Why Do We Have Only Seven Octaves On a Piano? Why Not Twelve or More
Octaves?
Ordinarily the longest key-board of the piano has seven octaves and
three notes in addition, or 52 notes, not counting the sharps and
flats. An octave you, of course, know consists of the seven notes C D
E F G A B. Every eighth note is a repetition of the one seven notes
below or above. The reason that there are no more notes or octaves on
the piano is that if we extended the key-board either way one or two
octaves more, we should not be able to hear the notes struck on the
keys. There would be sound produced, or course, but the vibrations
would be too fine for the human ear to hear. It is said that the range
of the human ear does not go beyond somewhere between eleven and twelve
octaves.
[Illustration: Picture by courtesy Browne & Howell Co.