How to play the online piano

Tap or click a key to play it. Hold several keys for a chord, or slide your finger along the keys for a run.
On a computer, the bottom letter row plays one octave (Z is C) with the black keys on the row above it (S D, G H J). The top letter row plays the next octave up (Q is middle C) with the black keys on the number row. Each key shows its letter. ← and → move the letters an octave down or up.
Sustain works like a piano's right pedal: while it's on, notes keep ringing after you let go. Turn it on with the Sustain button, or hold Space.
More keys. A phone held upright shows an octave and a half, starting at middle C, so the keys are wide enough for a finger. Slide the bar above the piano or use the arrows to move along all 88 keys, and − or + to show more or fewer keys (press − once for two octaves). Turning a phone sideways shows two or three octaves.
Play along. Pick a song and play the glowing key. The song waits for you, so you can go as slowly as you like. Press Listen to hear it first.
Record and share. Press Record, play, then Stop. The notes, their timing and the pedal are written into the page address, so Share gives you a link that plays it back. Save audio downloads it as a WAV file.

Songs to play along to

All 24 are public-domain melodies, one hand, all between middle C and the C two octaves up:

What it can't do

Every note plays at the same loudness from a touch screen or a computer keyboard, because they can't tell how hard you press. A MIDI keyboard's touch changes the loudness while you play, but not the tone: the piano was recorded at one medium strength. And what you record doesn't keep how hard you played: Play, shared links and saved audio sound every note at full loudness.
Long notes fade out after about 3 to 7 seconds (sooner in the top octaves), even with sustain on. We shortened the recordings to keep the download small (about 30 KB per three keys).
Sustain is on or off. There's no half-pedal and no soft pedal.
Songs are the melody only, for one hand, with no chords or left-hand part.
Bluetooth headphones and speakers add a delay you can hear. Wired headphones or the device's own speaker respond fastest.

Questions

Is this online piano free?

Yes. It runs in your browser with no sign-up, no ads and nothing to install.

Why can't I hear anything?

Browsers only allow sound after you interact with the page, so tap "Tap to start" first. If it's still quiet, check your volume. On an iPhone, check the silent switch too: recent versions of iOS should let the piano play in silent mode (which pauses music from other apps while you play), but if you hear nothing, turn silent mode off.

Where does the piano sound come from?

It's recordings of a real Yamaha C5 grand piano: the Salamander Grand Piano by Alexander Holm, shared under the CC BY 3.0 licence. We use one recording for every three keys and shift each one by up to a semitone for its neighbours (up to three semitones for the top three keys), at one loudness, shortened and compressed for the web. The recordings for the keys on screen load after your first tap (about 200 KB for the keys a phone shows first). Until they arrive, or if they can't load, the piano plays a simpler synthesized sound instead.

Can I see Do Re Mi or Sa Re Ga instead of letters?

Yes. Use the Notes switch above the piano. Do Re Mi uses fixed do (C is always Do, and B is Si). Sa Re Ga puts Sa on C: lower-case re, ga, dha and ni are the komal (flat) notes, Ma′ is tivra Ma, and dots above or below show the octave above or below middle Sa.

How does sharing work? Is my playing uploaded?

Nothing is uploaded. Your notes, how long each one sounds and their timing are packed into the part of the link after the # sign, which browsers don't send to our server. Recording stops after 1,000 notes to keep links a sensible length. Save audio makes the WAV file on your device.

Does it work with a MIDI keyboard?

In Chrome and Edge on a computer, yes: plug in a USB MIDI keyboard and press "Use MIDI keyboard" below the piano, then allow it when the browser asks. Notes, the sustain pedal and how hard you play (as loudness) all work while you play. A recording keeps the notes, their timing and the pedal, but not how hard you played: Play, the link and Save audio sound every note at full loudness. Firefox needs an extra permission step, and Safari doesn't let web pages use MIDI keyboards.

Online Piano