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"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.

Despite a recent legal campaign launched by the Music Publishing Industry attacking tablature sites, there continue to be many tabs available freely on many different sites .

Don't play guitar? Don't do tabs? No problem. Say hello to our little friends:

Guitar Tab 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 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:
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:	[Eminor]   b3   D#4	(piano chord notation)
A sheet music -> tab conversion chart

 

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 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 Get it here (while you still can).
.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 (38):
BA [Admin] (8 hours ago) Yo Steahl. Did you read the guide written above? "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 Steahl [Guest] (10 days ago) I have on problem with this. How do I know if it is the left or right hand? bobbyboo [Guest] (18 days ago) thanks much Bobby101 [Guest] (19 days ago) Thanks this is great!!!!!! milry62 [New Recruit] (27 days ago) wjere is the search bok to find tabs i can't find it!!!!! yo hello [Guest] (27 days ago) the green notes just show you the root note of the chord Helloo [Guest] (30 days ago) Right so I was just reading some tabs off this website and I think I'm nearly there with this tab business. But seriously on the little diagrams of the song chords why does on key always have a green print and the rest yellow? If anyone could help that would be awesome!! Thanks for this though! x 65.19.234.65 [Guest] (1 month ago) tks 4 tht that showed me the basics i needed 2 know 3abraham16 [New Recruit] (1 month ago) will like to learn how to play some of the song from Marcos Witt in my piano is there some one that could guide my threw this step as well how to you work this website asheigh( [Guest] (1 month ago) okay,can anybody help me? lilke give me a website or something? i love playing the piano but i cant read sheet music and i need the ones with letter,cn anybody help? i would like to have the song Bless the broken road by Rasscell Flatts (that name is probley spelled wrong) but anything will work! I need heeeelp pleeease! ((: ...More Comments...   View all 38 comments   Comment on this article   Your Guest Name:       [Member Login]   Comments:   Unhelpful comments are exterminated.