All musicians, regardless of discipline or instrument, should familiarize themselves
with the keyboard. We are all visual learners to a greater or lesser extent. The
visual layout of the keyboard will foster an understanding of pitch placement,
register designation, scale construction, interval distance, chord construction-
virtually every acquired skill in the study of music. The keyboard is a powerful and
valuable tool.

In

Figure 2.12 "Small Keyboard Diagram"

observe that some white note pairs have

an intervening black note and two pairs do not. Let us focus upon those two.
Adjacent pitches are called

semi-tones

(or ”half steps”). The pitches E-F and B-C (the

two white key pairs) are called

diatonic half steps

. Half steps that are measured from

a white key to a black, or vice-versa, are called

chromatic half steps

.

The distance of a

semi-tone

or half step is the same for any two adjacent pitches

across the keyboard.

Figure 2.13 "Keyboard and Half Steps"

shows this relationship

in pitches.

Figure 2.13

Keyboard and Half Steps

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Chapter 2 The Elements of Pitch:Sound, Symbol, and Tone

2.3 The Keyboard as a Visual Tool

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