Virtual Piano

Use the A–J keys on your keyboard for the white notes C4–B4, with W, E, T, Y, U for the corresponding sharps. For the next octave up, K, L, ;, ' play C5–F5, and O, P, ] play the black keys. Turn on QWERTY labels in the controls to see exactly which physical key maps to which piano note. Use the ← → arrow keys to shift the entire mapping up or down an octave.

The sustain pedal (also called the damper pedal) keeps notes ringing even after you lift your finger, just like pressing the right pedal on a real piano. Press ESC or click the Sustain button to toggle it on — the button glows red and the indicator light turns on. Press ESC again to release all held notes and turn it off. Sustain is especially useful for playing smooth legato passages and arpeggios.

The acoustic sound uses triangle-wave synthesis with harmonic overtones to recreate the warm resonance of a grand piano — full in the mid-range, gradually decaying. The electric sound uses FM synthesis (frequency modulation) to replicate a Rhodes-style electric piano: brighter attack, longer sustain and a slightly metallic, bell-like character. Both sounds are generated entirely in your browser using the Web Audio API with no audio files loaded.

Select a scale from the Highlight Scale dropdown — for example C Major or A Minor — and the notes that belong to that scale will glow with a soft green tint across all octaves on the keyboard. The root note glows brighter in red. This visual guide makes it easy to stay in key while improvising, practice scale patterns, or learn which notes to avoid. Select "None" to clear the highlighting.

Yes. Click Record to start, play your notes, then click Stop Recording. The Play Back button replays everything you recorded with accurate timing — including all note-on and note-off events, so sustain and overlapping notes play back correctly. Recordings are stored in your browser's memory only and are not saved to any server. Refreshing the page clears any recording.

Yes — the piano is fully touch-enabled. Tap a key to play a note, and hold multiple keys at once to play chords. You can also slide your finger across the keyboard to glide through notes, just like you would on a real piano. Swipe horizontally inside the keyboard area to scroll through all five octaves. The QWERTY mapping is only relevant on devices with a physical keyboard; on mobile and tablet just tap or slide the keys directly. For the best experience on mobile, use landscape orientation to see more keys at once.

Reverb adds a sense of space and natural ambience to the notes — similar to the difference between playing in a recording booth versus a concert hall. It is synthesised using a Web Audio convolver node with a custom noise-based impulse response. Toggle it on for a warmer, more immersive sound when playing melodies or chords, or leave it off for a clean, dry and precise tone — ideal when practising scales or using QWERTY mapping at speed.

On a real piano, hitting a key harder makes the note louder. This virtual piano replicates that with click-position velocity: clicking near the top of a key produces a quieter note, while clicking near the bottom plays louder. On QWERTY keyboard input, a fixed medium velocity is used. This feature makes mouse playing feel more expressive and realistic, especially when combined with the acoustic sound and sustain pedal.

Yes — this virtual piano supports the Web MIDI API. To use it, flip the Enable MIDI toggle in the controls bar — your browser will ask permission once, and then automatically detect any connected USB or Bluetooth MIDI keyboards or controllers. Your MIDI keyboard triggers the piano sounds in real time with full velocity sensitivity (how hard you press each key). The sustain pedal (CC64) on your MIDI controller also works, toggling sustain exactly as it would on a real piano. MIDI is off by default so the browser permission prompt only appears if you want it. Web MIDI is supported in Chrome and Edge on desktop; Safari and Firefox do not currently support Web MIDI natively.