What is a half step on the piano?

What is a half step on the piano?

• A. The distance between any two notes in the same octave
• B. The distance between any two consecutive keys
• C. The distance between the white keys only
• D. The distance from C to E

Answer: (B)

On the piano, a half step is the smallest distance between pitches, found from one key to the very next key. That means moving from a white key to the neighboring black key, or from a white key directly to the next white key when there’s no black key between them (as in E to F or B to C). The key idea is that every adjacent pair of keys represents one semitone. This helps explain why the other ideas don’t fit: the distance between two notes in the same octave can be many semitones, not just one; the half-step can occur between white and black keys, so describing it as “white-key only” isn’t accurate; and C to E is a larger interval (a major third), not a half step.

On the piano, a half step is the smallest distance between pitches, found from one key to the very next key. That means moving from a white key to the neighboring black key, or from a white key directly to the next white key when there’s no black key between them (as in E to F or B to C). The key idea is that every adjacent pair of keys represents one semitone.

This helps explain why the other ideas don’t fit: the distance between two notes in the same octave can be many semitones, not just one; the half-step can occur between white and black keys, so describing it as “white-key only” isn’t accurate; and C to E is a larger interval (a major third), not a half step.