Piano equivalent of tab?

BrizzleRocker

Stupid question I know as normally you would just read the score but I have bravely volunteered to learn the keys part of a cover song and having spent many years away from the ivories have forgotten theory and how to read music. I just wondered if there was any useful resources like we have tab sites for guitar?

thecolourbox

there are those midi roll type videos on YouTube when people play stuff and it lights up like guitar hero but i don't really find them very easy to read (i say this as a pianist) 

What's the song out of interest?

monquixote

thecolourbox said:

there are those midi roll type videos on YouTube when people play stuff and it lights up like guitar hero but i don't really find them very easy to read (i say this as a pianist) 

What's the song out of interest?

Yeah what he said, but I don't find them that good. 

Or get the midi file and open it in the piano roll on your DAW.

fretmeister

I played piano for a few years and I've tried a few non-notation things and nothing was as good as just putting in 5-10 mins a day to get some skills back.

Sporky

Sheet music is a doddle on piano - you can only play each note in one place. 

Whistler

I would venture to say that piano score is TAB for piano, the bass clef is played with the left hand and the treble clef with the right hand. I know that scoring music started before the piano was invented so it could be argued that this is not piano TAB but nothing else is easier to read and play on piano. And @Sporky said it first: you are shown exactly which note to play.

BrizzleRocker

thecolourbox said:

there are those midi roll type videos on YouTube when people play stuff and it lights up like guitar hero but i don't really find them very easy to read (i say this as a pianist) 

What's the song out of interest?

Yeah, I have seen those. I guess the midi and stick it in my DAW maybe the way forward.

The song is Love to Love by UFO and I'm doing the intro

BrizzleRocker

fretmeister said:

I played piano for a few years and I've tried a few non-notation things and nothing was as good as just putting in 5-10 mins a day to get some skills back.

Practice is true for any instrument, thanks.

BrizzleRocker

Whistler said:

I would venture to say that piano score is TAB for piano, the bass clef is played with the left hand and the treble clef with the right hand. I know that scoring music started before the piano was invented so it could be argued that this is not piano TAB but nothing else is easier to read and play on piano. And @Sporky said it first: you are shown exactly which note to play.

You're not wrong, but it's been over 40 years since I learnt this stuff in formal lessons and I was crap about practicing then. Maybe I'll try one of those miracle courses that magically turn you into a concert pianist!  

fretmeister

Maybe ask a local teacher for a refresher? 2 or 3 lessons may well trigger some memories and get you back on track.

horse

BrizzleRocker said:

thecolourbox said:

there are those midi roll type videos on YouTube when people play stuff and it lights up like guitar hero but i don't really find them very easy to read (i say this as a pianist) 

What's the song out of interest?

Yeah, I have seen those. I guess the midi and stick it in my DAW maybe the way forward.

The song is Love to Love by UFO and I'm doing the intro

I learned that intro a couple of years ago - seem to remember using YouTube to find a tutorial or demo, but it took me a while to get the timing between both hands as I recall.

Snags

BrizzleRocker said:

Whistler said:

I would venture to say that piano score is TAB for piano, the bass clef is played with the left hand and the treble clef with the right hand. I know that scoring music started before the piano was invented so it could be argued that this is not piano TAB but nothing else is easier to read and play on piano. And @Sporky said it first: you are shown exactly which note to play.

You're not wrong, but it's been over 40 years since I learnt this stuff in formal lessons and I was crap about practicing then. Maybe I'll try one of those miracle courses that magically turn you into a concert pianist!  

I've recently been forced back to keys after a 40 year break, also.

So far, there's absolutely nothing to beat notation (assuming you don't have an excellent ear, and I don't) but ... finding correct notation is as hard if not harder than finding correct tab.

I find the piano roll/guitar hero style tutorials on YouTube do my head in; my brain just doesn't think about a keyboard that way.

Admittedly I was reasonable on piano when I gave up, and continued to do non-piano things that kept me using notation on and off over the years, but it isn't that hard to get reading back.

For things that aren't dead simple, what I've found myself doing is a combination of:

• looking for free notation
• looking at page 1 of paid notation sites
• looking up the basic chords as per guitar
• searching for YT tutorials and play-throughs
• combining all of these inputs into painfully working out what's right and wrong, then putting it into notation myself

When searching make sure you search for "piano part" or "keys part" otherwise you get someone doing an arrangement which is the whole bastard song just for piano, but is absolutely not the keys part of the song in a band context.

Evo

Just an additional to add on to @Snags advice there surrounding finding accurate notation...

Don't forget about guitar pro files!

They often have piano parts scored and you can turn the tab notation off to just see the standard notation stuff.