (bar, semitone, crotchet, stave); the US version uses measure, half step, quarter note and staff. · US version of this page

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Key facts

• A full piano has 88 keys: 52 white and 36 black, from A0 (27.50 Hz) to C8 (4,186.01 Hz).
• White keys use the letters A B C D E F G, over and over.
• Black keys come in groups of two and three: C is left of the two, F is left of the three.
• Each black key has two names: C♯ = D♭, D♯ = E♭, F♯ = G♭, G♯ = A♭, A♯ = B♭.
• Middle C is C4, key 40 of 88, at 261.63 Hz; the A above it (A4, key 49) is 440 Hz.
• One octave is 12 keys: 7 white and 5 black.

Playable piano notes chart and Find the note game

Open the playable keyboard to hear any of the 88 keys and see its name, key number and frequency. Change the labels to letter names, octave numbers, do re mi or key numbers. Then play Find the note: 10 notes to find, one at a time.

Open the playable 88-key keyboardLabels Letter and octave (C4)Letters, with sharps and flatsDo re mi (C = do)Key numbers 1–88No labels (test yourself)

Find the note White keys near middle C (C3 to C6)Any white keyAny key, black or whiteStart Find the note

Marked by Classfern Classfern counts the notes you find first time out of 10. If you miss twice, the right key lights up.

Sounds are made in your browser. This tool never uses the microphone, and nothing is recorded, saved or sent.

How do you find the notes on a piano?

Find the notes on a piano using the black keys. The white key just left of each group of two black keys is C, and the white key just left of each group of three is F. From C, the white keys go C D E F G A B, then start again at C.

1. Find a group of two black keys. The white key to its left is C, the one between the two is D, and the one to the right is E.
2. Find a group of three black keys. The white keys around it are F, G, A and B.
3. Black keys borrow their names. The black key above C is C♯ (C sharp); the same key below D is D♭ (D flat).
4. Count the octave. Every C starts a new octave, and the number after the letter tells you which one: C4 is middle C, C5 the next C up.

What are the piano keys labelled?

The white piano keys are labelled with the letters A to G, repeating every octave, and the black keys are sharps or flats of the white keys next to them. Each key also has an octave number, so the full piano runs from A0, B0, C1 and so on up to C8.

This is called scientific pitch notation: the letter names the note and the number names the octave, which always changes at C. So the notes just below middle C are A3 and B3, and just above it are D4 and E4. The full list of all 88 keys follows; on the playable chart above you can switch the labels to octave numbers, key numbers or do re mi.

Where is middle C on the piano?

Middle C is the fourth C from the left on an 88-key piano: key 40, near the centre of the keyboard, usually close to the maker’s name. It is called C4 and vibrates at about 261.63 Hz. On a 61-key keyboard it is usually the third C from the left.

Middle C is the meeting point of the two staves in piano music: written on a ledger line below the treble stave it is the same key as on a ledger line above the bass stave. In the right-hand C position the thumb plays middle C; in the left-hand C position the little finger plays the C an octave below (C3).

How many keys does a piano have?

A standard acoustic or digital piano has 88 keys: 52 white keys and 36 black keys, covering just over seven octaves from A0 to C8. Smaller keyboards often have 61, 49 or 25 keys, which are enough to learn on but cannot play the lowest and highest notes.

The ranges of smaller keyboards differ between makers, and many have an octave button that moves the whole keyboard up or down. For learning, 61 keys are usually enough for the first few years; for classical pieces you will want the full 88.

How do the piano keys match the notes on the stave?

Each line and space of the stave is one white key. On the treble stave the lines are E G B D F and the spaces F A C E, from E4 to F5; on the bass stave the lines are G B D F A and the spaces A C E G, from G2 to A3. A sharp or flat sign moves to the black key next door.

Treble clef lines and spaces (right hand, from E4 above middle C):

Bass clef lines and spaces (left hand, from G2):

To learn reading step by step, use treble clef notes and bass clef notes in Classfern’s free reading course.

Piano note frequencies

Pianos are tuned in equal temperament: each key is the twelfth root of 2 (about 1.0595) times the frequency of the key below it, so every octave doubles the frequency. With A4 at 440 Hz, A3 is 220 Hz, A5 is 880 Hz and the lowest A, A0, is 27.5 Hz. The table above gives every key to two decimal places. Real pianos are often “stretch tuned”, with the top notes a little sharp and the bottom notes a little flat, so a tuner’s readings may differ slightly from the table.

Classfern’s free piano notes chart is part of the Classfern Music Department at lessonplanner.info. Print it, or keep the page open beside your keyboard.

Print the piano notes chart

Quiz: piano notes

Marked by Classfern 6 multiple-choice questions on the Classfern lesson engine. Your answers stay on this device.

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