How to read a tab

There are different ways to read music with Kalimba:

Look at this tutorial

• Numbers and "dots"

Online, you might find tabs like this:

Notes can be written as numbers and it's very easy to read them, because you have your stickers or your carved tines. 
Let’s go over the numbers together: C = 1, D = 2, E = 3, F = 4, G = 5, A = 6, B = 7

When you find a dot next to or above the number, it indicates that the note belongs to an upper octave. Two dots point to an even higher octave.

C1 is the lower C, C1° is the middle C, while C1°° is the last C on the right of your Kalimba.

When you have to play multiple notes at once, you will find two numbers separated by a horizontal dash, or two numbers written as if they were an exponentiation.

If you have to play a glissando (when you then have to swipe your finger on more notes one after another), you will find the numbers written one above the other with a wave to their left.

This way is really easy and fast both to read and to write. Only limit is that you need to know the song you are playing, since you have no other symbols to understand the duration of the notes, the split of the beats, the key etc...

• Numbers and "dashes"

This is another common method of transcribing music. It comes with a score and this is very useful if you do not know the song you are playing.

Vertical dashes indicate which side of the kalimba the notes are on: if the dash is on the left, the note is on the right side of the kalimba and if the dash is on the right, the note is on the left side of the kalimba.

• Tabs

The tablature reproduces the arrangement of the kalimba tines. In fact, at the bottom, you can read the notes' names.

The tablature should be read from bottom to top.

The notes are written as on the score, respecting their durations. They are not arranged according to the order of the score, but in the space corresponding to the tine. For example, a note in the middle column will correspond to C1.

More notes next to each other indicates that they should be played together. If, in addition, there is a wave or a straight line, it means that there is a glissando.

Each bar is numbered, as in all scores.

Small symbol guide to learn how to read both sheet music and tablature