How To Label Keys On A Piano/Keyboard (Hint: Please DON'T)

Picture this: you decide that you’re finally ready to really learn piano. You buy a keyboard or piano, but you’re a beginner. So you’re probably wondering, what’s your next step? Learn the keys of course! But looking at a bunch of similar-looking keys can be overwhelming.

If you’re like many people, you may soon find yourself over on Amazon looking at piano stickers. You know, the little ones that label each key by letter. After all, that seems like a good place to start if you don’t know where to start. A few days later, your package arrives and you enthusiastically stick them on. (Or maybe you decide to DIY it so you get your Sharpie and start labeling the keys by hand.)

And that’s all it takes – you instantly know all the keys on your piano! Right?

Not so fast: the truth is that putting these stickers on or labeling your keys by hand is a huge mistake. Why? Because you are skipping the very first and probably the most important step to learning piano.

Learning the names of the keys is vital. It’s a deceptively simple task and it can have a huge impact on your entire piano-learning journey. It’s also the first thing I teach my students, because I’ve seen firsthand how many problems pop up later if you don’t go through this process.

Think about it: what happens when you can look at the keys and read their labels? You become dependent on seeing those labels. You start to rely on them. There is no easy way to force yourself to ignore the labels as you try to remember the note that the key represents.

Aside from the fact that you’re training your brain to need an extra visual aid, there’s a very common problem I see with people who use keyboard labels. Once you walk out your door into the “real world,” guess what: not every piano or keyboard out there has labels. (And if they do, sometimes they aren’t even labeled correctly!)

If you let it be known that you are learning how to play, at some point someone will offer you the chance to play their own piano or keyboard. The last thing you want to have to say is “well… do you have labeled keys?” Or to sit down eager to play and then realize that you actually have no idea what to do now that that visual crutch is gone. Embarrassing! But even worse – disempowering.

Recently I was traveling in France with my family, and I noticed that the Marseilles train station has a public piano for commuters and passers-by to play. Naturally, I took advantage of that opportunity and took some time to sit down and play! But I couldn’t have done that if I needed special visual aids to help me identify what I was playing.

I’m all about helping people learn to play piano as quickly as possible, so believe me when I say that I tell my students to get rid of their piano stickers if I didn’t think it would help them learn better. There are plenty of other things you can do to help you enjoy and speed up the process, so don’t skip the important step of memorizing your keys on your own.

But what to do if you already have stickers on your keys? Simple: take them off. (Though hopefully that will be a bit easier for you than it is for some of my students. You might have to do some intensive scraping!) But the effort is worth it, as many of my student who’ve already done this have already told me. When you really know your way around your keyboard, you become a more confident and better-equipped piano learner.

If you’re not sure where to start with key memorization, please check out my free 5-day workbook, And as you’ve probably guessed by now, the very first topic that comes up is learning the 12 keys on your piano or keyboard. I promise you can do this – no stickers or Sharpies required!

Please subscribe to my channel and leave a comment below!

[danielvittitoe]

For the people that don’t know how to read sheet music like a pro - marking the keys was the best thing I ever did, I go to YouTube videos and follow along until I can play it full speed

[victoryvictorious]

I think it just takes time and experience to remember the keys. Labeling them is a good idea at the start where you want your fingers to get used to being moved in specific ways. When you are comfortable with your muscle memory, it’s time to take them off, and concentrate on the next thing to learn. The location of the keys.
That said some people learn differently. This is also a viable method for some.

[lemn]

To be honest, I label the keys because I have this memorization of remembering where I put things and how I played it, I've put the keys on my piano and when I went to a public piano I memorized the keys because of the labels, if you play piano alot you can remember the labels and probably play it publicly. But thank you for the tip ❤️😊

[Highpothesis]

Anti-labeling add...do what you want with your have fun learning!!!

[JustinDAMusic]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with labeling the keys. It actually helps you to learn faster. It will not hinder your progress in any way as suggested here in this video nor will it prevent you from playing other keyboards just because they aren't labelled. This is the silliest thing I've heard.

