Lesson 4: 黑色琴鍵 (Black keys)

From the previous lessons, we see that all the lines and spaces on the staff are represented by a white key on the keyboard. So how are the black keys represented on the grand staff? Before we start to learn about the black keys, we must first learn the concept of whole step and half step.

When playing the C major scale, we learnt that some steps are whole steps and some are half steps. In particular, there is a half step between E and F, and another half step between B and C. Those are the same pairs of notes that do not have a black key between them, so there is only a half step between those pairs. All other pairs of notes that have a black key in between have a whole step between them. This pattern of whole and half steps will hold for ALL major scales.


Now, if we take a half step from C to the right, we will hit the black key that is immediately to its right. We call that black key "C sharp", and it is written as "C#". Similarly, the black key that is immediately to the right side of D is called D-sharp, and it is written as D#. From this, you can deduce that the rest of the black keys are F#, G#, and A# (from left to right). Simply speaking, a sharp will make a note a half-step higher.

There is also another way to write the notation of the black keys. In the last paragraph, we used a sharp to make a note a half-step higher. We can also make a note a half-step lower by adding a flat "b" to it. For example, the black key that is immediately to the left of B, we can call it B-flat, and it is written as Bb in music. Similarly, the rest of the black keys can be written as Ab, Gb, Eb, Db, respectively (from right to left).


Since there are two ways of writing and naming the black keys, naturally, that means each black key on the keyboard can be written in two ways. For example, the black key between C and D is half step higher than C, and is half step lower than D, so it can be written as either C# or Db. In other words, C# = Db. Similarly, D# = Eb, F# = Gb, G# = Ab, A# = Bb. Knowing how to write black keys in different ways is imporatant later on when we learn about keys other than C major. Perhaps this figure below will make memorizing the black keys easier:

Questions that you should be able to answer at the end of this lesson:

1. Why are some steps half steps in the C major scale, and why are the rest whole steps?
2. Where are the half steps in the C major scale?
3. What musical symbol should you use to make a note half step higher?
4. What musical symbol should you use to make a note half step lower?
5. Know how to name all the black keys in both ways.