Your keyboard is the piano
Two rows of your typing keyboard sit next to each other as two and a bit octaves. Press a letter, get a note. On the big board below, the keys your typing can reach right now glow a little at the bottom.
Controls
- ← →
- Move the whole mapping down or up an octave. The Octave number in the bar says where you are.
- Space
- The sustain pedal. Notes keep ringing after you let go. It only means something on the grand piano, electric piano and music box, the three that fade out on their own. The harmonium and the organs already hold a note for as long as you hold the key.
- Drag
- Press on a key and drag sideways for a glissando. Works with a mouse and with a finger.
- Slide
- On a small screen the board is wider than the window. Drag the felt strip just above the keys to slide along it. The keys themselves are busy playing.
- Esc
- Closes this panel.
Labels
The Labels button cycles through four ways of reading the board.
- letters
- The typing key that plays that note. Only the reachable keys get one.
- notes
- Western names with the octave number, C4, D4, E4 and so on.
- sargam
- The Indian names, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni. A capital is the plain note and the small letter next to it is the komal, the flat one, so R is Re and r is komal Re. Ma is the odd one out: m is the plain Ma and M is teevra Ma, the sharp one. Everything is counted up from Sa, which is C until you move it. The Sa picker only comes out with the harmonium, and moving it moves every label on the board. The harmonium opens on sargam.
- off
- Bare keys. Nothing written anywhere.
The eight sounds
- Grand Piano
- A real recorded grand. Warm, and every note rings out and dies on its own.
- Harmonium
- The Indian reed box. Holds its note for as long as you hold the key. Brings sargam labels and the tanpura with it.
- Electric Piano
- Rhodes style. Bell like and mellow, made for slow chords.
- Hammond
- The drawbar organ. Thick and steady, sounds best with three fingers down.
- Pipe Organ
- Church sized. Big, slow to start, keeps going as long as you do.
- Accordion
- Squeezebox reeds. Bright, a bit nasal, very folk.
- Synth
- A clean synth lead that cuts through everything. Good for single note melodies.
- Music Box
- Tiny plucked bells. Very short notes, so play it high and slow.
Each sound is a few megabytes and only downloads the first time you pick it. After that it is instant.
Two honest limits
Typing has no velocity, every note lands the same weight.
Budget laptop keyboards can drop a note in 3+ key chords. That’s the hardware (2-key rollover), not the site. Mechanical keyboards nail it.
Newer iPhones play this page even on silent. On older ones the side switch mutes it, flip it up if you hear nothing.
Where the sound comes from
- Grand piano: Salamander Grand Piano by Alexander Holm, CC-BY 3.0.
- Harmonium: Wetthasinghe’s Harmonium by Duwindu Tharinda, CC-BY 4.0.
- Tanpura: sound 416595 by luckylittleraven on freesound, CC0.
- Everything else: GeneralUser GS soundfont by S. Christian Collins, GeneralUser GS License v2.0.
- Hat tip to webharmonium, which showed a harmonium can live in a browser tab.
In memory right now: Salamander Grand Piano by Alexander Holm, CC-BY 3.0.