The virtual piano is a 44-key instrument that covers a range from C3 to G6. You can play the virtual piano with a mouse or an computer keyboard. To play the virtual piano with a mouse, clicking on a key will produce a note. Holding the key with a mouse will produce a sustained tone, while tapping the key on the mouse will produce a short note.
If the virtual piano is being used on a touchscreen device like a phone or tablet, tapping on the keys will produce the same result as use a mouse to play the virtual piano. The keys on the computer keyboard are map to the piano to allow both hands to be used to play the virtual piano. The keys at the bottom of the keyboard, from Z to M, map to the lowest range of the virtual piano.
How to Use the Virtual Piano
The keys from A to the semicolon key maps to the middle range of the virtual piano. The row of numbers on the keyboard maps to the middle range of the virtual piano. The keys on the Q row map to the top range of the virtual piano.
Because the virtual piano display small indicators of each key, there is no need to memorize the keyboard mapping. To play the sharp keys on the virtual piano, the player will use the shift key on the computer keyboard. For example, holding the shift key and the Z key will produce the sound of the C#2 key, while holding the shift and the A key will produce the sound of the C#3 key.
Not all keys on the virtual piano have a sharp key associated with them, so holding the shift key on these keys will not create a different sound. The indicators on the black keys display the shift symbol so that players are aware that the sharp keys is available. The volume controls allow the player to adjust the loudness of the virtual piano.
If the virtual piano is being used in a quiet environment, the player can move the volume to the lower part of the slider. If the sound of the virtual piano appears to be too quiet, the player can increase the volume using the virtual pianos volume slider. The changes take effect while playing the virtual piano.
The tone selector on the virtual piano allow the player to choose three different sounds. The sounds include piano, organ, and synth. The piano sound has a quick decay, while the organ tone is sustained.
The synth sound is brightly and buzzy. These sounds can be changed while playing the virtual piano, and the changes will be heard immediate. The sustain toggle will hold each note that is being play after the note is released from the key.
The sustain toggle works similar to a pianos sustain pedal, and is useful in playing notes that overlap. The toggle can be turned off to produce a crisper sound from the virtual piano, but any notes currently being played will be stopped when the toggle are turned off. The transpose control shift the keys of the virtual piano up or down by a twelve-semitone unit.
If a player is experiencing difficulties playing a certain melody on the virtual piano, the transpose button will allow the melody to be shifted to a more comfortable range for the player. The reset button will return the virtual piano to its original key mapping. The fullscreen button will expand the virtual piano to fill the screen.
By expanding the virtual piano to screen fill mode, it will be easier for the user to navigate the virtual piano. The how-to-play button will open a reference panel within the virtual piano. The reference panel displays the virtual piano keys.
By pressing the A, D, and G keys at the same time, a player can play a C major chord. By pressing different keys players can experiment with the virtual piano to learn how it work.