PianoTabs is a new easier way of writing music. Now YOU can read every note on the keyboard in minutes and be playing in under an hour without the need to learn to read traditional music notation. 

Ambrose PIANO TABS in more detail

Part 1:          Introduction

Part 2:          Piano Tabs for absolute beginners

Part 3:          Notes for professional piano teachers, please see the bottom ¼ section of this listing

Introduction

Piano Tabs is a new form of writing down music that makes learning to play the piano simple and fun.  The concept was developed by Russell Ambrose, who was frustrated trying to read traditional music. Conventional notation can take years to learn and most students give up before they master it.

There are two elements that affect your enjoyment and progress in learning to play the piano: ease of READING music and ease of PLAYING music

§         Ease of reading is simple with Piano Tabs.  It is a visual system that links the black keys to coloured lines on the page.  Reading every note on the piano can be learnt in minutes and there is no need to learn the names of the notes or to know any music theory before you can start playing tunes

§         Ease of playing is achieved by you selecting your favourite tunes to play.  Knowing a tune allows you to get started without learning the timing and note durations. You can learn the theory (the boring stuff) after experiencing the delight of making music

§         You will be able to play your first tune in the first hour

We all hate reading instruction manuals and most find unfamiliar music boring. You will want to practice and you will make rapid progress as a result

The Ambrose Piano Tabs website contains many popular pieces, graded by difficulty and style. And you can listen to the tune to help you get it right 

Apart from the number and colour of the lines there are no other differences to ordinary music. This allows easy transition to reading traditional notation once you are a proficient player

Progressive piano teachers should embrace this innovation when they see how quickly their students learn. They are usually pleased to teach you in this method if you ask them to. But don’t expect a good reaction from all piano teachers. Here is a response from someone who responded anonymously to a job advert of mine, using my words from the advert in quotation marks:-

...go to music school, lazy dummy, and learn musical theory and notation for at least five years "full or part time".... and then, in case of your "remarkable success" you will maybe "clever enough" to know how to scratch your first scores with your own hand and not "direct from a keyboard". Forget about it, it’s not for beginners at all...

I think you should start to realize who you are, and who special music software’s designed for. It’s for professional musicians after ten or more years of musical education only, and not for silly amateurs (as I can see from your request) who don’t even understand what "music lessons" mean.

Don’t expect professionals, who obtained music specialty through the years of hard work, to spend time on your "fun", or to make the learning process easier just because you want it, as well as to score something for you, presumptuous idiot....

Don’t even address your stupid offer to experienced professional musicians because it’s not for them.....

Regards, Experienced piano player and teacher.

diana at yahoo dot com March 2009

RA – fun isn’t it. It's a fake email address! I wanted to ask her if she would reconsider if it was proven that Piano Tabs advanced her students progress by two years, but I suspect not.

Notes for Professional Musicians

Source: Giles A, (1983).  Reading music.  Clavier, 17(8), see the 6^th paragraph:

 “More piano students give up piano study because of reading problems than for any other single reason. People don't give up activities that they enjoy. But if each piece presents a learning prospect to be dreaded, the result is predictable. We should not be surprised that the country is overrun by millions of people who 'used to play the piano,' but who now cannot pick out a single-note melody at the keyboard.”  

See Professor of music Denver University Jerald Lepinsky on the same subject:-

“It is now unnecessary -- and it should be unacceptable -- that we relegate most of our citizens to a role of illiterate spectators in their favorite art!  The great educational deficit among normally educated people is music.  Most adults remember just one lesson from their music classes” -- "Music is too difficult!"

Most of us are reluctant to try a new computer program because we hate opening the manual and having to decipher it. Most piano students have the same attitude with every new piece of music

Piano Tabs is simple to read because each of the twelve notes has its own space on the lines (a chromatic scale) sharps and flats are no longer difficult to read. Both left and right hand lines represent the same notes. Notes outside the normal range are as easy to read on ledger lines as any other note. Beginners have no difficulty read music over six octaves. The benefit is that Piano Tabs cuts out years of tedious struggle. The time saved can be spent usefully, on learning how to play music. An instant start is achievable for everybody and this opens up the world of music to those with less natural ability. Instant gratification works to keep students interested and enjoying making music.

