Keyboards

A Brief History of the Keyboard

Early keyboards had only natural notes (the "white" keys) identified by the first seven letters of the alphabet (A-G), which were often marked on the appropriate keys to allow the player to differentiate between the identical keys (remember, there weren't any "black" keys to show the player where he was)! Starting with the B flat key, each of the five chromatic keys were added, and the modern keyboard arrived by the dawn of the 15th century.