How To Read Guitar Tabs    

  

    When you start learning how to play

guitar you'll quickly realize you'll need to know how to read guitar tabs.

 

What is it? 

  Guitar tabs is short for guitar tablature. It is a method of reading and writing music developed especially for guitar. A great majority of guitar players do not know how to read standard sheet music, and you don't need to in order to become an accomplished guitar player. When you're first introduced to guitar tab, it may seem to be very confusing, but in reality it is very simple to learn how to read guitar tabs.

 

    Click here to learn how to read guitar tabs and more. 

 

  The diagram below is of a blank guitar tab sheet. it is basically a picture of the guitar neck. Each of the six lines represents one of the six guitar strings. The one on top is the thinnest string on the guitar, or 1st string, and the bottom line represents the fattest or 6th string. Below the tab diagram is a picture of a guitar neck so you can see the relationship.

 

 

 

   

 

 

  In this next example you'll see some numbers on the tab sheet. These numbers represent the fret at which you would place your finger. The numbers do not indicate which finger to use. Guitar tab is read from left to right just as if you were reading a book. So for the diagram below this is how it would work.

  The first note you would play would be the 4th string with no fingers on it. A 0 indicates an open string or no finger placed on that string.

  The second note you would play would be the 3rd string with your finger on the second fret.

  The third note you would play would be the second string with your finger on the 3rd fret and so on.

  In the second measure you will notice for numbers stacked together. This is how a chord would be shown in tab. Any numbers stacked together are played at the same time (strummed). This example shows a D chord, along with the name of the chord above it. It may take a little time getting used to it but learning how to read guitar tabs is pretty simple.

 

  

   There are more notations you will find in tabbed music, some of the more common ones are:

 

  H= hammer on

  P= Pull off

  /= slide up

  b= bend

  x= mute

  pm= palm mute

 

 

  The biggest benefit of learning how to read guitar tabs is that you will have access to learning how to play any song you want.Guitar tabs can be found for free on the internet to literally any song you can think of. Any good guitar course will go over in more detail how to read tab. It really is a must if you want to progress in your guitar playing. The one draw back with guitar tabs is that it does not indicate the timing of playing the notes or chords.

 

  I have just touched on the subject of how to read guitar tabs here, but I hope this helps you understand what it's all about. As I've said, any good guitar course will show you how to read guitar tabs.

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