What is a virtual piano?

A virtual piano is a piano keyboard on your screen that you play with the mouse, a touchscreen or your computer keyboard. It's handy for trying out a melody, finding a note or chord, or practicing a song when there's no real piano nearby.

How do Virtual Piano sheets work?

Virtual Piano sheets write songs as the keys you type on a computer keyboard, so you can play them without reading notes. Each white key has a digit or letter, from 1 for the lowest C to m for the highest, and t is middle C. A capital letter or a symbol is the black key just above, played with Shift. The start of Für Elise, for example, is f D f D f a d s p.

Tool description

The piano has 61 keys, from C2 to C7, the range most Virtual Piano sheets use. Click or tap a key to play it, slide over the keys to play them one after another, or hold several at once for chords. On a computer keyboard, every piano key has its own letter, digit or Shift combination.

Hold Space or turn on Sustain to keep notes ringing after you let go, like a piano's sustain pedal. The Sound menu switches between piano, electric piano, organ and synth, and the Labels menu shows computer keys, note names or nothing on the keys. When the screen is too narrow for all 61 keys, they scroll sideways and start around middle C; on a phone, swipe sideways to scroll and tap to play. Full screen helps on a phone turned sideways, though some browsers, like Safari on iPhone, don't offer it.

Every sound is made in your browser with the Web Audio API, so there's nothing to download and nothing you play leaves your device.

Features

  • 61 keys to play with the mouse, touch or computer keyboard
  • Computer keys that match Virtual Piano sheets, with Space as the sustain pedal
  • Piano, electric piano, organ and synth sounds