WYSIWYG - Key Signatures, Tonality, and Accidentals,

What You See Is What You Get. Piano Tabs uses a chromatic staff with no sharp or flat signs and no need of a key signature to play the right notes. This makes all notes and key signatures equally easy to read and play. In traditional notation it is much more difficult to read music in some keys than in others. B Major is as easy as C Major in Piano Tabs.

Clefs and Staves

Unlike the traditional diatonic staff, Piano Tabs staves repeat with each octave, on the octave. This means that a note has the same appearance in every octave. This makes notes easier to recognize and play and there is no need for different clefs. This is a significant advantage over the use of four different clefs as in traditional notation (treble, bass, alto, and tenor) where the staves look identical but whose notes are different.

Interval Relationships compared to Traditional Notation

Please see a discussion on this subject at The Music Notation Project site:-

Proportional Pitch Spacing of lines means intervals are recognizable at all positions on the stave, each chord has the same pattern in all keys and all positions.

 “At first it may seem that chromatic staves are best suited for atonal, non-diatonic music, but actually they are very well-suited for diatonic music. Unlike traditional notation, they give a consistently accurate representation of the intervals between notes, including the intervals found in the diatonic music. In all scales in any position it is easy to distinguish between half step and whole step intervals. This difference is obscured in traditional notation, though it is fundamental to diatonic scales - both in how they sound and in how they are played. Chromatic staves make it easier to recognize and understand these and other important diatonic intervals such as major or minor thirds, fourths, fifths, and chords”.

Interval recognition is easier in Piano Tabs but very different and will take time for the traditional musician to get used to.

The following paragraph is taken from  and demonstrates transition to klavarscribo.

“The second point is an example of a very bright, successful 13 year old who played the Bach Invention in d minor at my last student recital. I asked him to try the Klavar notation from the progressive Hal Leonard Student Piano Library series. Within 45 minutes he was in Book V playing pieces he never seen before. He said he found it a much easier system to read. I asked him if he would rather have worked on the Invention that way and he quickly said yes that it would have been easier to learn. That a successful student found this system easier to use after 45 minutes than the conventional system after four years says something that should not be ignored.”

The Disadvantages

For the 5 accidentals to have their own space a chromatic stave requires about 30% more vertical space than traditional music. Another disadvantage of Piano Tabs is the lack of music in all styles and grades. This is being addressed by our team of professional musicians who score for our library. By encouraging users to upload contributions to our website library I hope to have a comprehensive range of music available to all free of charge before long.

Historical Background

There have been hundreds of attempts to improve traditional notation in the 800 years since Guido of Arezzo in Italy invented traditional music notation. A chromatic system called Klavascribo was the most successful alternative notation introduced so far. Introduced in 1931 it still has thousands of players and teachers around the world. The failure of Klavarscribo to be widely adopted was put down to the lack of sheet music available. With the vast amount of internet MIDI files and uploading from users’ Piano Tabs is not restricted by this.

These features make Piano Tabs reading easier to learn for beginners without losing the quality required by the professional musician.

Piano Tabs can be used for all instruments, not just the piano

Transition to traditional music.

Piano Tabs uses the same notes, annotation and musical spelling as traditional notation, Piano Tabs lines and colours are the only difference. Examples prove that once a player becomes accomplished there is an easy transfer over to reading traditional notation. Bobby Chen, a concert pianist, learned to read and Piano Tabs music to a high level performance in less than 15 minutes. When the library of music in Piano Tabs becomes large enough there may never be a need to use traditional notation for most users.

When you speak to adults who gave up on piano lessons they often say they couldn't read music because they are slightly dyslexic. However the same people can read Piano Tabs easily, therefore it cannot be dyslexia that was the cause. The fault lies with the inherent difficulty of reading traditional notation.

Thank you for your interest

Regards

Russell