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.

Available Instruments

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. Only a single Instrument has 4 notes.
• 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 this is only possible on devices with touchscreen controls, as well as on PC by remapping button inputs.)

Note that some Instruments are unable to be practiced in the Harmony Hall Rehearsal Room:

• The Dark Horn is not considered an Instrument since you cannot play Music Sheets with it, and you cannot practice with it in the said room.
• Despite being considered Instruments, you still cannot practice with any of Grand Pianos in there due to them being considered small props as well.

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, Mac with M1 chip and later and Steam). 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, Nintendo Switch and Steam 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)

L2	R2	D▼	×	D◀
□	D▲	△	D▶	○
L1	R1	L◀	R◀	L▶

Layout (Mac Keyboard)

Y	U	I	O	P
H	J	K	L	: ;
N	M	< ,	> .	? /

PlayStation Controller Music Note Layouts

Nintendo Switch Controller Music Note Layouts

Instrument Notes

A Guide to Music in Sky-Introduction to music in Sky

Video guide to music in sky. Image shows the 15 notes in C Major.

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 pitch ranges of all non-percussion Instruments in Sky

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 Grand Piano, the Kalimba, the Triumph Violin, the Voice of AURORA, 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: the Triumph Saxophone and 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 and Cello are two octaves lower than the piano, i.e., C₂ to C₄.
• Three octaves lower: The Contrabass' range is C₁ to C₃.

Percussion Instruments are the only Instruments to have 8 notes (with one notable exception having only 4) -- 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, Prophecy Drum, and Fortune 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 the 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, Voice of AURORA, Triumph Violin, Triumph Saxophone, Cello, Harmonica) 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.

Instrument Name	Icon	Avail.	Source	Cost	Part	Pitch	Stance
Harp		RRegular Spirit		5	Melody	C3 - C5	Standing
Fledgling Harp		PPermanent Item		$4.99	Melody	C3 - C5	Standing
Contrabass		RRegular Spirit		5	Bass	C1 - C3	Standing
Piano		RRegular Spirit		10	Melody	C4 - C6	Sitting
Horn		RRegular Spirit		5	Wind	C2 - C4	Standing
Small Bell		SSeason Spirit		40	Percussion	C5 - A5	Standing
Large Bell		SSeason Spirit		45	Percussion	C5 - A5	Standing
Flute		SSeason Spirit		55	Wind	C4 - C6	Standing
Panflute		SSeason Spirit		60	Wind	C4 - C6	Standing
Guitar		SSeason Spirit		75	Melody	C3 - C5	Sitting
Rhythm Guitar		PPermanent Item		$14.99	Melody	C3 - C5	Sitting
Ukulele		SSeason Spirit		75	Melody	C3 - C5	Sitting
Xylophone		SSeason Spirit		65	Melody	C5 - C7	Kneeling
Winter Piano		SSeason Spirit		75	Melody	C5 - C7	Sitting
Sanctuary Handpan		UUltimate Gift		N/A	Percussion	D3 - C5	Sitting
Triumph Handpan		PPermanent Item		$19.99	Percussion	D3 - C5	Sitting
Prophecy Drum		UUltimate Gift		N/A	Percussion	None	Standing
Lute		SSeason Spirit		70	Melody	C3 - C5	Sitting
Bugle		UUltimate Gift		N/A	Wind	C4 - C6	Standing
Kalimba		SSeason Spirit		75	Melody	C4 - C6	Kneeling
Electric Guitar		SSeason Spirit		80	Melody	C3 - C5	Standing
Blue Electric Guitar		PPermanent Item		$29.99	Melody	C3 - C5	Standing
Voice of AURORA		LLimited Offer		$14.99	Melody	C4 - C6	Standing
Manta Ocarina		SSeason Spirit			Wind	C4 - C6	Standing
Cello		SSeason Spirit			Bass	C2 - C4	Standing
Duets Cello		GGuide Item		200	Bass	C2 - C4	Standing
Harmonica		S+Season Spirit (Current)		20	Wind	C4 - C6	Standing
Vessel Flute		CConditional		$29.99	Wind	C4 - C6	Standing
Drum		RRegular Spirit		5	Percussion	None	Sitting
Triumph Violin		PPermanent Item		$19.99	Melody	C4 - C6	Standing
Triumph Saxophone		D*Days-specific Item (Current)		102	Wind	C3 - C5	Standing
Fortune Drum		DDays-specific Item		34	Percussion	None	Standing
Grand Piano		SSeason Spirit			Melody	C4 - C6	Sitting
Duets Grand Piano		UUltimate Gift		N/A	Melody	C4 - C6	Sitting

Availability Legend
RRegular Spirit	Always available: can be purchased from a Regular (non-Seasonal) Spirit.
PPermanent Item	Always available: can permanently be purchased from a source other than a Regular Spirit.
S+Season Spirit (Current)	Available for current Season: can be purchased from a Spirit in current Season.
U+Ultimate Gift (Current)	Available for current Season: item is an Ultimate Gift in current Season, and is only available until the end of current Season to Season Pass holders. It will never be available after Season ends.
T*Traveling Spirit (Current)	Available for limited time: can be purchased from current Traveling Spirit.
R*Returning Spirit (Current)	Available for limited time: can be purchased from current Returning Spirit.
D*Days-specific Item (Current)	Available for limited time: item is available from current "Days of" event.
L*Limited Offer (Current)	Available for limited time: can be purchased as part of a current, limited-time offer.
DDays-specific Item	Periodically available: can be purchased during a future recurring "Days of" event.
SSeason Spirit	Rarely available: can be purchased from a past-Season Spirit only when they return as a Traveling Spirit or a Returning Spirit (dates unknown).
UUltimate Gift	No longer available: item was an Ultimate Gift during a past Season, and will never be offered again.
CConditional	Conditionally available: only available to some players (e.g., players using a Nintendo Switch).