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Piano Tablature on
Wikipedia

"Tab" or "tablature" is a method of writing down (or transcribing) notes and chords in music.  Tabs, unlike standard musical notation, do not use symbols (ie: ) to represent notes. 

Most tabs are easier to read - but not nearly as detailed - as traditional sheet music.  Tabs enable both beginners and experienced musicians alike to learn, share, and expand their music making talents.

Most of today's tabs are written for guitar. Don't play guitar? Don't do tabs? No problem. Say hello to our little converter friends:
->	Turn Guitar Tabs into Piano Tabs
->	Turn Guitar Tabs into Sheet Music
->	Turn Piano Tabs into Sheet Music
	Turn Tabs into Midis (play and listen to your tabs!)
Play guitar or prefer sheet music? Then get outta here:
	How to read guitar tabs
	How to read sheet music

 

A 49 key keyboard.  "c4" means note "c" on octave "4" which is the "c" key in the middle of this keyboard.  Notice how nicely I have labeled the notes / octaves. View more keyboard layouts.

 

Reading tabs (simple):

Here's a simple example of an individual note piano tab... the scale of "f".

4|---------c-d-e-f-|
3|-f-g-a-A---------|
       <- Click the play button to hear it!

 

Here's another example... the scale of "f" played on two octaves:

Tabs are read from left to right (notes above and below each other are played simultaneously).

-	The Numbers (3, 2, 2 and 1 in the above example) indicate the octave.  All octaves start on the "c" key.  Octave 4 is in the middle of the keyboard.
-	Lowercase Letters (a,b,c,d,e,f,g) indicate the note names as natural (the white keys)
-	Uppercase Letters (A,C,D,F,G) indicate the note names as sharp, ie: A#,C#,D#,F#,G# (the black keys).  Adding the sharp symbol after the note is also acceptable, but using the upper/lower case method is recommended because it saves space.  Note: For simplicity (and to not confuse "b" notes with "flats", "sharps" are used exclusively instead of "flats". eg: The note, "B flat", is represented by its equivalent, "A#" or just "A".
-	The "|" symbols  separate measures/sections of notes
-	The "-" symbols are used for spacing between notes.  These dashes indicate timing - the more dashes there are, the longer the time between the notes.

 

Reading tabs (advanced symbols):

Piano tabs can describe individual notes (as seen above) or chord names or both.  Here's a more advanced example of a piano tab that describes both:

     [D]      [Gm]
R 3|--a-d-F-|--g-d-g-|--------|
L 2|F>d>>>>>|g>d>>>>>|F.------|
L 1|F>F>>>>>|g>A>>>>>|F.------|

-	Letters on the top line (the [D] and the [Gm]) indicate chord names.
-	"R" indicates the notes on the line are played on the Right hand
-	"L" indicates the notes on the line are played on the Left hand
-	The ">" symbols  indicate the note should be held/sustained
-	The "." symbols  indicate the note should be cut (for a staccato effect)

Let us know if you have an idea for
improvement to the tab notation!

 
Tabs for the sheet music fans:

Sheet music to tab conversion chart

This: (standard sheet music notation)       is equivalent to:     This: 4|b>>>--------- 4|g>>>--------- 4|e>>>----D>>>- 3|----b>>>----- (piano tab notation)       is equivalent to:     This: [Em]   3b   4D#  (piano chord notation)

 

How to play piano chords

As there isn't a commonly accepted way of transcribing and reading music on the web, tabs, sheet music and scores come in many different file types.  Here are the most common file types:

.tab .txt .text		A text tab.  See how to read tabs for more.
.crd .chord		A text tab containing chords instead of individual notes.
.mid .midi		A midi file.  Technically midi files are not tabs or sheet music, but the notes inside midi files can be viewed in our Midi to Piano Tab Converter and by some music composition software (such as "Finale ").
.nwc		NWC is used by "Noteworthy Composer", free music composer software. Scores written in "Noteworthy" have the file extension .nwc. You can download "Noteworthy Composer" for free! .
.mus		MUS files or "Coda Notation Files" are used by "Finale" music composer software.  Scores written in "Finale " have the file extension .mus. The "Finale" software is not free, but another software called "Notepad " is (made by the same company) which allows you to view MUS files.
.ove		OVE files are used by the software "Overture" made by GenieSoft .  Scores writtin in "Overture" have the file extension .ove.  "Overture" is not free software, but there is a slimmed down version of the product called "Score Writer" which is slightly more affordable.
.pdf		PDF files are used by "Adobe Acrobat" or "Adobe Acrobat Reader" software made by Adobe Adobe .  These files are not easily editable because typically they have been scanned from a paper version of a music score.
.ptb		PTB files are Power Tab files created with the freely available (at least for now) "Power Tab Editor" music composer software.  Get it here .
.jpg .gif .png .tif .bmp		JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIF, BMP are just a few of the many image file types that exist today.  The files are not easily editable (like Adobe Acrobat) because typically they have been scanned from a paper version of a music score.
.zip		A file compressed using WinZip software , usually containing sheet music.
.rar		A file compressed using WinRAR software , usually containing sheet music.

Above Mentioned Topics:

• What is a tab?
• Guitar to Piano Tab Converter
• Guitar Tab to Sheet Music converter
• Piano Tab to Sheet Music converter
• Tab to Midi converter (play and listen to your tabs!)
• How to read piano tabs.
• How to play piano chords
• Sheet Music/Tab file types.

 

Comments / Corrections (97):
christelle [Guest] (8 days ago) merci pour se super site trés utile BA [Admin] (9 days ago) @Cows - is that a serious question? I don't see a #M anywhere. Cows have big hairy kidneys. [Guest] (11 days ago) I tried doing what this says on my keyboard, but I can't find #M anywhere. any help? 98.198.49.78 [Guest] (1 month ago) my piano has 36 keys! rybak [Guest] (1 month ago) now i'm epic piano guy! rybak [Guest] (1 month ago) now i'm epic piano guy! BA [Admin] (2 months ago) @Ronniel C. Menor - Hindi ko maintindihan mo. (I don't understand what you mean) Ronniel C. Menor [Guest] (2 months ago) Peke nmn ung guitar tab to piano tab converter nyo? Triny ko naglagay ng guitar tab gling sa ultimate guitar pero wla nmn nagbago, un parin. Sure ba kaung gumagana yan?? Abraham Díaz Puerto Rico [Guest] (7 months ago) Logicamente estos sistemas usados para componer o ejecutar música son de gran ayuda, no obstante el conocer uno y tratar de aprender el otro será un tanto dificil.Por lo tanto es aconsejable aprenderlos ambos simultaneamente.Les felicito muy bien explicado el tema. BA [Admin] (7 months ago) @mamita - you just want to print this page, right? Have you tried File -> Print? ...More Comments...   View all 97 comments   Comment on this article   Your Guest Name:       [Member Login]   Comments:   Unhelpful comments are exterminated.   Verify your humanity: Enter the characters above: