Virtual Piano

Common questions

Which computer keys play which notes?

The bottom row of letters is the lower octave, and the row above it carries that octave's sharps: Z is C, X is D, C is E, V is F, B is G, N is A and M is B, with S, D, G, H and J as C sharp, D sharp, F sharp, G sharp and A sharp. The octave above sits on the two rows further up: Q, W, E, R, T, Y and U are its white keys and 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 are its sharps. Press Labels and every key on screen shows the computer key that plays it. Holding a key holds the note, and several keys at once sound together as a chord. The letters are the ones a US QWERTY keyboard sends, so on another layout the two rows sit in the same place but send different letters, and clicking or tapping a key always works.

Is anything downloaded or uploaded?

No. There is no sample library and no audio file: each note is generated by the browser's own audio engine from the frequency this page computes for it, which is why the first key sounds at once rather than after a download. Nothing you play leaves the page, there is no account, and after your first visit the page is cached so it still plays with no connection. The only things kept between visits are the octave you chose and whether the key labels are on, stored in this browser and nowhere else.

Why is it tuned to A4 = 440 Hz, and what if my instrument is not?

440 Hz for the A above middle C is the modern concert-pitch standard, and it is the one reference every note here is measured from: each semitone up multiplies the frequency by the twelfth root of two, each octave doubles it, and middle C comes out at 261.626 Hz. Plenty of ensembles sit elsewhere, at 442 or 443, at 415 for early music, or wherever an old upright has drifted to. This page plays 440 and nothing else, so if you are tuning to another standard, use it for the intervals rather than the absolute pitch: the distance between two keys is the same wherever the reference sits.

Can it record or export what I played?

It does not record or export audio. What it does instead is the score: press Score and every note you play is written down by name in the order you played it, up to the last 200, and the list can be copied as text or cleared. That list lives in the page for this visit only, so a reload starts an empty one. It holds the notes and their order and nothing about timing: how long you held each key is not written down. The one thing it does download is a picture: a finished ten-note quiz challenge can be saved as a PNG result card.

Can I quiz myself on the note names?

Yes. Press Quiz and the letters leave the keys, so there is nothing to read off. Find the note shows a letter and you press that key on the board, or type its computer key, and either octave counts. Name the key lights one key, plays it, and you pick its name from the row of letter chips. Either way the asked key lights up with its name once you have answered, right or wrong, and the readout fills in, so a mistake shows you the answer rather than just marking it. It starts on the seven white keys, and Sharps too adds the ten black keys to the questions and their five sharp names to the chips. The same note is never asked twice running. The score, shown as right answers out of questions asked, lasts for this visit only: it is not saved, so leaving the page forgets it, and there is no account to keep it in.

Can I play it on a phone or a tablet?

Yes. Tap a key and it sounds, hold it and the note holds. On a narrow screen the keyboard keeps all fourteen white keys and scrolls sideways rather than shrinking them below the size of a fingertip, so you swipe along the board to reach the top of the range. Browsers will not play any sound until the page has been touched once, which is why the very first tap both wakes the audio and plays its note.

Do I need to download anything to play it on a PC, Mac or Chromebook?

No. It runs in any current browser on Windows, macOS, ChromeOS and Linux, as well as on phones and tablets, and there is no installer, plugin or sample pack to fetch. In Chrome and Edge the page may offer Install Gizmobench, which adds the site as an app with its own window, and after your first visit the page is cached so it still plays with no connection. It is not a plugin for music software, and it does not take input from a MIDI keyboard: the keys are the ones on screen and the computer keys mapped to them.

Can it play chords, and why not all 88 keys?

Yes to chords: hold two or more keys, on the board or on the computer keyboard, and they sound together while the status line lists every note that is down. To get a chord's name from the keys, or the keys for a named chord, use Piano Chord Finder. The board is 24 keys, two octaves, because that is what two rows of a computer keyboard can play, and the octave control starts it on C3, C4 or C5, which reaches from C3 up to B6. A full piano has 88 keys from A0 to C8, and this page does not draw them all.

Are there easy songs to play, and is it good for beginners?

The Virtual Piano Sheets page has seven easy public-domain tunes, among them Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Ode to Joy and Für Elise, written as the computer keys that play them here. For a beginner this page teaches where the notes are: Labels prints the computer key on every piano key, and Quiz asks you to find or name notes until you know them without looking. What it cannot teach is touch or rhythm: a computer key plays every note at the same volume, and nothing here keeps time. Songs under copyright are not written out on that page.

Why does it sound like a tone rather than a real piano?

Because that is what it is: each key plays one sine wave at the note's frequency, with a short attack and a fade when you let go, not a recording of a hammer hitting a string. A piano's sound is that hammer, the strings and the soundboard together, and reproducing it means shipping a sample library that has to load before the first note sounds. The trade here is deliberate, and the page says which side of it you are on: the pitch is exact and immediate, and Sustain holds each note ringing for about a second and a half after release, the way the right pedal does.

How do ten-note challenges work?

Open Quiz and choose Start ten-note challenge. It asks you to find ten notes on the white keys of the default two octaves, and a skipped question counts as wrong. When you finish, copy or share the challenge link, or download your result as a PNG card. The link carries only the number that picks the questions, how many there are and the score you got, so a friend who opens it is asked the same ten notes and can share a result of their own. Scores are self-reported, not checked. Start over plays the same ten again, and Return to practice gives you back the full quiz controls. Ordinary practice rounds do not make a challenge link.