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The musical keyboard, also known as the piano keyboard is a way of arranging parts of a [[musical instrument]] which produce [[note]]s.

Many [[musical instruments]] which have a key for each note lay them out in this standard way: the [[piano]], [[harpsichord]], [[clavichord]], [[organ (music)|organ]], [[synthesizer]], [[celesta]], and [[carillon]] keyboards. Also, instruments such as the [[xylophone]] which have a separate sounding part for each note lay them out in this pattern. 


The twelve notes of the Western  [[musical scale]] are laid out with the lowest note on the left; the seven larger keys (for the "natural" notes of the C major [[scale (music)|scale]]: C, D, E, F, G, A, B) jut forward, with the [[sharp]] and [[flat]] keys less prominent. The pattern then repeats at the interval of an [[octave]]. Early harpsichord and organ keyboards have a range around 50 notes; the modern piano has 88. The standardization of white natural keys and black sharp keys began in England in the [[18th century]].

[[image:musical_keyboard.png]]

Non-standard musical keyboards
* [[Accordion]] keyboard
* [[Janko keyboard]]
* ''etc...''

See also:
* [[Just intonation]]
* [[Equal temperament]]

====References====
* Adapted from the [[Wikipedia]] article, "Musical keyboard" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_keyboard December 1, 2003