How to Learn Piano Tabs - Piano Notes For Beginners

Although not used as frequently in piano playing, there is a system of tablature (TAB) available for piano players who can't read traditional music. Tablature for piano differs a great deal from tablature notation specific to stringed instruments and requires a basic knowledge of the layout of a piano to fully understand and put into practice. While there is no real substitute for developing your ability to read standard music notation, learning piano tabs allows beginners to read simple piano music with minimal reading skills.

Familiarize yourself with the layout of the keyboard. There are 88 keys on a standard piano, spanning a little over seven musical octaves. The lowest note on a piano, played on the far left side in the bass clef, is A. The highest note on a piano is C. Starting from the left, playing only white keys, the notes are A-B-C-D-E-F-G. These notes repeat over and over, all the way up. The black keys on the piano have the same names as the white keys, except they are sharp or flat. The black key after a C is C sharp or D flat, depending upon whether you move up to the note or back to the note.

Familiarize yourself with how these notes are labeled. This is the foundation to understanding piano tablature. The first note (A) on the keyboard is A0. The zero denotes this is the beginning of the piano keyboard, with no octave having been reached. Play the lowest A through G and all of the notes will be followed by a zero. Starting at the A an octave above the first (eight notes higher) and the number one follows, indicating you're playing in the first octave range. Middle C on the keyboard is C4, meaning the note C in the fourth octave. The highest C on the keyboard is C8, meaning C in the eighth octave.

Chords for the Piano Choose a piece of piano music written in piano tab format. Locate lowercase letters. The lower case letters tell you to play the white keys on the piano. Find all the uppercase letters. These are played as sharps or flat. Combine these letter names with the octave numbers and you will know what note to play and in which position (octave) to play it on the keyboard.Example: c4d4-e4-f4-g4-a4-b4-c5.The above example is piano tab for the C major scale in the fourth octave (the middle C octave). The last C has a five after it because this begins the fifth octave.

Read stacked notes as chords. In piano tab, the chords are often simply written in uppercase above the piano tab, but in some instances they are notated in the piano tab itself. Piano tab notes written one above the other tells you to play the notes together, as a chord. Notes written consecutively indicate the notes are played one after the other.

How to Learn Piano Tabs - Piano Notes For Beginners Click here Chords for the Piano