musicwiki:piano

Math behind Piano keys

  • piano keys are made of a set of octave key groups, each octave key group made from 7 white keys and 5 in-between black keys. (total 12 keys per octave key group)
  • each octave key group is double the sound frequency of previous octave key groups
  • example,
    • octave key group 1, containing 7 white keys {“C1”,“D1”,“E1”,“F1”,“G1”,“A1”,“B1”}, its “C1” key is at sound frequency of 32.703Hz; plus 5 black keys means {“C”,“d_b”,“D”,“e_b”,“E”,“F”,“g_b”,“G”,“a_b”,“A”,“b_b”,“B”};
    • the C2 key from octave key group 2 is at sound frequency of 65.406 HZ, that is 32.703×2.
    • the middle group (4th group), C4 is at 261.6Hz, = 65.406*2^2
  • as you can see, the number is exact “times power of 2”, as you can guess, C7=C1x[2^(7-1)] =32.703×64=2092.9 (about 2093Hz)
  • study 1st octave key group, white keys {“C1”,“D1”,“E1”,“F1”,“G1”,“A1”,“B1”}
    • C1=32.703Hz
    • D1=36.708Hz = C1 + 4.0Hz
    • E1=41.203Hz = D1 + 4.5Hz
    • F1=43.654Hz = E1 + 2.4Hz (so F1 is “half step”, aka “half incremental” from E1)
    • G1=48.999HZ = F1 + 5.3Hz
    • A1=55.000Hz = G1 + 6.0Hz
    • B1=61.735Hz = A1 + 6.7Hz
    • C2=65.406Hz = B1 + 3.7Hz (so C2 is mostly like “half step” from B1)
  • so we can see, the incremental is based of a power function curve.
  • based on that, “half step” incremental white keys has no in-between black keys, while those “full” incremental white keys has in-between black keys, representing the “half-step” frequency increase.
  • in short, all keys in piano are layout in “half step” increment, either “black to white”, or “white to black”, or “white to white” is a “half step”.
  • while average human can hear from 20Hz to 8000Hz, so from C1 32.7Hz to C8 4186Hz reaching C9's 8392Hz are enough;
  • which means 8 sets * (7 white key+ 5 black key) = 96 keys
  • as in previous calculation, the lower the frequency, the lower the frequency difference between keys, like C1 and D1 are just 4Hz apart, C4 and D4 are 32Hz+ apart. (4Hz x2^3= 32Hz)
  • however, the real human hearing factor is that the effect of each key difference is about similar, like “count extra 4 hits from 32 hits in 1 second” has similar effect of count “extra 400 hits from 3200 hits in 1 second”;
  • it is more a ratio difference than a count difference
    • compare D1 to C1 (full step), 4Hz difference is roughly 1/8 of 32.703Hz (C1); D1=C1 * 1.12;
    • compare B1 to A1 (full step), 6.7Hz difference is roughly 1/8 of 55Hz (A1); B1=A1 * 1.12;
    • compare F1 to E1 (half step), 2.4Hz difference is roughly 1/16 of 41.203Hz (E1); F1=E1 * 1.06;
    • compare C2 to B1 (half step), 3.7Hz difference is roughly 1/16 of 61.735Hz (B1); C2=B1 * 1.06;
  • so,
    • each key of piano is half step from nearby one, that is 1.06 times higher or lower than nearby one.
    • each “full step” is 1.12 times higher or lower; since 1.12 = 1.06 * 1.06;
    • each octave is 12 keys (half step) difference, power(1.06, 12) = 2
      • more accurately wrriten as power(1.0595, 12) = 2
  • so to pianist term, roughly 1/16 difference (or accurately 0.0595 difference) is about the minimum frequency difference to make identifiable
  • we often find, low frequency keys like in C1-C3 range, need to press harder than normal to make them sounds loud; while C4-C5 are easy to make it loud; while C6 and higher sound are easier to think it loud. that is because our hearing are sensitive to high frequency sound.
  • here is a graph of “how loud” is same “loudness” for different frequency, based on our human ear “thinks”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour
  • and our human ear use “Phon” as loudness measurement unit, while “dB (sound pressure)” is scentific measurement unit.
  • guitar notation (E2 to E6)

  • octave sheet notation to piano mapping

  • frequency ration based scale map


  • wave has these property (think of those waterwave)
    • amplitude: height of wave
    • wave length: distance between 2 high points
    • period/frequency: circle time, or circle per second
      • speed = wave length * frequency: how fast high point shift away
  • soundwave
    • amplitude: aka “volume, sound pressure”
    • wave length:
    • frequency: aka “pitch”, range from 10Hz to 1000kHz,
      • (Human range from 20Hz to 10kHz, piano 20Hz to 8kHz)
      • speed: in air, about 300m/s; thus also means high frequency sound has short wavelength.
  • lightwave
    • frequency: around 10^14Hz, (100THz)
  • sound to humans
    • low frequency sound travels further, because of lower frequency are less absorbed when traveling through medium, and also less reflected by medium (better penetration into another medium)
    • high frequency are more noticeable to humans, due to human ear nature.
    • sound “loudness” to human are affected by amplitude, frequency, bandwidth and duration.

Training Learning in keyboards

Songs

Reference Site

Reference Book

  • Piano Adventures series by Nancy and Randall Faber
  • John Thompson's easiest piano course
  • John Thompson's Modern course for the piano
  • Hanon 60 exercises
  • Czerny op. 599
  • Aural Training in Practise book 1 by Ronald Smith

ref: https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=47244

3D visualization

  • Maya code on generating piano keys
    • white key on even X axis spacing, and Y axis represent half step and whole step relationship
    • here is mel code
      string $names[]={"C","D","E","F","G","A","B"};
      string $names2[]={"C","d_b","D","e_b","E","F","g_b","G","a_b","A","b_b","B"};
       
      // -- white keys only
      $total=7*5;
      for ($i=0;$i<$total;$i++){
          int $n=$i%7;
          int $oct=$i/7;
          $tCube=`polyCube -ch on -o on -w 1 -h 1 -d 2 -cuv 4 -n ($names[$n]+"_1")`;
          float $s=$n;
          if($n>=3) $s=$s-0.5;
          move -a $i ($oct*6+$s) $oct $tCube[0];
      }
      for($i=1;$i<=5;$i++){
          select -r ("*_"+$i);
          group -n ("octGrp_"+$i);
      }
       
      // -- white keys and black keys 
      $total=12*5;
      for ($i=0;$i<$total;$i++){
          int $n=$i%12;
          int $oct=$i/12;
          $tCube=`polyCube -ch on -o on -w 1 -h 1 -d 2 -cuv 4 -n ("ns1:"+$names2[$n]+"_1")`;
          string $sn=$tCube[0];
       
          move -a ($oct*6+$n*0.5+$oct) ($oct*6+$n*0.5) ($oct+10) $tCube[0];
          if($n>=5) move -r 0.5 0 0 $tCube[0];
       
          if(`gmatch $sn "*_b_*"`) move -r 0 0 -.5 $tCube[0];
      }
  • musicwiki/piano.txt
  • Last modified: 2023/01/07 15:50
  • by ying