There you have it: a distance of a whole tone. Pick a key on your keyboard and move one half step to the right, then another half step to the right. Two semitones (two half steps/half tones) make up one whole tone (one whole step). Highly Recommended: Click here for one of the BEST piano/keyboard courses I’ve seen online. As long as the key you’re playing is to the immediate right or immediate left of another, the distance is a semitone. It can be from black to white, white to black or white to white key, for example C# to D, F# to G and B to C, respectively. It is the shortest distance between two keys on your piano. In American English, they are called whole steps, and half steps or half tones, respectively.Ī semitone (half step or half tone) is the smallest interval in Western music. In this lesson we will take a look at whole tones and semitones (as they are called in British English).