Day 240 min

The map on the keyboard

Today you gain something you will use for the rest of your life: look at any keyboard anywhere and find C instantly, without counting.

Why the black keys cluster like that

If the black keys were evenly spaced, the keyboard would be a featureless stripe with nowhere for the eye to land — you would have to count from the edge every single time. So the design deliberately clusters them into twos and threes, giving you something to grab onto.

group of 2group of 2
The group of two is the easiest landmark of all, precisely because it stands alone.

Every highlighted key is a C. Notice each one sits just left of a group of two.

Put a finger on your actual instrument right now. Find any group of two, then slide one white key to the left. That is C. Do it three or four times until you stop having to think.

Where is middle C?

There are several Cs on a keyboard, but one is special. It is called middle C: the C nearest the centre of the instrument. Almost everything in music uses it as a reference point.

middle C
Middle C
On an 88-key instrument middle C sits dead centre. On a 61-key one it is still roughly the middle.

Find all three Cs

Play C in all three octaves. There are no labels now — use the black-key groups.

C4

Question 1 of 3

No labels now — use the black-key groups to find it

The group of three is useful too

The group of three black keys works as a landmark in exactly the same way. The white key immediately to its left is F. That gives you two notes you can now find without counting anything.

group of 3group of 3
Left of the group of three is F.

C and F: two landmarks that will get you to every other note tomorrow.

Jump between C and F

Play them in the order highlighted.

CFCFC

Press them one at a time, following the highlight

Put in the reps

C4 up to F4, then on up to C5, is wider than a single hand position, so the hand physically relocates twice every round. Let the black-key groups take you there instead of eyeballing the distance.

Find C and F without counting

C5 is where it goes wrong, because it is the longest move, and a miss usually lands on B or D. Before you press, check the finger really is sitting left of a group of two.

52BPMCurrent tempo
0/4Tempo rungs cleared
0/5Clean reps in a row
CFCF

Loop it in time with the clicks. 5 clean reps in a row moves you up a rung; one slip starts the count again · from 52 up to 76 BPM

Today's minigame

Key hunt with no labels

A key lights up and you name it. Multiple choice.

Trains: reading the keyboard from the shape of the black-key groups, not from labels

Homework

Go to homework
Find C fasterPlay C five times across different octaves, with no labels. The goal is to stop counting.
Remember the black-key ruleAnswer a question about how the black-key groups locate C.
Take the pattern up to tempoToday's loop, a notch faster than the lesson version. Repeat it as often as you like — it comes back on its own when it is due.

All homework lives on the homework page. Repeat it as often as you like — anything you're still shaky on gets pushed back to the top by itself.

SummaryC is the white key left of a group of two black keys — always, on every instrumentF is the white key left of a group of three black keysMiddle C is the C nearest the centre, and it is the reference point for everything elseOnce you can find C and F unaided, the keyboard stops being a row of identical keys and becomes a map you can read
Done with day 2?

No rush. If you're not confident yet, run the minigame above once more before marking it done.

  • Read every part · 0 of 4
  • Take the drill up to target tempo · 0 of 1
  • Clear 60% of today's minigame · 0 of 1
  • Come back and practise again later · 0 of 2 sittings