The twelve notes of the Western musical scale are laid out with the lowest note on the left; the seven larger keys (for the "natural" notes of the C major scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B) jut forward, with the sharp and flat keys less prominent. The pattern then repeats at the interval of an octave. The arrangement of white keys with intervening, shorter black keys representing intermediate half-steps(semitones) dates to the 15th century. In the following centuries many improvements were made, including a gradually increasing chromatic compass which reached five octaves in the 18th century, and attained the current 88-key range for the modern piano shortly after 1870. Some modern pianos have even more notes (Bösendorfer 255 has 92 and Bösendorfer 290 "Imperial" has 97 keys), and modern synthesizer keyboards commonly have either 61, 76 or 88 keys. Organs normally have 61 keys per manual, though some spinet models have 44 or 49. An organ pedalboard, a keyboard the organist plays with her feet, may vary in size from 12 to 32 notes.
The twelve notes of the Western musicalscale are laid out with the lowest note on the left; the larger keys (for the seven "natural" notes of the C major scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B) jut forward.
Professional electronic musical instruments which are traditionally equipped with a keyboard include electric pianos, electronic pianos, synthesizers, samplers, electronic organs, and digital pianos.
There are also keyboards which are not instruments at all, but are merely MIDI controllers which are used to control other MIDI instruments, which may or may not have a human interface of their own.
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