To know how to read and play piano sheet music is a great asset. It is worth developing this skill as you have a nearly unlimited amount of piano sheet music titles to play.
When you try to learn piano sheet music I suggest that you take time to learn just a few notes at a time. Learn the placement of the notes on the sheet music staff and also where to play them on your piano.
Meanwhile you can learn to read the easier piano tab notation.
Piano tabs or keyboard tablature is an easy way to learn melodies and other types of piano music. We will use a common way to describe how you are to play the keys on your piano.
Sheet music notation shows the notes to play but not how to play them on your instrument. Tablature on the other hand shows the keys to play on your piano.
To read the piano tabs you have to learn the note names of the white keys on your piano. First we will take a look at the note c at the middle of the piano keyboard. It is called middle c or sometimes c4.
The black keys on the keyboard are organized in groups consisting of two or three black keys. Middle c is immediately to the left of two black keys at the middle of the keyboard.
As we mentioned before middle c is sometimes called c4 as it is in the fourth octave of a piano or a grand. Octave means eight and you have played eight notes if you start with c and play the white keys until you come to the next c.
The following notes to the right of c is d e f g a b and then you have the next c. This c is subsequently called c5 as it is in the fifth octave of a piano. On a smaller type of keyboard with fewer keys you will still use c4 to show middle c.
The c note to the left of middle c is called c3. All notes to the left of two black keys are c notes in different octaves.
The easy piano tabs we will use to play Fur Elise has the following rules:
1. The white keys are indicated with lowercase letters. An example: c d e f g a b
2. The black keys are shown by uppercase letters. For example, A D-major chord is written d F a. The uppercase letter F shows that the note is the black key to the right of f.
3. The octave to play is showed with a number after the letter. The note c4 means, play middle c. The following notes will not have a number until it is time to change octave. Here is a C-major arpeggio: c4 e g c5
It is time to play the first notes of Fur Elise. It is written as an easy melody for your right hand:
e5 D e D e b4 d5 c a4 c e a b e G b c5
e4 e5 D e D e b4 d5 c a4 c e a b e c5 b4 a
I suggest that you memorize the melody one line at a time. Now we will come to a new part of the melody. If it had been a pop song it would be called the bridge:
b c5 d e g4 f5 e d f4 e5 d c e4 d5 c b4
We finish by playing the first part again:
e5 D e D e b4 d5 c a4 c e a b e G b c5
e4 e5 D e D e b4 d5 c a4 c e a b e c5 b4 a
This is a simplified version of the first part of Fur Elise with an easy form of the most common piano tabs on the Internet. You can learn more about piano tab notation on Wikipedia. Search for keyboard tablature. These piano tabs are an introduction to the little more advanced tablature system on the Internet.
As I told you we will not use sheet music. Instead we will use guitar tablature.
Tablature is a form of musical notation, often with numbers and letters, which tells the player where to place their fingers on the guitar fretboard rather than which pitches to play.
I will use my own type of guitar tab notation today to make sure that the guitar tab is correctly displayed on article sites. The more common guitar tab staff notation you will find on my site.
The six strings on your guitar is numbered from the one with the highest pitch. This string is called the first string.
Let's start with the first part of the melody with guitar tab:
01 42 01 42 01 02 32 12 23
Now we will take a look at this guitar tab and how to interpret it. You have probably noticed that the numbers are organized in pairs.
The first number in the pair tells you what fret to press down and the second number what string to play.
01 tells you to play the open first string. This means that you play the string without pressing down a left hand finger.
42 indicates that you press down a left hand finger on the fourth fret of the second string. Well, now it's time for you to play the melody. Did you recognize the melody? Good!
This type of guitar tab doesn't indicate the length of the notes. If you sing the lyrics you will probably feel how to play the notes.
What finger should you use when you play with your right hand? In this guitar lesson we will not concentrate on your right hand. I suggest that you play the notes with your thumb or in another way you choose.
Let's play the next guitar tab:
35 24 23 02 24 13 02 12
What about your left hand? You can play the notes with your index finger but I suggest that you assign the notes on the first fret to your index finger, the notes on the second fret to your middle finger and so on.
It means that the 42 note in the beginning of the melody will be played with your little finger. Is it difficult? Yes, it will be difficult but not for long! You will get used to these fingerings if you are persistent!
In the long run you will probably even find it easier to play melodies this way if you get used to this more sophisticated fingering!
Let's continue! The next guitar tab is identical with the first line:
01 42 01 42 01 02 32 12 23
and the next guitar tab nearly the same as the second line:
35 24 23 02 24 12 02 23
A new melodi is introduced:
02 12 32 01 03 11 01 32
and ends this way:
34 01 32 12 24 32 12 02
By now you know how to play this guitar tab notation so let's play on!
01 42 01 42 01 02 32 12 23
35 24 23 02 24 13 02 12
01 42 01 42 01 02 32 12 23
35 24 23 02 24 12 02 23
Now you can play Fur Elise by Beethoven with guitar tab. Congratulations!
I suggest that you memorize the melody one line at a time so that the reading of this guitar tab will not slow you down when you play the melody in public!
This is a nice melody to know by heart as part of your repertoire for example when somebody asks you to play something! Everyone knows this song, don't they!
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