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Whether there are free sites on the internet that will teach you how to read music and play keyboard?

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Thanks for contacting q2a, we understand you are looking to learn the keyboard but would prefer to learn something like tab for the guitar rather than learn sheet music. "Tabs" or"Tablature" to give it it's full name is a method of writing down (or transcribing) notes and chords in music. Tabs, unlike standard musical notation, do not use symbols to represent notes.Tab is used most widely for the guitar but you can also get it for the piano. However while it is fair to say that tabs are easier to read - but not nearly as detailed - as traditional sheet music for the guitar, tabs for the piano do seem a little more complex and a bit more difficult to understand.

Below is a basic description of piano tab taken from Wikipedia.

Here's an example of modern piano tab notation - the scale of "f" played on 2 octaves:

3|--------c-d-e-f-|
2|f-g-a-A---------|
2|--------c-d-e-f-|
1|f-g-a-A---------|

The numbers on the left (3, 2, 2 and 1 in the above example) indicate the octave. All octaves start on the "c" key. Octave 4 is in the middle of the keyboard (starting on c4, or"middle C".

Lowercase letters (a,b,c,d,e,f,g) indicate the note names as natural (white keys) and capital letters (A,C,D,F,G) indicate the note names as sharp (black keys)

The "|" symbols separate measures / sections of notes.

The "-" symbols are used for spacing.

For a more detailed description which also features a diagram of which notes go on which keys you can visit http://www.tabnabber.com/documents/howtoreadtabs.asp#readTabs.

If you were to decide to learn piano tab the website above has a feature that enables you to copy and paste in guitar tab and then it will convert it into piano tab. However we haven't tried this feature and can imagine that, due to the differences in the piano and guitar, the end result would not necessarily sound exactly right. However, if you want to persevere and learn piano tab www.tabnabber.com has a massive range of songs from lots of different artists all transcribed in piano tab.

One of the reasons that guitar tab is so easy to use is because each of the staves corresponds to a string of the guitar and the numbers correspond to frets. However this is not the case with tab for the keyboard and so you could argue that to be just as simple you would need 88 lines on the piano tab! That's why they have split the piano into octaves, but by doing this it makes it a lot less easy to learn quickly.

One alternative to using tab that some people use is just taking a piece of music that has the guitar chords on it and then using a site such as http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/piano to work out how to play the chords. This site, which is free to use, enables you to write in any chord and see where you have to put your fingers. There is a lot of sheet music available that has songs for guitar/piano and voice, with guitar chords for you to follow. You could also try sites such as
http://www.e-chords.com as they have a huge amount of popular songs with the guitar chords, which you could substitute for piano chords.

Although you have said that you can't read music you may find that learning to read music for piano is easier and seems a bit more natural and understandable than for guitar. Some people even say that sheet music itself is like tab for the piano because it makes much more sense with a keyboard than with a guitar! This is because the stave system was developed with the piano in mind. Even though it might take a little longer, the benefit is that you can then play pieces from sheet music. There is a wider range of music available in sheet music, and it is usually a lot more accurate and gives more detail in terms of which notes you play. You could still stick the notes on your keys to remember them, all you would have to do is learn to identify which notes are which.

There are a huge number of websites available that offer free piano/keyboard lessons. If you write "online piano lessons" into google you will find a long list of sites. They all have slightly different approaches and many of them offer tuition in reading sheet music, so these may or may not be of interest to you. However, if you have a good look through them you might find an approach that really works for you.

http://www.gopiano.com

http://www.pianotricks.com

http://www.zebrakeys.com

Also, if you have a particular piece of music in mind, if you type "how to play .... on piano" and write in the name of the song, you can often find a tutorial video by a musician who has uploaded a video onto Youtube. Using resources like Youtube and google, you will find there is a vast range of free learning resources for piano and keyboard and, however you choose to do something, there is plenty of advice and info out there. Also, don't forget to experiment and play around yourself. For example, by trying to work out some bits of melodies and pieces of music by ear. The more you experiemnt and have fun, the more natural playing an instrument can become.

If you decide you would like to learn sheet music there is a shop in Doncaster that has a wide range of books on how to play piano or keyboards. Sometimes books can be used alongside internet learning as they can be taken anywhere to be looked at and might be more convenient in certain situations, although we appreciate you might not want to spend money when there is tuition available for free ont he net. The contact details for "Music and More" are:

Music and More
3 Grosvenor House
Melton Road
Oakham
Rutland
LE15 6AX

The opening hours are:

Tue to Fri 10am to 5pm
Sat 9am to 5pm

Tel 01572 756578

Email info@musicandmore.co.uk

We hope this info is useful and that you find something that works for you. If you would like further help, please contact us again.

Best wishes.

Expert advice and every precaution has been taken to ensure that the information in this answer is trustworthy and reliable, but the publishers do not hold themselves responsible for any inaccuracy as information can go out of date very quickly.  This page gives general guidance only and should not be treated as a complete and authoritative statement of the law.  With regard to suggested weblinks given in this reply please note that Lancashire County Council is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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