How To Read Guitar Tabs Quickly & Easily

March 4th, 2008

Many e-mails come into my office asking how to read & write tabs.

I’ve written about this before — but I’m going to cover it again to make sure we’re all singing from the same song book!

I’ll also include a few advanced symbols and meanings as it’s important you know what they mean in case you get stuck!

Now — tabs are not proper music notation. They are an easy way to learn your favourite songs.

If proper music notation is what you want — check out: http://datadragon.com/education/reading/

…as they provide a great tutorial. But if all you want to do is learn your favourite song quickly and easily — tabs are the way to go!

Here’s how they work….(you’ll pick this up in 2 seconds!)

Tablature is a way of indicating the positioning of notes and fingering on the guitar fretboard.

There are 6 tab lines representing 6 strings on the guitar. (The 1st string is the thinnest, and the 6th string is the thickest) They are as follows:

E—————————– String 1
B—————————– String 2
G—————————– String 3
D—————————– String 4
A—————————– String 5
E—————————– String 6

When a number is placed on one of the lines, it indicates the fret location of note for example,

E—————————– String 1
B——4———————- String 2
G—————————– String 3
D—————————– String 4
A—————————– String 5
E—————————– String 6

This means to play the 4th Fret on the 2nd string

E—————————– String 1
B—————————– String 2
G—————————– String 3
D—————————– String 4
A——0———————- String 5
E—————————– String 6

This indicates an open 5th string

E—1————————- String 1
B———–8—————– String 2
G——-7——————— String 3
D—————2————- String 4
A—————————– String 5
E————————12— String 6

This indicates:

1st Fret, 1st string then
7th Fret, 3rd string, then
8th Fret, 2nd string, then
2nd Fret, 4th string, then
12th Fret, 6th string.

Further Points To Remember…

Other letters / symbols used in tabs.

h - hammer on
p - pull off
b - bend string up
r - release bend
/ - slide up
\ - slide down
v - vibrato (sometimes written as ~)
t - right hand tap
x - play ‘note’ with heavy damping

When you see all numbers in a line one after another 

E—3————————- String 1
B—3————————- String 2
G—4————————- String 3
D—5————————- String 4
A—5————————- String 5
E—3————————- String 6 

…it means you play the entire chord using all strings

When you see tabs that have “h”

E——————————–String 1
B——————————–String 2
G——————————–String 3
D——————————–String 4
A———7h9———–10h12—-String 5
E—0–0———-0–0———–String 6

….it means to do a “Hammer On” from the 7th fret to the 9th fret and again for the 10th fret to the 12th fret

When you see other tabs that have “p”

E——————————–String 1
B——————————–String 2
G——————————–String 3
D——————————–String 4
A———9p7———–12p10—-String 5
E—0–0———-0–0———–String 6

….it means to do a “Pull Off” from the 9th fret to the 7th fret and again for the 12th fret to the 10th fret

When you see other tabs that have “b”

E——————————–String 1
B——————————–String 2
G——————————–String 3
D——————————–String 4
A———7b9———–10b12—-String 5
E——————————–String 6

…it means strike the string 5 on the 7th fret, then bend the note up so that it sounds the same as the note played on the 9th fret.

For more information visit: GuitarTips.com.au

Guitar   Lessons

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Will Riley is a private tutor, musician, author and consultant. He also has an extensive background in Internet Marketing. Will was fortunate enough to marry his passion for teaching with his Internet marketing experience when he was the sole founder of FindMeATeacher.com in 2004.

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