![]() ![]() The thumb is dominant and yet it is the shortest finger on the hand. We have five “fingers” but they are not equal in capability at the piano. History does not record who this genius was.īut why raise and recess the black keys? The answer lies in the human hand. Sometime around 1400, some very clever person realized that if you put the black keys into groups of two and three, (2+3=5) a recognizable visual pattern emerged that allowed a player to easily distinguish each key, white or black. All the eye can see is white-black-white-black endlessly, with no way of finding any pattern to the arrangement. Now imagine again the keyboard as described above, an imaginary piano keyboard that has alternating white and black keys across the entire 5 foot length.Įven with black keys, one is still lost, as there is no pattern in the white-black arrangement that will allow you to consistently pick out any particular black or white key. What do you see? A mass of white keys with no way of distinguishing exactly which white key is which. You can visualize this if you take a piece of paper or cardboard and hold it perpendicular to the keys, masking your view of the black keys. Imagine, if you will, an imaginary piano keyboard that has alternating white and black keys across the entire 5-foot length. The answer lies in the construction of the human hand, but to understand that we must first examine the keyboard itself. ![]() The $64,000 question is how the black keys came to be grouped in twos and threes. This process took thousands of years, coming to its final, modern form during the Renaissance. This made a total of seven white keys, and five black keys. Starting with one black key, composers eventually discovered that there were five (black) keys that could be added to the original seven white keys. My theory is that the first added note was “flat seven” or the black key that is in between 6 and 7 (see drawing above.) Adding More Black Keys These possibilities were not achievable with just the seven “white” keys. The “black” keys opened up a new world of sound possibilities. These extra keys were colored differently from the others and set apart slightly to distinguish them. They realized that they could add other tones, in between the white tones. Soon composers wanted to go beyond the limitations of the seven (white) keys. ![]()
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