Free online tool
Virtual Piano: Online Piano Keyboard You Can Play
Play a free virtual piano keyboard with mouse, touch or computer keys: 2 to 4 octaves, note labels, sustain, volume and live chord names for held keys.
Held notes —
Chord —
Press a key to play.
Computer keys: ASDFGHJK white, WETYU black · Z/X octave down/up.
About the Virtual Piano
Virtual Piano is a free online piano keyboard that runs in your web browser. You play it with your mouse, your finger on a touch screen, or your computer keyboard, and there is no sign-up. Nothing you enter is uploaded.
You can choose 2, 3 or 4 octaves to suit your screen. Note labels can show note names, Do Re Mi, or nothing at all. Sustain lets notes ring after you release them, and a volume control sets how loud the piano plays. When you hold several keys, the held notes and the chord name appear above the keyboard.
Use it to practise finding notes, learning chord shapes, or just playing on a computer or phone. The sound is a plain piano-like tone made in your browser, so it helps with learning notes and chords rather than hearing a recorded grand piano.
How to use the Virtual Piano
- Click or tap the keys to play. You can also use your computer keyboard: the home row A S D F G H J K plays the white keys, and W E T Y U plays the black keys.
- Press Z or X, or use the ◀ Oct and Oct ▶ buttons, to move the keyboard down or up an octave.
- Under Octaves, pick 2, 3 or 4 octaves to suit your screen.
- Under Labels, choose C D E for note names, Do Re Mi, or None.
- Turn on Sustain to let notes ring after you release them.
- Set Volume to a level you like.
- Hold several keys at once, or touch with several fingers. The held notes and the detected chord name appear above the keyboard.
You can change any of these while you play. On small screens the keyboard scrolls sideways so you can reach every key, and hovering over a key with the mouse shows its note name and frequency.
Learn middle C first. On the default 3-octave layout, the A key on your computer keyboard plays C4, and its label shows the note name. From there, the black keys on the W E T Y U row sit between the white keys, as they do on a real piano.
Chords are read from the lowest note up. If you play E, G and C, the tool shows C/E rather than plain C, because E is the lowest note.
How do the piano keys repeat?#
A piano repeats the same pattern of 7 white and 5 black keys in every octave. The white keys are the notes A to G. The black keys are the sharps and flats between them, in groups of two and three. Learn the group of two first, because it is the landmark for the rest of the keyboard.
Where is middle C on the virtual piano?#
The note C is the white key immediately to the left of the group of two black keys. Each C starts a new octave number in scientific pitch notation. So C4, or middle C, is the C nearest the middle of a full 88-key piano. With the 3- and 4-octave layouts, the A key plays C4. With 2 octaves, it plays the lowest C shown.
Which computer keys play which notes?#
The two letter rows work like piano keys. On the home row, A S D F G H J K L ; and ’ are the white keys. The row above, W E T Y U O P, holds the black keys, placed where they sit on a real keyboard. The table below shows the first octave from C.
| Computer key | A | W | S | E | D | F | T | G | Y | H | U | J | K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Note (from C) | C | C♯ | D | D♯ | E | F | F♯ | G | G♯ | A | A♯ | B | C |
Notes with two names are shown with sharps, so D♭ appears as C♯.
How does the chord name appear?#
The page reads the held notes from lowest to highest and looks up their pitch classes in a chord dictionary. The lowest note is treated as the bass. For example, C, E and G give C major. If you hold E, G and C, the name is C/E, a slash chord, because the bass note is E.
How do sustain and volume work on the virtual piano?#
Turn on Sustain to let notes keep ringing after you release their keys, the way a sustain pedal works on a real piano. Use Volume to set how loud the notes play.
- Click Sustain to turn it on.
- Play one or more keys. Each note keeps ringing after you let go.
- Move the Volume control to make the sound louder or quieter.
Sustain is handy for holding a chord while you play a melody over it. The sound is synthesised in your browser, so it is a plain piano-like tone rather than a recording of a real instrument.