Piano Keys
Tap the falling keys and play a whole song
How to play
Piano Keys is a free online piano game: tap the falling keys in turn and play a whole song on a real grand piano sound, from Twinkle Twinkle to Für Elise and the Turkish March. It runs in any browser on phone or desktop and inside Telegram via @MatsuriGamesBot, with no download and no sign-up. The daily song is the same for everyone, keys and lanes alike, and a challenge link sends a friend your exact run.
Piano Keys is a falling-tiles piano game you play with one finger or four. A song's melody comes down four lanes as keys, one key for each note, each as tall as its note is long. Tap the lowest key to start, then keep tapping the keys in turn as they come down: every key plays its note on a recorded grand piano, with the left hand following under it, so you hear the whole tune as you play. A song is played once and gets faster and faster as you go, from its own pace at the first key to 1.6 times that at the last. You can tap a key as soon as it shows; tap an empty lane or let a key slip off the bottom and you lose one of three hearts, and the song waits until you tap the next key. Play the last key to clear the song: you score 10 a key, 100 for the clear and 50 for each heart left, and the hearts left are your stars. Practice any of 23 songs, or climb the 69 levels, the songs in order three times over, each time starting faster. Songs include Twinkle Twinkle, Ode to Joy, Frère Jacques, Jasmine Flower, Sakura Sakura, Brahms' Lullaby, Minuet in G, Silent Night, Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, Greensleeves, Auld Lang Syne, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, In the Hall of the Mountain King, Carol of the Bells (Shchedryk), La Cucaracha, Korobeiniki, Für Elise and the Turkish March. On a computer, play the four lanes with D, F, J and K. Piano sound: Salamander Grand Piano by Alexander Holm (CC BY 3.0).
- Tap the lowest key to start the song: click it, or press D F J K for the four lanes (the arrow keys work too). Every key plays its note.
- Keep tapping the keys in turn as they come down. Tapping an empty lane, or letting a key slip off the bottom, costs a heart; the song waits for you to tap the next one.
- Play the song to the end to clear it. It gets faster and faster as you go, and the hearts you keep are your stars: three hearts, can you play it without a mistake?
How to play Piano Keys
The screen is four lanes. A song's melody comes down them as keys, one key for each note, and each key is as tall as its note is long: a short note is a short key, a long note a tall one. Nothing moves until you tap the lowest key; from then on the keys scroll down at the song's pace. Tap each key in turn, anywhere in its lane: every key plays its note on a recorded grand piano, and the left hand's notes under that key follow it, so playing the keys in order plays the song. The next key is never in the lane you just played.
A key can be tapped from the moment it shows at the top of the screen until it slips off the bottom. Tapping a lane with no key in turn, or letting a key slip away, costs one of three hearts; the song then waits, with the next key a little above the bottom, until you tap it. When the last heart is gone the run is over.
Play the last key and the song is cleared. A song is played once, and it speeds up as you go: from its own pace at the first key to 160 percent of it at the last. Every key is worth 10 points; clearing the song adds 100, plus 50 for each heart you have left, and the stars are the hearts left, so three stars means no mistakes. A run can be handed in early with Finish; the score only grows, so finishing early never helps.
Piano Keys strategy and tips
- Read ahead. Keep your eyes one or two keys above your finger: because the next key always moves to another lane, knowing where it is before you need it is the whole game.
- Tap early and steady. A key counts the moment it is on screen, so you never need to wait for it to reach the bottom. As the song speeds up, playing a little ahead of the bottom gives you room for the occasional hesitation.
- Use two thumbs or four fingers. On a phone, two thumbs cover the left and right halves; on a computer, rest your fingers on D, F, J and K, the way you would on a real keyboard.
- Learn the tune. The keys follow the melody: a note going up tends to move to the right, a note going down to the left. A song you can hum is a song you can read.
- Don't panic after a slip: the song stops and waits for you. Find the key that is waiting, breathe, and pick the rhythm up again.
Modes and difficulty
The daily song changes at 00:00 UTC and gives everyone the same tune with the keys in the same lanes; only the first daily try counts on the leaderboard. Practice lets you pick any of the twenty-three songs, or Any for a surprise, as often as you like. Levels is a ladder of 69 levels: the 23 songs in order, then all of them again starting 25 percent faster, then once more starting 50 percent faster; clear one to open the next, and every tenth level cleared for the first time pays 100 candy. After a run you can send a challenge: your friend gets the same song with the same keys, and your score is the one to beat.
Playing Piano Keys on Matsuri
The piano is a real recording: Salamander Grand Piano by Alexander Holm (CC BY 3.0), one note every three semitones, the notes between tuned from their neighbours. Because the sound comes from your tap itself, nothing on screen waits for the audio, so a phone's sound delay or a Bluetooth headset never puts you off the beat. Every chart was written for this game from the tunes themselves, all of them old enough to belong to everyone: nursery songs, folk songs like Sakura Sakura, Jasmine Flower and Korobeiniki, Shchedryk by Mykola Leontovych, carols like Silent Night and Greensleeves, and pieces by Beethoven, Mozart, Grieg, Brahms and Petzold.
A little history
Falling-note music games grew out of rhythm games of the late 1990s, where notes slide toward a line and you press them as they arrive. In 2014 a much simpler idea spread on phones: tap only the black tiles, never the white, as they scroll down, and each tile plays a note of a tune. Piano Keys is Matsuri's gentle take on that idea, with keys as tall as their notes, three hearts instead of one mistake, and a song that waits for you when you slip.
In the same series: Action games
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- Candy Defense: Help me guard the counter from candy thieves
- Café Rush: Brew, top and serve before the regulars lose patience
- Mocha's Cake Tower: Tap on the beat, stack my cake to the sky
- Candy Trail: Grow your gummy snake, never bump into another
- Sweet Swirl: Swallow the town, from sweets to the cake tower
Update log
- · Piano Keys: a song is now played once, faster and faster to its end; a 69-level ladder; ten more songs, Christmas ones too.
- · Piano Keys arrives: tap the falling keys in turn and play a whole song on a real grand piano, thirteen public-domain tunes, three hearts.
Questions
- Can I play Piano Keys free online?
- Yes. It is free with no ads, no download and no sign-up, in any browser on phone or desktop and inside Telegram through @MatsuriGamesBot. Tap the keys on a phone; on a computer, click them or play the four lanes with D, F, J and K (the arrow keys and 1–4 work too).
- How do I play a song?
- The song's melody comes down four lanes as keys, one key for each note, each as tall as its note is long. Tap the lowest key to start, then keep tapping the keys in turn as they come down. Every key plays its note on a recorded grand piano, with the left hand following under it, so playing the keys in turn plays the whole tune.
- What happens when I miss?
- Tapping an empty lane, or letting a key slip off the bottom, costs one of your three hearts. The song then waits, with the next key a little above the bottom, until you tap it. The run ends when the last heart is gone.
- How is the score counted?
- Every key is worth 10 points. Play the last key and the song is cleared: that adds 100 points, plus 50 for each heart you have left, and the hearts left are your stars, so three stars means no mistakes. A song is played once and gets faster as you go, from its own pace at the first key to 160 percent of it at the last. The server replays your taps to check the score.