EasyKey MusicVisual music notation by People of the World

EasyKey Music

See the key. Press the key.

EasyKey writes music as a picture of the piano. Each column is a key, each row is a beat, and you read from top to bottom. If you can find a key, you can play a song, with no staff, clefs or note names to learn first.

Play your first songHow to read it

Free lesson · two minutes

Play Twinkle Twinkle now.

Press Listen to hear it and watch the grid. Then press Play along and play it yourself: tap the keys, or use your computer keyboard.

The grid waits for you, so go as slowly as you like. The key you need next glows.

On a computer, A S D F G H J K are the white keys from C to C, and W E T Y U are the black keys.

Press Listen to hear the song.

How to read EasyKey

The keyboard sits at the top of the page. Shaded columns are the black keys. Bold lines mark the bars. The shape in a column tells you how long to hold that key.

  • One beatA diamond fills one row. Press the key for one beat.
  • Two beatsA longer diamond stretches over two rows. Hold the key down for as long as the diamond lasts.
  • Half beatsA triangle pointing down starts on the beat. A triangle pointing up starts halfway through it.
  • Keep holdingA filled bar means the key stays down, here across the bold bar line into the next bar.
Cover of Learning to Play the EasyKey Way

The year-one course

Learning to Play the EasyKey Way

A full year of lessons in one book. Each month takes one major key, in four weekly steps: the scale, the arpeggio, the chords, and three common chord patterns, with new songs every week. It includes 26 well-known songs from beginner to advanced.

  1. Month 1A
  2. Month 2B♭
  3. Month 3B
  4. Month 4C
  5. Month 5D♭
  6. Month 6D
  7. Month 7E♭
  8. Month 8E
  9. Month 9F
  10. Month 10F♯
  11. Month 11G
  12. Month 12A♭

ISBN 978-1-008-98579-7 · EasyKey Music

Buy the bookAll books

The EasyKey converter · beta

Any song, in EasyKey.

Load a MIDI file and the converter draws it as an EasyKey grid you can print. It runs in your browser, so your file never leaves your device. Pro view shows compact grids with only the keys you play, for more advanced music.

Converting MIDI files is free while the converter is in testing. Converting sheet-music PDFs and other formats, per song or by subscription, is coming next.

Open the converter
Teachers and schools Families and learners use EasyKey freely. If you teach paid lessons or run classes with it, ask about a teaching licence and class sets of the book. shareef@peopleoftheworld.net

Why it exists

Shareef Ali Rashada taught himself piano from library books and found traditional notation slow going, even as a friend played beautifully by ear without reading a note. He started drawing songs on graph paper as pictures of the keys, and the drawings became EasyKey.

Hear the music that came out of it →

New songs and lessons.

An email when new EasyKey songs, lessons or converter features arrive. Nothing else unless you ask.