Tones and semitones

A half step: a semitone

The smallest step on the piano is a half step: from a key to the very next key, black or white, with nothing in between. It is the key's nearest neighbour. Its other name is a semitone (semi means half). Australian and British books say semitone, American books say half step. It is the same step. A half step goes up to the right or down to the left.

From D, a half step up and a half step down both land on black keys. From a black key, both land on white keys. Start on C and go up a half step, again and again, every key, black and white, to the next C: that is 12 half steps. Walking in half steps like this is the chromatic scale.

A whole step: a tone

Two half steps make a whole step, with one key in between. Its other name is a tone; American books say whole step. From C, step over the black key: D is a whole step up. Black keys too: two black keys with one white key between them are a whole step apart.

The white half steps: E F and B C

Walk up the white keys letter by letter and look between them. Most letter steps have a black key in between, so they are whole steps. But twice there is none. From the last key of the small house (E) to the first key of the big house (F), and from the last key of the big house (B) to C at the next small house, there is no black key. E F and B C are only a half step apart.

Walk the white keys from C up to the next C, naming each step, and you get whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. That order is the recipe for the major scale, which the Scales chapter builds with it.

Sharp and flat: one key, two names

The sharp sign ♯ moves a note up a half step, to the very next key on the right. The flat sign ♭ moves a note down a half step, to the very next key on the left.

A black key is like a hidden attic between two rooms, shared by the neighbours on each side. When Clara uses it from C, it is C sharp, C♯. When the Dog uses it from D, it is D flat, D♭. One attic, two names. Every black key works the same way: C♯ = D♭, D♯ = E♭, F♯ = G♭, G♯ = A♭, A♯ = B♭.

But between E and F there is no attic. A half step up from E is the white key F next door, so E sharp is the same key as F. A sharp or a flat is not always a black key.

Sharps and flats on the staff

On the staff, the sign goes just before the note, on the same line or space as its head: the sharp's little box and the flat's round belly sit right on that line or space. Say the letter first, then the sign: "F sharp", "B flat". Write them the other way round: the sign first, then the note.

My five checks

Show each one at the piano.

Free worksheet

Half or whole?

Write H (half step) or W (whole step) under each pair of white neighbours, from C up to C and from A up to A, looking for the black key between them. Then circle every E F and B C on a long keyboard and count the circles. One A4 page.

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