If you are one of those wanna be pianists that just can’t afford proper equipment yet, check out Virtual Piano. It is a free utility for Windows and Mac that turns your keyboard into a Piano. You can then play the piano through your mouse or your keyboard keys. Each key on the Piano is mapped to a button on your keyboard and the complete mapping is displayed once you click on the ? button or the Piano Notes button.

The utility also displays keys for popular songs from bands like Linkin Park and Guns and Roses so you can try playing those on your own. You can scroll through the selection of these songs by clicking on the respective up or down arrow. If you are a mouse person, you can de-activate the keyboard functionality. There are also several loop functions and pre-recorded pieces of music to give you a good background beat. Just press the space bar key to turn off the music at any time.

Overall, it is a great tool for somebody who wants to learn music but doesn’t want to spend tons of money of expensive equipment. It also looks like a real piano so you get the feel of it when you play around. You can download the Virtual piano from here. The tool also comes as a MAC Widget that can be download here.