How to Play Music with Your Computer Keyboard (Keys 1–0): A Beginner's Guide

Yes, you can play real songs on the number keys of your computer. On Play With Keyboard, the keys 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 are ten piano notes, from middle C up to the next E. Press Play here below, tap 1, then 5, and you're already playing music.

Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for. It runs in the browser on a laptop or desktop, and you can tap the on-screen keys on a phone.

The number keys are a C major scale

Here is the whole map. It's worth reading once, then you can forget it, because your fingers will learn it faster than your eyes.

So the row is just the white keys of a piano, in order, starting on middle C. Higher number, higher note. Key 8 is the same note as key 1, only one octave up. That's why so many easy songs written "with numbers" look the way they do: 1 is the home note, 5 is the strong note you jump to, and 8 is home again, higher.

Play your first three songs in about ten minutes

The sequences below are copied from our song pages. A | is just a short pause at the end of a phrase. Repeated numbers mean press the same key again.

1. Open the piano. Press Play here in the player above, or go to the piano page. Put your left hand on the desk and use your right index and middle fingers, or one finger per key if that's easier.

2. Find home. Press 1, then 8. Same note, one octave apart. Then play 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 up and back down. That's a full C major scale.

3. Play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The first line is 1 1 5 5 6 6 5 | 4 4 3 3 2 2 1. Then the middle part: 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 | 5 5 4 4 3 3 2. Then the first line again.

4. Play Mary Had a Little Lamb. It's all on keys 1, 2, 3 and 5: 3 2 1 2 3 3 3 | 2 2 2 3 5 5 | 3 2 1 2 3 3 3 3 | 2 2 3 2 1.

5. Play Ode to Joy. Beethoven's tune sits higher, around keys 5 to 9: 7 7 8 9 9 8 7 6 5 5 6 7 7 6 6. The second line is almost the same, but it ends 6 5 5.

6. Turn on guide mode. On each song page, guide mode lights up the next key and waits until you press it. No timing pressure. Use it until you can play the song without looking.

7. Play in time. When the song feels easy, start the metronome on the song page and try Play for score. You get one bar of count-in, then you hit each key on its beat and get a score out of 100.

Here's the second one. Notice how it never goes above key 5.

And the third. If it feels high, that's correct: it lives in the top half of the row.

The song pages have the full sequences, guide mode and Listen, so you can hear how each tune should sound before you play it: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Mary Had a Little Lamb and Ode to Joy.

More easy songs with numbers

Once those three work, these use the same ten keys and nothing else:

• Jingle Bells starts 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 5 1 2 3. Seven E's in a row, then the jump.

• Long, Long Ago starts 1 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 5 3. A slow, singing tune, great for practicing evenly.

• Auld Lang Syne is handy for New Year's Eve.

Every song in the song list shows its key sequence, so you can scan for the ones that only use 1 to 0.

When you need the letter keys

Ten keys are enough for hundreds of simple tunes, but not for everything. Some melodies need a sharp or flat (the black keys on a piano), or they go lower than middle C or higher than E.

For those, switch the Key layout from Number keys to Full keyboard on any instrument:

• Q W E R T Y U I O P [ ] are the white keys from middle C up to G.

• The black keys sit on the number row above them, the way they sit above the white keys on a piano. For example, 2 is C sharp and 5 is F sharp.

• Z X C V B N M , . / add a lower octave, with S D G H J L ; as its black keys.

• The left and right arrow keys shift everything down or up an octave.

The keys are matched by their position on the keyboard, not the letter printed on them. So it works the same on QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY and other layouts.

Songs that need sharps or a wide range switch to the full keyboard on their own. You don't have to work out which letter is which: turn on guide mode and follow the lights.

What a computer keyboard can't do

It helps to know the limits up front.

• No loud and soft. A computer key is either pressed or not. It can't tell a gentle tap from a hard hit, so every note comes out at the same volume. A MIDI keyboard can.

• No real finger technique. You're learning melodies, rhythm and how notes relate. You're not learning piano fingering or hand position.

• Some keyboards limit how many keys you can hold at once. Fine for melodies, sometimes a problem for big chords.

If you get hooked, a small USB MIDI keyboard plugs straight into the browser. Every player has a Connect MIDI keyboard button, and then you get real keys and loud-soft dynamics.

Which instrument to try next

The same ten keys play every instrument on the site. Ode to Joy on the trumpet sounds like a fanfare. Twinkle Twinkle on the kalimba sounds like a music box. Long, slow tunes suit the violin and the flute. The melodica is the newest one, a keyboard you blow into, and it's great for folk tunes.

And on the drums, the keys turn into a kit: 1 is the kick, 2 the snare, 3 the hi-hat and 0 a hand clap. Try 1 3 2 3 over and over and you have a basic rock beat.

When you want to keep what you play, hit Record in any player. You get a link you can send to a friend.

Sources

• MDN: Web MIDI API

• Wikipedia: C major scale