On the keyboard of the piano you’d notice that there is a pattern of 12 repeating notes. The white notes are commonly called naturals because they sound natural on the C major scale while the the black notes are called accidentals or sharps and flats because they alter the sound of the C major scale. I’ll explain the major scales better in a different post. Now, the white notes are named after the first 7 letters of the English Alphabet while the black notes are sharps and flats of the white notes.

Notice the 2 black notes surrounded by 3 white notes. The first note of those three is called the “C”. That’s where we start.

C aka everyone’s favorite note.

The C note is repeated on the scale as every first of three white notes surrounding two black notes. The rest of the white notes can be named from there as follows:

As you can see, the F note is the first of four notes that surround three black notes.

Now let’s find the middle C

If you have a standard 88 key piano the middle C would be the 24th white note. If you have a 61 key piano like me then the middle C is the 16th white note. Name the notes from C to C from there as shown below:

_{the middle C is marked}

_{C to C and so on}

Note please: There is no H note after G. A few newbies make the mistake of naming H after G. The A note comes after G always.

Sharps and Flats aka The black notes

Like I said earlier, the black notes are named after the white notes. Each black note has two names: a sharp name and a flat name.

SHARPS (♯)

Black notes are named as sharps from the left. The black note at the right side of any white note is the sharp of that white note. Sharps increase the pitch of the white note before them by a semitone (half step) as shown:

FLATS (♭)

Black notes are named as flats from the right. The black note at the left side of any white note is the flat of that white note. Flats reduce the pitch of the white note after them by a semitone as shown: