Article: Piano tabs usually take the form of a series of horizontal lines, each labeled with a number at its far left, like this: 5|------------------------------4|------------------------------3|------------------------------2|------------------------------ Though this arrangement may at first seem to bear no resemblance to the black and white keys of a keyboard, piano tabs actually represent different regions on the keyboard through clever shorthand. The number at the left of each line represents the octave that the notes represented on the line are located in. Piano tabs define their octaves relative to the C scale - starting from the far left of the keyboard, the first C note on the piano begins the first octave, the second C note begins the second octave, and so on up to the highest C note. For instance, in the sample tab lines provided above, the lines represent, starting from the top, the fifth, fourth, third, and second octaves from the farthest-left C, respectively. It's not necessary for piano tabs to include lines for every octave on the keyboard - just the octaves in which notes are played. The letters A through G should be spread throughout the lines of the piano tab, like this: 5|-a-d-f------------------------4|-a-d-f------------------------3|-------c-D-e-f-G--------------2|-----------------f-e-d-c------ You may have already guessed that each letter corresponds to a note in the scale! Lowercase letters signify "natural" (not sharp or flat) notes, which are the white keys on the keyboard. Upper-case letters signify  sharps, which are the black keys. For example, "C" is the black key to the right of "c", which is a white key. Notes on the lines of the tab are meant to be played in the octave that corresponds to the line. For instance, notes on line 4 in the sample tab above are played in the keyboard's fourth octave. For simplification of writing and to avoid confusion between the flat symbol, which resembles a lowercase "b", and the note "b", there are no flats in piano tabs. Instead, all flats are written as the equivalent sharp (eg: D-flat ("Db") is written as C-sharp ("C")). Like pieces of sheet music, tabs are read from left to right. The notes at the far left of the tab are played first, followed by the notes to the right. If the tab is longer than the screen or page, it can "wrap around" below each time it reaches the edge - just like sheet music. Often, but not always, piano tabs include vertical lines marking the barrier between each measure - usually, these are represented with capital letter "I's" or with vertical line characters, like this: 5|-a-d-f---------|---------------4|-a-d-f---------|---------------3|-------c-D-e-f-|G--------------2|---------------|--f-e-d-c------ If so, treat the space between each set of vertical lines as one measure. In other words, for songs in 4/4, there are four quarter notes between each set of lines, for songs in 6/8, there are six eighth notes, and so on. Start reading a piano tab at its far left and play the notes in order from left to right as you encounter them. If two or more notes are directly above each other, play them at the same time as a chord. In our example tab:5|-a-d-f---------|---------------4|-a-d-f---------|---------------3|-------c-D-e-f-|G--------------2|---------------|--f-e-d-c------ ...we would first play the A in the fifth octave and the A in the fourth octave, then the D in the fifth octave and the D in the fourth octave, then the F in the fifth octave and the F in the  fourth octave, then the notes C, D sharp, E, and F in sequence, and so on.
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Break the keyboard into octaves which correspond to lines on the tab. Locate the notes in the tab based on the octave of the line they're on. Read tabs from left to right, paying attention to any measure breaks (marked with I's). Play notes sequentially as you read from left to right.