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How Many Keys On A Piano?
By janice | April 18, 2008
It’s easy to find out there are 88 keys on a standard piano, and of those 88 keys you have 36 black keys and 52 white, but how do you get your students to remember and more importantly – how do you make it fun?
Here are some ideas – Hope you find them useful
Idea 1: Make a game of it!
Have your students tell you how many keys on the piano and many other musical facts without really having to tell them a word about it. The game is called “Instrument Detective” and you can find it as part of the “Printable Music Game” Complete game system.
Idea 2: What am I ?
It’s sitting in front of your students every time they come in to a lesson, but can they work it out- check to see if they can listen to the facts to find out the instrument.- here’s a sample to try out. Let me know how it goes.
I was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori
The earliest known type was built in 1709
Over 10 million of me exist in American homes, businesses and schools
over the past 100 years there have been 5000 different brands of me have been placed on the market
I am made of thousands of pieces of wood glued together to form various parts of the playing mechanism as well as the cabinet. Felt, buckskin, paper, steel, iron, copper, and other materials are also used.
It is said that children learning me tend to do better at school.
When refering to me people often say they “tickle the ivory’s”
I have 36 black keys and 52 white which make up 88 keys altogether
My real name means that I can play loud and soft
Answer : I am the Piano or Pianoforte.
Idea 3: Watch a video
Although the video doesn’t tell you directly about the number of keys on a piano, it will explain in depth the making process. Great to start a discussion about and kids find the technical side of piano building and looking inside pianos fascinating.
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In your first paragraph, you state piano keyboards as having 35 black and 53 white keys. I hope this is a typo as all 88 keyboards have 52 white and 36 black keys. You probably have been told this a thousand times. Thanks for hearing it again
Hi Stan,
thanks for the comment – it was a typo like you said – We’d hate it to be inaccurate so I’ve updated it