Chapter 1
A basic understanding of the piano keyboard is needed to start.
Firstly, let’s look at the physical layout of a piano keyboard.
Imagine if a keyboard had only white key positions, as shown below. It would be nearly impossible to quickly navigate the keyboard even if the white notes had letters assigned to them.
All white keys with no black keys.
Adding alternate black notes between the white notes as shown below would not improve navigation around the keyboard.
There are no clear identifiable references points as guides.
Some very smart people decided to arrange the notes of a keyboard in easily identifiable groups as shown below. This layout makes for quicker, easier, and more accurate navigation between note positions.
The C note is to the left of the two black positions shown in blue below. These two black positions are known as the chopsticks. They look like a pair of chopsticks and they start at the C note.
The three black positions, together in red below, are known as the fork. They look like the three prongs of a fork and they start at the F note.