[joaorival]

I'm a piano teacher. I don't use the stickers with all my students, but with some of them, (especially kids) they seem to be quite helpful. It's, of course, a temporary tool and I never used them before 4 or 5 lessons. Some people are better with sight. Nobody should use those stickers forever. IT IS NOT A HORRIBLE IDEA. It really depends on the student. There are quite some good stickers in the market and its easy to remove them. I do not use it for longer than 6 months.

[officialWWM]

Here's the thing. I labeled all my keys and was able to begin making music pretty quickly...and that's important to me because I have ADD and my ability to concentrate isn't great. In a week I could play Easy by the Commodores and Imagine by John Lennon. The only reason I could play the songs smoothly is because I could look ahead and know where I was going to place my fingers next. If I was trying to figure out the chords as well as remember where they were at the same time, I think is still be struggling to make music. 3 months on, I no longer need the labels but they were absolutely a big help for me in the beginning. What I did was write directly on the keys with a marker pen and left them there till I wore them off from playing/practicing. I told myself I had have them learned by the time it wore off. Worked for me :)

[thursdayplurbonym-boyporri]

It's kind of weird because learned to type with labels on the keys (obviously) and now I know where they all are so I can do it with my eyes closed

[lindaloo]

I'm going to use stickers. 1. I don't play every day. 2. Makes it easier for me to want to relearn. 3. Mades it let frustrating as I get back after weeks of not playing. 4. As I power walk ( I look silly to others who see me) I use my fingers movements in the air, to remember which keys are where on the keyboard also, the notes what they look like. I draw a picture if them in front of me. Lol. Have a wonderful day. I know I will. Thank you

[usernotfound.]

I just use them to like "study" and actually memorize, I think its harder without any labels

[just.elianaaa]

I put stickers on my piano and it wasn’t a mistake I learned my songs and when I was ready and had the keys memorized I took the stickers off they did stick but I used nail polish removers and a cotton pad to woke it off and it also works with markers to. Let me know your results if u try it.😊

[Iknowonlywhatimtaught]

I printed a diagram of the keyboard and labeled it and read it so I knew the key. I didn't want to mark up my piano. After a few months I throw the chart away. I knew the keys. I spent hours on my piano actually learning music theory and chords. After 5 months I'm still not very good, but I understand now and. By heart my keys. It's more exciting once you get it.

[sloebone]

It’s just for reference until you get comfortable with where everything is. I don’t have to look down and read the stickers everytime I move my hand and I’ll worry about French train station pianos after I learn a few songs.

They peel right off too.

[heyyyitzjosie]

I am memorizing my piano keys better with stickers actually lol. I use tape instead of stickers because I have a cheap rubber roll up keyboard. Great video by the way!

[superalicestar]

Actually, a friend of mine learned with the stickers and when she came over to my house she could play what she learned at home on my piano that does not have any stickers. So did her daughter.

[Gracelivinglife]

Honestly, as someone who’s been practicing the piano for like 2 months (at first I was only practicing in piano class, but then I also got my very own keyboard from my dad), I have never even seen these stickers in my life because I literally live under a rock so I never knew that they existed. There were times in piano class where students would write letters on the keys on the class pianos, but I asked my piano teacher (I am SO glad I did this) about them and he spoke out against them. Turns out this rock I was living under was helping me this whole time. I’m only 2 months in, and I already pretty much know every key, including the black ones (and we weren’t supposed to learn those until February in my piano class!), I can play with both hands, and not to brag, but I’m kinda getting the hang of it. I wonder how worse I’d be at the piano if I had just got those stickers or wrote on the keys (I didn’t write on my piano keys at home because my keyboard is black and I didn’t want to write on my keys because I believed that doing that would ruin my keys, and turns out I’m correct!). All I can say is that I’m quite happy that I never did that.

[blackerbatman]

I have labels on my cheap portable keyboard and nothing on my main more expensive keyboard

[wordRG]

When you were at that train station.. did you have any trouble finding your seat?

[d.b.cooper]

Disagree. Times have changed. More peoplle than ever thanks to the net have resources to be able to learn themselves than the traditional old school parents pushing kids to learn piano in person via teachers which they stick to for years. Stickers are great idea for the vast majority of people, and if you really wanna go to the next level which most won't, you will have 0 issues overcoming stickers to going without them

[kyphosislordosis]

You’re right. I play guitar and I wanted to start playing piano, then I realized I learned guitar with no note markers.