🎹 Music Apps

Virtual Piano

Play with your mouse, your computer keyboard or a MIDI keyboard — five instrument voices, scale highlighting, recording and songs to learn.

C3–B4

Learn a song — press the green key, or hit Listen first

Keyboard: A–; white keys, W E T Y U black keys, Z/X shift octave, space sustain.

Overview

Virtual Piano: a full keyboard in your browser

This is a playable piano that needs nothing installed. Click the keys, use your computer keyboard, or plug in a real MIDI controller and play it properly. Every note is synthesized in the browser using the Web Audio API, so there are no samples to download and no delay waiting for sounds to load — press a key and it speaks immediately.

It is built to be useful beyond noodling. Highlight any scale to see exactly which keys belong to it, switch between five instrument voices, record what you play and hear it back, and work through built-in melodies that light up the next key you need. The sustain pedal is mapped to the space bar, and Z and X shift the octave so the full range of the instrument is reachable from a laptop keyboard.

100% freeNo downloadMIDI readyWorks offline
How to play
  1. 1Click a key, or press the A–; row for white keys and W E T Y U for black keys.
  2. 2Hold the space bar for sustain, and use Z and X to move up or down an octave.
  3. 3Pick a scale to highlight if you want to know which notes will sound good together.
  4. 4Choose a song, press Listen to hear it, then follow the green key to play it yourself.
Key features
  • Play by mouse, touch, computer keyboard or a connected MIDI controller
  • Five synthesized voices: grand piano, organ, music box, harp and soft sine
  • Scale highlighting across every common scale and mode
  • Sustain pedal, adjustable octave range from one to four octaves
  • Record what you play and hear it back instantly
  • Built-in melodies with a follow-the-key practice mode

Frequently asked questions

Which computer keys play which notes?
The home row A S D F G H J K L ; plays the white keys from left to right, and W E T Y U O P sit above them for the black keys, matching their real positions. Switch the label setting to 'Computer keys' to see the mapping printed on the keyboard.
Can I use a real MIDI keyboard?
Yes. Press Connect MIDI keyboard and allow access. This uses the Web MIDI API, which is supported in Chrome, Edge and Opera; Safari and Firefox may not offer it.
Why can I only hold a few notes at once on my keyboard?
Most standard computer keyboards can only register a limited number of simultaneous keypresses, a hardware limitation called key ghosting. Full chords work fine with a mouse or a MIDI controller.
Is this a real piano sound?
The voices are synthesized from oscillators rather than recorded from an instrument, which keeps the app tiny and instant to load. It is very playable, though a sampled piano will always sound richer.
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Full guide

Learn Piano Online: Keys, Scales and Your First Songs

How the keyboard is laid out, why the black keys group in twos and threes, scales, chords and a practice plan for beginners.

Keyboard layoutScales & chordsPractice plan

Related Articles & Guides

BlogHow to Test Your Mouse & Keyboard Online: Full GuideYour mouse and keyboard are the two devices you interact with more than any other piece of technology you own. Yet most people never think to test them — until ArticleLearn Piano Online: Keys, Scales and Your First SongsHow the keyboard is laid out, why the black keys group in twos and threes, the scales and chords worth learning first, and a practice plan that works.ArticleHow Chords Work: Triads, Sevenths and Why Progressions Feel RightHow chords are built from scales, what makes one major or minor, why some progressions sound resolved, and how to read a guitar chord diagram.