Editing Musical keyboard (section)

{{Short description|Musical instrument component}}
{{About|keyboards on musical instruments|instruments referred to as "keyboards"|Keyboard instrument}}
[[File:Piano-full-en.svg|upright=1.35|thumb|Layout of a musical keyboard (all [[octave]]s shown)]]
[[File:D274.jpg|thumb|The musical keyboard of a [[Steinway & Sons|Steinway]] concert grand piano]]

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 repeats at the interval of an [[octave]]. Pressing a key on the keyboard makes the instrument produce sounds—either by mechanically striking a string or tine ([[Piano|acoustic]] and [[electric piano]], [[clavichord]]), plucking a string ([[harpsichord]]), causing air to flow through a [[pipe organ]], striking a bell ([[carillon]]), or activating an [[electronic circuit]] ([[synthesizer]], [[digital piano]], [[electronic keyboard]]). Since the most commonly encountered [[keyboard instrument]] is the [[piano]], the keyboard layout is often referred to as the '''piano keyboard''' or simply '''piano keys'''.