# Black Key

A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeat at the interval of an octave. Pressing a key on the keyboard makes the instrument produce a sound—either by mechanically striking a string or tine (acoustic and electric piano, clavichord), plucking a string (harpsichord), causing air to flow through a pipe (pipe organ), striking a bell (carillon), or activating an electronic circuit (synthesizer, digital piano, electronic keyboard).