What are the black keys used for? How do they fit in with the white keys?
In the photo above, the left hand is playing several black keys. The right hand is resting momentarily. The black keys are used to “sharpen” or “flatten” notes.
If you play the black key right next to middle C, you are playing “C sharp.” The black keys are “half tones”, as they raise the pitch or lower the pitch of a note.
How do you know if the notes are sharp or flat? That all depends on the “key” in which the score is written.
A musical score may be written in the “key of C” and have no black keys used. Or it may be written in the “key of G” and have one sharp, which would mean the note “F” would be played a half step up — played on the black key. We will get into that later.
For now, we are only looking at the C major scale, no sharps, no flats, all white keys. Now you know why the black keys are there, and if you play around on the keyboard, you can hear the different “shades of tonality” the black keys add.
Also, the black keys MUST be used in different key signatures or the notes in the scale for the key will sound weird.
That is all we need to know at this point about the black keys.
Next, we need to talk about rhythm, because music is nothing without a heart beat.