The Piano’s basic practical mechanism consists of the visible parts called key of which there are two kinds, the white keys and black keys. When a key is depressed its hammer is activated to move and to hit a corresponding set of strings that lie just above or in front of it: simultaneously, the corresponding damper, which initially rests on the strings is lifted away from them thus allowing the strings to vibrate. The resulting vibration is then transferred to our ears in the form of sound waves of varying frequencies, depending on the pitches of sound that can be termed as low or high sounds. The amount of pressure or force applied to the key controls the intensity of the sound in terms of loudness or softness of the sound, which is called volume of sound.
Sit facing the keyboard you can see white and black keys, or some keys higher than others. The physical feature of the black keys are grouped in sets of twos and threes. Two white keys are between the black sets of twos and threes. These two white keys that separate the two sets of black keys on the keyboard that makes the difference in the positions of the white keys. It is important that you must learn to express yourself in words because to verbalize at this stage, help to guide self-confidence through self-expression. Make it a habit to verbalize what you observe.
There is no up and down directions on the keyboard. We know that the up and down are vertical directions. The fact is that in the music score we have ups and downs because that is how the musical alphabets are written on the lines and spaces but on the keys of the keyboard we do not. On the keyboard we only have left and right directions. When we move up on the lines and spaces, move to the right of the keyboard. When we move down on the lines and spaces, move to left of the keyboard. At this point the word UP means right on the keyboard and the word DOWN means left on the keyboard.
Since the two sets of black keys re-occur alternately throughout the entire length of the keyboard, it is therefore obvious that the seven white keys adjacent to them will also re-occur throughout the keyboard. These seven white keys have alphabetical letters assigned to them namely, A B C D E F & G. They are referred to as the Letter Names of the keys.