How to Read Piano Tabs
Last Update: 4 of March, 2023
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Most tabs on the internet are currently written for guitar in the guitar tab format.
Go on, grab a guitar tab now, or compose your own. If you have the guitar tab, we have a few tools for you:
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Even if you don't play guitar, there's no need to fret, even if you are high strung. 
We've got more tools to convert tabs:
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Most tabs on TabNabber are currently written for piano (or other instruments) in a standard tab format that
allows any of and up to 128 instruments to be played at once.
Perhaps you are a proper musician who prefers sheet music notation? That's cool, tabs aren't your forte. Stay sharp. Rest.
And say cello to my little friends! (and convert tabs, sheet music and midis into the format of your choosing):
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Warning: Joining a band or orchestra increases your risk of being exposed to oboe-scenity, sax and violins.
The following may be inappropriate for minors.
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).
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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.
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Lowercase Letters (a,b,c,d,e,f,g)
indicate the note names as
natural (the white keys) |
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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". |
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The "|" symbols separate measures/sections
of notes |
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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 Piano Tabs (advanced options):
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.------|x2
L 1|F>F>>>>>|g>A>>>>>|F.------|
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Letters on the top line (the [D]
and the [Gm]) indicate chord names.
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"R" indicates the
notes on the line are played on the Right hand
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"L" indicates the
notes on the line are played on the Left hand
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The ">" symbols
indicate the note should be held/sustained
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The "." symbols
indicate the note should be cut (for a staccato effect)
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The "x2"
indicates the preceding staff lines (everything to the left) should be repeated the number of times indicated (2 in this example)
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Multiple Instrument / Track Tabs:
Multi-track tabs allow you to compose an entire symphony with multiple instruments / tracks in your songs.
Here's an example of a simple multi-track tab:
The first number or letter shown is the track/instrument.
^ The second number shown is the octave.
^ ^
1:4|c-e-c-e---
In the example above, the 1:4 means track/instrument 1, octave 4.
This can also be written as:
P:4|c-e-c-e---
The 'P' signifies a 'Piano' track. Here are some other instrument options:
F:5|c--------
G:4|--e-e-e--
D:3|d-d-D-d--
'F' is Flute, 'G' is Guitar, and 'D' is Drum (different notes/pitches of the drum track play different percussion sounds). But if you specify the instrument using the instrument numbers, there are 128 different instruments you can
specify (1-128). For example:
7:4|-----------c-e-------------------c-e-------
18:4|-------------------g>>>>>>>>>--------------
63:4|-----------------------------c-e-----------
D:4|--dded--dded--dded--dded--dded--dded--dded-
Setting Volume:
Volume of any given track can be specified like so:
2:Volume=5
The "2" in this example is the track number, and the "5" is the desired volume.
Volume levels range from a low (quietest) of 1 to a high of 9. This also works if you specify your tracks using letters, including the common right hand/left hand notation:
R:Volume=9
L:Volume=8
R:5|-a-a-a-a-
L:2|a--------
This will play the right hand slightly louder than the left hand.
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
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| This: |
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(standard sheet music notation) |
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is equivalent to: |
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| This: |
4|b>>>---------
4|g>>>---------
4|e>>>----D>>>-
3|----b>>>----- |
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(piano tab notation) |
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is equivalent to: |
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| This: |
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(piano chord notation) |
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How to read sheet music |
How to play piano chords
We get it. Tabs aren't everyone's forte. A universally accepted method to reading and writing music just does not exist, and that's probably a good thing.
TabNabber's all natural organic non GMO tab notation is obviously the superior choice,
but there hasn't ever been (and likely never will be) one and only one type of notation.
The intricacies of the audio world simply cannot be captured in written notation without sacrificing reading comprehension for accuracy.
Even if there was a common notation that everyone loved and used some jackhole with a website would probably come along with SongDong.com
and ruin it for everyone. wait... what was I talking about again?
Music notation comes in many different forms, here are the most common:
.tab
.txt
.text |
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A text based notation we call tab.
You know how to read tabs, right? |
.crd
.chord |
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A tab containing chords (instead of individual notes).
How to play piano chords.
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.mid
.midi |
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A midi file. Technically midi
files are not music notation, but the notes inside midi files can be viewed in our Midi to Tab Converter. |
| .nwc |
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NWC is used by "Noteworthy
Composer", free music composer software. Scores written in
"Noteworthy" have the file extension .nwc.
Get "Noteworthy
Composer"
.
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| .mus |
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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
"
(made by the same company) allows you to view MUS files.
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| .ove |
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OVE files are used by the pricey
software "Overture" made by Sonic Scores
.
Scores written in "Overture" have the file extension .ove.
They also make a slimmed
down version of the product called "Score Writer" which is
slightly more affordable.
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| .pdf |
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PDF files are used by "Adobe
Acrobat" or "Adobe Acrobat Reader" software made by Adobe
Adobe
.
PDFs can contain pictures of sheet music or scores. They are nearly impossible to edit and extremely difficult to read, unless
you know how to read sheet music.
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| .ptb |
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PTB files are Power Tab files created with
the freely available (at least for now) "Power Tab Editor" music
composer software.
Get it
.
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.jpg
.gif
.png
.tif
.bmp |
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JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIF, BMP are just a few of the many image
file formats in use, typically pictures of sheet music or scores. They are nearly impossible to edit and extremely difficult to read, unless
you know how to read sheet music.
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| .zip |
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A file compressed using WinZip
software , possibly containing sheet music.
Use caution when opening these types of files as they can also contain viruses.
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| .rar |
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A file compressed using WinRAR
software , possibly containing sheet music.
Use caution when opening these types of files as they can also contain viruses.
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