How many keys do pianos, pianos and synthesizers have?

The piano or piano, like keyboards, has long been one of the most preferred. Having studied carefully the question of how many keys the piano has, it will immediately become clear that, regardless of the tonality, you can write music of any genre.

Classic piano keyboard

The fact is that modern grand pianos and pianos often do not support the standard arrangement of the lower and upper keys.

In the classical version, the lowest note is the note "la" of the subcontract, and the highest one - "up to" the seventh octave. This is due only to the fact that other sounds are outside the range of hearing the human ear. The audibility range in the classical version looks like this: subcontractive, beginning with the note "la", kontraktava, large octave, small octave, first, etc. Octaves. It all ends on the fifth octave. Next comes the incomplete sixth octave, and sometimes the incomplete seventh octave, represented by only one key.

Grand piano and piano

In most cases, do not think about how many white keys the piano has, and how many are black. The fact is that all keys are arranged according to several principles, where there is a clear division into octaves, which are used in the game on the instrument or in writing music. So, the piano octaves correspond to the basic rules for distribution of notes on the keyboard.

On the question of how many keys the piano has, you can answer it like this: the standard keyboard contains 88 keys. They are distributed on special segments, called octaves. Note the position of the notes on the keyboard and the number of octaves. The fact is that this piano keyboard is a certain standard. It begins with a note "A" in the lowest case and ends with a note "up", located on top. It is believed that the lowest and upper notes are at the threshold of audibility, which perceives the human ear. In other words, the range of played notes and audible sounds is in the range from 16 Hz to 20 kHz. Actually, the whole piano keyboard works in this range. Electronic pianos are able to reproduce the same sounds in the specified range.

With all this, it is necessary to understand the principle of gamma construction. In any key, more than 12 notes can not be present, since these are seven white and five black keys. Let's start, for example, from the note "before". 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 marks or keys, such as a double-sharp minor. In fact, it sounds like a regular C-minor minor or D-minor in sound, although it is precisely the sharp tonalities in which the flats are not provided at all. Accordingly, there will be much more signs of alteration. Determining how many keys the piano and pianoforte need to pay attention to the specificity of the instrument itself, since different keyboard instruments may not coincide by the number of keys.

There is no doubt that classic pianos, which have become a certain standard of instruments, can not be ignored. The first in this regard were Steinway and August Forster. The most interesting is that the so-called "forsters" are made in single copies from ivory from the case to the keys. If you count how many keys you have at a piano (concert grand piano or a conventional piano), you will notice that almost always the keyboard fully corresponds to the classic 88-key type. Exceptions are found, but very rarely.

Gammas on the keyboard

Many novice pianists may not even know the theory of music and the basics of scales or frets. However, even in spite of such ignorance, you can use a lot of variations, arpeggios, triads or chords with their appeals, without even thinking about what the non-standard harmonic series or harmony will be. The most interesting thing is that many beginners practically intuitively use certain chords or transitions. But in order to approach the construction of scales from the point of view of musical science, we must start from precisely the classical rules of the theory of music.

In the case of an expanded major or minor scale, the sequence is played according to the key marks with the fingerprint compliance condition. When playing high-speed chromatic sequences, everything is much simpler. Here, as a rule, only three fingers are used for pianists. Everything begins with a thumb, and then there is an alternation of a large, index and middle finger.

Electronic synthesizers

Modern synthesizers, which are electronic pianos, use a variety of keyboard options. Keyboard tools of the lower and middle level do not have a full-weight keyboard, which is inherent in real grand pianos. But the real workstations (Digital Workstation) mostly use the standard number of keys. A vivid example of such tools can be Korg Kronos, Yamaha Motif, Kurzweil K2500 / 2600, etc.

Modern pianos and home pianos only to a small extent transmit all the shades that they got from medieval harpsichords and clavichord. At that time it was believed that these instruments have an unnatural sound, and having a home piano was an exceptional luxury.

Nevertheless, we can say at once that over time pianos and pianos have come into our lives very tightly. And now we can see the notes and hear the sounds that are in the range of the standard keyboard.

Octaves and their use

Interestingly, in relation to the use of harmony and octave, many musicians tried. The same King Diamond can easily jump from one note to another in a range of four and a half octaves. However, he still manages to change his voice, which must match every character of his concert. In this case, we are talking about how many octaves can fit into the range of the human voice. And this singer uses octaves so simply that sometimes you marvel. The very notes in piano octaves can very often serve to emphasize the emotional perception of a particular composition.

If you look at how many octaves the piano has, piano octaves can be present on the keyboard in a larger quantity, because different manufacturers sometimes release non-standard instruments. But many musicians give them preference, considering them more easy to use, when you do not need to perform long scales and arpeggios.

MIDI devices and workstations

With the appearance of a management format for "iron" instruments based on signal transmission and data to a certain channel, virtual studios and input devices attached to them have become commonplace. They are usually available in several basic keyboard versions, which can simply be connected to a computer or laptop using a USB cable, MIDI cord and ASIO4ALL drivers supporting Full Duplex mode. This is the most optimal 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 quite a lot of virtual programs for sound recording and synthesizers, which reproduce completely unrealistic sounds and effects. It does not matter how many keys this piano has. And here it is worth paying attention to the very popular Kontakt 5 tool. In one person, it combines both a sampler, rompler, and editor, capable of working regardless of the load on the VST host.

In addition, most virtual plug-ins are designed specifically for a professional keyboard in the form of a plug-in module or the possibility of playing on a standard laptop keyboard. In such applications, there is usually a virtual keyboard on which you can extract sounds by pressing the mouse cursor or the association of the alphabetic keys on the main keyboard.

Conclusion

As is already clear, the answer to the question about how many keys the pianoforte is directly depends on the type of instrument (piano, grand piano or synthesizer). In the most common variant, you can even find electronic keyboards with a layout of 88, 76, 49 or 25 keys. Naturally, a full-weight piano keyboard is preferable, but in some cases, for the convenience of the game, you can use the simplest tools to get the desired sound from a virtual synthesizer by using a MIDI controller.