Since I've never seen a simple standard for writing piano tabs at the Internet, I have developed one myself.
Another system, by Scott Nichols, is explained here (thanks Scott). His system
distincts from mine by telling which fingers to use, but nothing about the timing.
Also visit the "how to read tabs" FORUM
Any tabs written otherwise will of course still be welcome to the site, but it would be great if others
also gave my system a try. This is how it works (comments and improvements are welcome):
Example (the intro of "Nightswimming" by REM):
REM: Nightswimming (Automatic for the people)
tabbed by: Tor Undheim, tor@pianotabs.net
intro:
4|-ga--g--|g---|-ga--g--|a---|
4|d----d--|e---|d----d--|d---|
2|g--g-h-3|c--2|g--g-h-3|d---|
b|1-2-3-4-|1234|1-2-3-4-|1234|
-the numbers (1-7) to the left of the tab, indicates in what octave
(starting at the lowest C) to play the notes in that row. When numbers appear
elsewhere in a row, it is to indicate a new octave.
-ordinary letters (cdefgah) symbolices the corresponding notes
-capital letters (C,D,F,G and A) are used instead of c#,d#, f#, g# and a#.
-the symbol ">" is used to cut notes
-the symbol "|" is used to separate each measure (section of beats)
-the symbol "-" indicates nothing
-the bottom row keeps track of the beats, and tells if the notes above are whole, half,
quarter or etc. In the example above, a "-" in section 1 lasts half as long as a "-" in section 2.
This "beat-line" is often hard to write, or even meaningless. Therefore it is optional.
-under the tab it is preferable that the text of the song is
written. That way the users of the tab will have all they need in one piece.
-often songs contain parts where a accurate tab is meaningless (or impossible). In these
cases it is enough to write chords (and text), maybe with an explanation on how to play
them. Chords are for instance: "A", "C", "Am", "Em7".
-I use the symbol "*" if I want to comment something outside the tab
-To make the tab easier to read, try to write the higher notes "above" the deeper ones
-when you have made the tab, go here!
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