How To Read Piano Tabs

Music is something anyone can enjoy and learn. With consistent practice, you’ll soon play the piano effortlessly, even if you start with basic piano tabs instead of traditional sheet music.

What Are the Tabs?

Short for “tablature,” tabs are numerical representations of musical notes. They help musicians know which notes to play in a song. Tabs are easier to read compared to sheet music, making them popular among many musicians.

Key Takeaways

• Definition of Tabs: Tabs, short for “tablature,” are numerical representations of musical notes to help musicians know which notes to play.
• Ease of Use: Tabs are easier to read and more accessible compared to traditional sheet music, making them great for beginners.
• Instrument Specificity: Tabs are often created for specific instruments, so piano tabs might differ significantly from guitar tabs.
• Learning Tool: Tabs help beginners familiarize themselves with notes and chords, though they may not fully cover music theory.
• Tab Symbols: Understanding the symbols used in tabs, like letters for notes and vertical lines for measure separation, is crucial for accurate playing.

Most guitarists use tabs, but they’re less common for piano players, especially those with formal training. Yet, with the rise of popular music, more beginners prefer learning with tablatures. If you’re one of them, this article offers steps and tips to start reading piano tabs.

Tablatures have both pros and cons when playing music. Here are a few key points:

Advantages:

• Easier note reading
• Widely accessible
• Can easily be made and edited
• Can easily be shared between friends across the internet
• Can be a big help for beginners to familiarize themselves with notes and chords

Disadvantages:

• Specific to a particular type of instrument – tabs are made specifically for only a certain type of instrument depending on who made it. So we can’t possibly expect that a guitar tablature would also be playable with piano since the outline and the symbols that are used have their differences from each other.
• Unable to express dynamics and rhythm as sheet music does
• It can pose limitations regarding knowledge in actual music theory – because a tablature offers exact positions for where you should put your fingers on a keyboard, it provides no guarantee that you would master the notes and chords in essence.

So, if you’ve considered quitting tablatures to study music theory, that’s fine—you can skip this article. But if you’re keen on learning piano tabs, keep reading. We’ll guide you through the wonders of tablature notation.

Learning How to Read Tabs

First off, piano tablatures use symbols, letters, and numbers to show exactly where to press on the keys.

The numbers on the left side of the tablature show which octave a note should play in. For instance, on an 88-key piano, middle C is C4, indicating the 4th octave. This might vary for different pianos or specific songs, especially those with fewer keys or fewer octaves in use.

The symbols you see in tabs, like vertical lines (|) and dashes (-), have key roles in music. Vertical lines separate measures and bars, while dashes separate notes. Dashes also indicate the note’s length being played.

Tips and Tricks in Playing Piano Tabs

Determine the Octave Breakdown on your Keyboard

Different tablatures vary based on your keyboard and the song you’re playing. First, identify how many octaves your keyboard has, starting from the lowest C note, and determine which octaves you’ll use for your tab. This is the general format.

Notice there’s no direct identification of the white and black keys. I’ll cover that in the next segment.

I’ve found that breaking down the keyboard by octaves, starting from the lowest C note, makes things simpler. By naming each key according to its octave, you can easily identify which notes belong to which octave. Always remember, each octave begins with a C note on the keyboard.

Here’s a G major scale tablature highlighting specific notes across various octaves:

Read tablatures from left to right, playing the leftmost note first until the piece ends. Pay attention to vertical lines between notes; they separate each measure in a song. Here’s an example of a tablature with these separators:

5|-a-d-f———–|—————|
4|-a-d-f———–|—————|
3|——–c-D-e-f-|G————–|
2|——————|—f-e-d-c—-|

Naming Each Key According to Its Octave

Notice how two notes seem stacked on top of each other. This indicates you should play them together as a single chord. For the other notes in the sequence, play them sequentially from left to right, following their respective octaves.

Here’s a brief guide to the symbols used in piano tabs and their meanings:

We can all be great musicians if we want to. The thing is, not all of us have the patience and determination to keep up with the pressure. Perhaps some of us initially thought it would be as easy as learning the alphabet, or maybe we set our expectations too high. Regardless, we can always pursue music. Whether as a hobby or a lifelong profession, it’s always worth spending time on what we’re passionate about. The key to success is to not give up on what we love.

3 |——g-a-b—————|

Tabs are to be read from Left to Right

Just as you would with normal text, tablatures are read from left to right, with the leftmost note played first and so on until the piece ends. Always take note of the vertical lines that may exist between a series of notes. These vertical lines are used as separators for each measure in the song. Here is how a tablature would look like with these separators:

5|-a-d-f———–|—————|
4|-a-d-f———–|—————|
3|——–c-D-e-f-|G————–|
2|——————|—f-e-d-c—-|

Notice how two notes appear to be stacked on top of each other. This means that instead of playing each note separately, you would have to play them at the same time as a single chord. For all the other notes in the sequence, however, you should play them accordingly starting from left to right, following the octave that they are in.

A Brief Rundown on Tablature Symbols

Here is a shortlist of symbols that are used in making piano tabs and what they represent:

• Lowercase letters – are used to represent white keys.
• Uppercase letters – are used to represent sharped notes or the black keys.
• Numbers – as previously mentioned, are used to represent the octaves present in a specific musical arrangement that you’re playing.
• Vertical lines (|) – are used to separate measures from each other.
• Dashes (–) – are used to represent the interval between notes, which basically means that the more dashes in between the letters, the longer is the interval between them in actual playing.
• L and R – in some tabs, you will see the letters L and R beside the numbers on the left-hand side. These letters indicate which hand is supposed to play which note. Here is an example illustration of how it looks like:

R 3|–g-a-b—|

L 2|–a—g—-|

L 1|–a—g—-|