At the instrument

Keyboard

The piano layout: white keys named by letters, black keys in alternating groups of two and three.

The black keys are the map. They repeat in groups of two, then three, over and over, and that pattern is what lets you find a note without counting from the end of the instrument.

C is the white key immediately to the left of any group of two black keys. F is immediately to the left of any group of three. Find those and the rest follow alphabetically.

Neighbouring keys, counting black and white alike, are a apart. Twelve of them make an and the pattern starts again — a full-size piano repeats it just over seven times.

The layout makes the irregularity of visible: E–F and B–C are the two white pairs with no black key between them.

Fingering

Which finger plays which note. Fingers are numbered 1 to 5 from the thumb outwards, in both hands.

The thumb is 1, the index 2, the middle 3, the ring 4, the little finger 5 — the same in each hand, so the numbers mirror rather than continue.

The numbers printed above or below notes are not suggestions to be worked round; a passage that is hard usually has a fingering problem before it has a speed problem. Choosing a finger for one note commits you to what is reachable for the next four.

At the the standard beginner's shape is five fingers on five neighbouring white keys, one each, with the hand still and only the fingers moving. Passing the thumb under, which is how scales get past five notes, comes after that.