This is what a ftab usually looks like
In order to read ftabs it is not necessary to remember the location of octaves or notes.
Enough to be able to find octave on the keyboard
How to find octave:
That is a typical piano keyboard. It contains 7 or less full octaves
An octave is a repeating block of 12 keys on the piano keyboard (7 white and 5 black keys).
Octave is easy to identify, if you pay attention that it has 2 black keys on the left and 3 black keys on the right
As you can see the octaves on the piano keyboard are numbered from left to right
The white keys in the octave correspond to seven notes - C (Do), D (Re), E (Mi), F (Fa) , G (Sol), A (La), B (Si)
How to read FTAB [ef-tab]:
1. The table for each hand consists of 12 columns like octave of the piano.
Columns related to the black keys are highlighted in gray
2. Each line for two hands displays the keys you need to press at the same time – keystrokes line.
One line - one combination of keystrokes:
3. Each keystroke is numbered according to the octaves of the keyboard.
4. Two digits in one cell means that you need to press the keys with one hand in two octaves:
5. «V» means holding a key – a continuation of the previous keystroke, which gives a long sound
6. To play the tune you need to pass all keystrokes lines in the order from top to bottom
7. Additional columns may be placed on the side: Chord (Ch), Value (V), Dynamics (D), Pedal (P - L,C,R), Finger numbers (L,R), Part, Lyrics, Comment etc
A few tips to play easier:
1) Make sure you don’t forget to keep the rhythm (you should remember the melody by ear)
2) If you think it’s too difficult to play with both hands simultaneously you should try to play one small part only with your right hand first.
After you get used to play it that way, add left hand. And then keep learning the melody part by part
3) Tablature cells contains the octave numbers.
Don’t confuse those numbers with the numbers of key pushing or fingers
4) You don't need to remember octave numbers on your keyboard.
The main thing to take into account the mutual arrangement of the octaves.
5) You do not need to memorize notes (letters on the keys) – you can navigate by the color of the keys instead
Additionally for guitarists:
- You can play chords on the piano. Usually, the left hand plays a static chord or brute force, and the right hand plays a melody or chord.
List of piano chords here: link
- The "H" chord (and note) on the guitar matches the "B" chord on the piano. And also "B" on guitar is "A #" on piano
How to mark notes and chords in the text:
In textual correspondence, scientific musical notation is used to denote notes (such as C3 - C in the third octave)
Chords can be respectively designated as follows: G3-C4-G4 (variant of the C chord)
English (US)
Russian (RU)
