Instruments

**Instruments** are Cosmetics that players can use to play Music. As with all cosmetics, purchasing instruments is not a requirement to progress in the game, but it is a way for players to express themselves and interact with other players. More so than other cosmetics, instruments significantly enrich the Sky experience by enabling a range of new activities. You can play music solo or with friends, whether playing music freeform or using a Music Sheet.

Multiple instruments are available in game. Although the mechanics are the same for all instruments, your instrument selection has multiple implications:

* How many notes you can play. Most instruments have 15 notes, but percussion instruments only have 8.
* The pitch of the notes. Some instruments play at higher or lower octaves than others.
* The tone / quality of the notes varies to reflect real life variations between instrument sounds.
* Which parts you play when using a Music Sheet: each instrument only plays one of the four available parts.
* Whether you can move after equipping an instrument: you can only move around with instruments that are played in a standing stance.

Note that the Dark Horn is not considered an instrument since you cannot play music sheets with it, and you cannot practice with it in the Harmony Hall Rehearsal Room.

## How to Play Music

To play an instrument, you must first equip it by selecting it in the Props Outfit Shrine; your currently equipped instrument is visible on your back. To play the instrument, open the expression menu. An icon for your instrument is added in the row of actions, next to the "Home" icon (typically the third row of icons). Selecting that icon makes you take out the instrument and be ready to play.

An alternative but temporary way to equip an instrument is to select one of the demonstration instruments on display in Harmony Hall. Such instruments are immediately equipped and ready to play. When you close the music screen, the instrument is returned to the display.

The main music screen is a set of 15 (or 8 for percussion instruments) symbols representing the notes you can play; see Instrument Notes for details. There are two main options for how to play music:

* Freeform, by clicking on music notes. Many guides and tools exist to help you play freeform music.
* Using Music Sheets that show you to how to play songs, by highlighting which notes you should play. More details are provided on the Music Sheets article.

It is possible to play musical notes on Sky's **instruments** while using a game controller (e.g. Xbox, PlayStation, MFi controller) or a keyboard (exclusive to iPad and Mac with M1 chip and later). The default button layout is designed such that the buttons/directions alternates between left and right hand side when playing the notes in order.

PlayStation and Nintendo Switch users can modify the visual layout of their musical notes to best fit their playing style. Each layout assigns different notes to different buttons.

Legend: D = D-pad; L = Left stick; R = Right stick

Layout (PlayStation Buttons)
 □
 L1

Layout (Mac Keyboard)
 H
 N

## Instrument Notes

Most of the instruments in the game have **15 notes**, which span two octaves of a major scale. The lowest pitch note is in the upper left, and pitch increases to the right, then down. The most common scale used in the game is C major, in which case the notes in the top row (from left to right) are C, D, E, F, and G. The second row has A, B, C, D, and E (where C, D, E are an octave higher than the first row). The third row is F, G, A, B, C (all at a higher octave).

The notes played are the same for all instruments (other than percussion), but the **pitch** of the notes -- the specific octave of the first C for example -- varies depending upon your selected instrument.

* The standard Piano is in the "typical" range, which in scientific pitch notation is summarized as C4 to C6. The Kalimba and most wind instruments (Bugle, Flute, Panflute, and Vessel Flute) are also in this range.
* One octave higher: the Winter Piano and Xylophone are one octave higher than the piano, i.e., C5 to C7.
* One octave lower: most of the string instruments (Electric Guitar, Guitar, Harp, Lute, and Ukulele) are one octave lower than the piano, i.e., C3 to C5.
* Two octaves lower: The Horn's range is C2 to C4.
* Three octaves lower: The Contrabass' range is C1 to C3.

Percussion instruments are the only instruments to have **8 notes** -- which in some case are not even pitched notes. Their sounds are handled differently than all the other instruments, and even vary from one percussion instrument to another. The drums ( Drum and  Prophecy Drum) have unpitched sounds that do not correspond to musical notes. The bells ( Small Bell and  Large Bell) play the notes C4D4G4A4C4D4G4A4. The handpans ( Sanctuary Handpan and  Triumph Handpan) play the notes D3A3C4D4F4G4A4C5. Each instrument's article provides additional details.

The discussion up until now provided the notes specifically used when playing in the **key** of C major. This is the most common key found in Sky, but many other keys are possible, and your instrument's key will adjust automatically to match the key used by the background music of the current realm or to match they key of the selected Music Sheet. More details about how to control the key are provided at Music Key. For most instruments, all other keys are higher pitched than C major, with B major having the highest pitch overall. So while the Piano ranges from C4 to C6 in C major, it ranges from B4 to B6 in B major. However, for the bells and handpans, G major has the lowest and F♯/G♭ major has the highest pitch overall; for the Voice of AURORA, D♯/E♭ major has the lowest and D major has the highest pitch overall.

Instruments that have the fermata symbol 𝄐 (the electric guitar and AURORA voice) indicate that the instrument's notes can be held down to play an extended note.

## Available Instruments

This table lists all the instruments currently available in Sky. The default order is icon order, as used in the in-game Props Closet. The table sort order can be changed by clicking on the header of any column.

## References

1. ↑ Although you are standing when playing the Electric Guitar, you can not move around, unlike all other standing instruments.
2. ↑ The $29.99 price is for the nintendo starter pack, which includes more than just the Vessel Flute