Why are a piano’s black keys arranged in groups of three and two?
In: 44
There are 12 notes in total.
However only 7 are used in a major scale.
Pianos are in C major, so the notes used in the scale are white and the remaining 5 are black.
As for why they are in that specific grouping, that’s just due to the definition of a major scale.
Major scales are defined as:
1) starting note
2) note after next
3) note after next
4) next note
5) note after next
6) note after next
7) note after next
8) next note and we are back to the starting note but an octave higher.
The notes that are skipped are the black keys and this is why they are in the 2, 3 pattern.
Western music scales basically boil down to the mathematical coincidence that:
2^(7)=128 ≈ (3/2)^(12)≈129.7
This gives us the circle of fifths, 12 semitones in an octave, and scales with 7 notes per octave. Then, the most evenly spaced way to take 7 steps to go 12 semitones is 2+2+1+2+2+2+1 which is a major scale. Making the skipped 5 notes black gives the groups of 2 and 3 you see on keyboard instruments.
Western music scales basically boil down to the mathematical coincidence that:
2^(7)=128 ≈ (3/2)^(12)≈129.7
This gives us the circle of fifths, 12 semitones in an octave, and scales with 7 notes per octave. Then, the most evenly spaced way to take 7 steps to go 12 semitones is 2+2+1+2+2+2+1 which is a major scale. Making the skipped 5 notes black gives the groups of 2 and 3 you see on keyboard instruments.
Western music scales basically boil down to the mathematical coincidence that:
2^(7)=128 ≈ (3/2)^(12)≈129.7
This gives us the circle of fifths, 12 semitones in an octave, and scales with 7 notes per octave. Then, the most evenly spaced way to take 7 steps to go 12 semitones is 2+2+1+2+2+2+1 which is a major scale. Making the skipped 5 notes black gives the groups of 2 and 3 you see on keyboard instruments.
Let me try a shorter EL5.
So in music, notes are arranged in a repeating pattern. Each repeat has 12 notes, arranged like “W-B-W-B-W-W-B-W-B-W-B-W” (W = “white key” note, B=”black key” note). If you ignore the white keys, that is essentially what you observed a “groups of three and two”, except you started with the “group of three”. But since it’s repetitive, it’s the same.
Each repeat is called an “octave” in music, and all the twelve notes (7 whites, and 5 blacks) are actually created equal from a physics point. Let call them note 1 to 12 (note 1,3,5,6,8,10,12 are white and 2,4,7,9,11 are black on piano). It turns out that playing from 1 to 12 without skipping doesn’t sounds that great (you can try if you have a piano), and the western people really likes it when you play the sequence but skips the 2,4,7,9,11th notes. So the designer of the piano made the keys for the “good ones” larger, and colored them white*, and the not so pleasant ones smaller, and colored them “black” and put them in the back a bit.
An interesting bit is that the Chinese and the Japanese likes to skip more, as they only have 5 “white keys” (Chinese, 1,3,5,8,10; Japanese 1,2,6,8,9). That’s how their music have a special “feeling”.
* Feel that rather racism to say that, but I feel that is more accidental. Harpsicord, the precede of piano, actually have color swapped.
In a nutshell, there’s a total of 12 notes. The white notes are part of the C mayor scale, the black ones are the “other” notes.
(Please correct me if I’m wrong)
Let me try a shorter EL5.
So in music, notes are arranged in a repeating pattern. Each repeat has 12 notes, arranged like “W-B-W-B-W-W-B-W-B-W-B-W” (W = “white key” note, B=”black key” note). If you ignore the white keys, that is essentially what you observed a “groups of three and two”, except you started with the “group of three”. But since it’s repetitive, it’s the same.
Each repeat is called an “octave” in music, and all the twelve notes (7 whites, and 5 blacks) are actually created equal from a physics point. Let call them note 1 to 12 (note 1,3,5,6,8,10,12 are white and 2,4,7,9,11 are black on piano). It turns out that playing from 1 to 12 without skipping doesn’t sounds that great (you can try if you have a piano), and the western people really likes it when you play the sequence but skips the 2,4,7,9,11th notes. So the designer of the piano made the keys for the “good ones” larger, and colored them white*, and the not so pleasant ones smaller, and colored them “black” and put them in the back a bit.
An interesting bit is that the Chinese and the Japanese likes to skip more, as they only have 5 “white keys” (Chinese, 1,3,5,8,10; Japanese 1,2,6,8,9). That’s how their music have a special “feeling”.
* Feel that rather racism to say that, but I feel that is more accidental. Harpsicord, the precede of piano, actually have color swapped.
Let me try a shorter EL5.
So in music, notes are arranged in a repeating pattern. Each repeat has 12 notes, arranged like “W-B-W-B-W-W-B-W-B-W-B-W” (W = “white key” note, B=”black key” note). If you ignore the white keys, that is essentially what you observed a “groups of three and two”, except you started with the “group of three”. But since it’s repetitive, it’s the same.
Each repeat is called an “octave” in music, and all the twelve notes (7 whites, and 5 blacks) are actually created equal from a physics point. Let call them note 1 to 12 (note 1,3,5,6,8,10,12 are white and 2,4,7,9,11 are black on piano). It turns out that playing from 1 to 12 without skipping doesn’t sounds that great (you can try if you have a piano), and the western people really likes it when you play the sequence but skips the 2,4,7,9,11th notes. So the designer of the piano made the keys for the “good ones” larger, and colored them white*, and the not so pleasant ones smaller, and colored them “black” and put them in the back a bit.
An interesting bit is that the Chinese and the Japanese likes to skip more, as they only have 5 “white keys” (Chinese, 1,3,5,8,10; Japanese 1,2,6,8,9). That’s how their music have a special “feeling”.
* Feel that rather racism to say that, but I feel that is more accidental. Harpsicord, the precede of piano, actually have color swapped.
In a nutshell, there’s a total of 12 notes. The white notes are part of the C mayor scale, the black ones are the “other” notes.
(Please correct me if I’m wrong)
In a nutshell, there’s a total of 12 notes. The white notes are part of the C mayor scale, the black ones are the “other” notes.
(Please correct me if I’m wrong)
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