🎹 Virtual Piano

How to play

An eighteen-key keyboard covering C4 up to F5, with every note generated live by an oscillator rather than played from a sample. Notes sound for as long as you hold the key or mouse button down. There is no score — it is an instrument to play with.

• White keys: A S D F G H J K L ; and the apostrophe — the naturals from C4 to F5 in order.
• Black keys: W E T Y U O P — the sharps, sitting above the white keys they fall between.
• Mouse — press and hold a key to sound it, release to stop. Dragging off a key also stops the note.
• Wave buttons — switch the tone between sine, square, sawtooth and triangle.
• Volume slider — sets the level of new notes, starting at half.

Scoring

Nothing is scored. The pitches are standard equal temperament with A4 at 440 Hz, running from 261.63 Hz at C4 to 698.46 Hz at F5. Each note fades in over 10 milliseconds and out over 100 when released, which removes the click you would otherwise hear. Notes are tracked by name, so a key already sounding cannot retrigger, but a chord of several different notes plays all of them at once.

Tips

• The white keys sit on the home row, so a scale up from C4 is A, S, D, F, G, H, J, K left to right.
• Chords work on the keyboard but not with a mouse. A, D and G together give a C major triad.
• Sawtooth is the brightest and loudest of the four waves, so drop the volume before switching to it.

Frequently asked questions