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How to Read Guitar Tabs the Easy Way...You may think that learning to read tablature, or tab for short, may seem somewhat challenging, but it’s really quite simple once you get your head round it. It is used by many guitarists as a quick and easy alternative to standard notation, and can be applied to many stringed instruments ranging from guitar and bass, to banjo or mandolin. This article will go over the basics of reading guitar tablature, point out some of the commonly used symbols, but also make note of some of its flaws when compared to musical notation. Like standard musical notation, guitar tabs are made up of a series of horizontal lines where one line represents one string of the instrument. The lowest of these lines represents the lowest pitched string of the guitar, while the top line represents the highest pitch. Each of these lines is labelled with the open strings notes of a guitar, E (the lowest line), A, D, G, B and e (the upper most line).
e|------------------------------------| (Please note that in many cases, tablature is written using the Courier New font due to its equal spacing…) Numbers can then be written on the lines to represent which fret must be pressed in order to obtain the correct note. For example, a number “5” drawn on the lowest line, the E string, indicates that the player should sound the string whilst his finger is pressed down on the “5th fret”. If the number “0” were used, this means that the string should be played open, with no fingers pressed down on any frets.
e|------------------------------------| For chords, the root note, for example “G”, is written above or below the tablature, but often, if the player isn’t familiar with that chord, the correct notes will be tabbed out as a vertical line of numbers, indicating which frets the player should place his fingers on, and show that these notes should be played at the same time.
e|--3----------------------------------| G Tablature isn’t a standardized method of reading music; there is no right or wrong way of doing it, hence, some of the symbols used to indicate slides, bends, mutes and other techniques vary from person to person. Since this is the case, often when someone publishes a tab, he/she will often use a key to inform you of what each symbol represents. However for the more commonly used symbols such as the hammer-on and the pull-off, the letters “h” and “p” are used respectively.
e|-----------------------12/////------| Read more about hammer-ons, pull-offs and other guitar techniques in our article: Guitar Techniques 101: The Basics The only real flaw with tablature versus that of standard musical notation is that whilst tab can be used to show you what the play, other aspects such as timing, tempo and rhythm are often left out. For example, tabs can show you which notes to play, but they don’t necessarily show exactly how many times a particular note is played (if played with quick succession), or exactly how long a note is held. Often, tablature is written based on the assumption that a person searching for a particular song is already familiar with the timing and rhythm aspects. |
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