How To Read Guitar Tabs

Reading guitar tabs is a great way to learn how to play guitar, especially if you can't read music. Because there is no time signature on guitar tabs, only the sequence of the chords and notes played, it's important that you know the song you are learning so you can get the timing right.

First, make sure your guitar is working properly and that it doesn't slip out of tune. If it needs some repairs, take it to a reputable shop or independent repair person. Before you play, you'll want to make sure you're in tune. You can either get an electronic tuner that will tell you when each string is perfectly in tune, or if you trust your ear, you can tune it by ear using the following website:

http://www.gieson.com/Library/projects/utilities/tuner/

Now that your guitar is properly tuned, it's time to try playing some tab. Unless this is a fingerpicking piece, you'll want to grab a pick. Now go to Google and enter the name of the song and artist and type guitar tab after. If the guitar tab for that song is available online, it will probably be in one of the first few pages Google lists.

Now that you've found the tab you want to use, it's time to start playing! You'll see that in guitar tablature, you will have a series of boxes, each representing a chord or a series of notes. There will be 6 horizontal lines in each box. The line on the bottom is the low E string (bass). The next one up is the A string, followed by D, G, B and finally the high E string. On the left hand side, you'll see a vertical line where the horizontal lines end. That represents the nut of the guitar.

Now you'll notice that on the horizontal lines you will see numbers. Those numbers represent frets. So, for example, if you see the number 7 on the highest horizontal line, that means you should play the note on the 7th fret of the high E string, which is a B note. Just like reading text, you read the numbers from left to right in a sequence. So you play the notes in that order. Below the lowest string (the low E) you'll often see a number and this represents the number of times you play the note.

For chords, you will see the numbers stacked directly on top of each other. When you see that it means you play these notes simultaneously, creating a chord. There are some guitar tabs that will not show numbers, but instead list the name of the chord, and show x's on the strings. In this case, they will have vertical lines perpendicular to the horizontal lines. These vertical lines represent the frets, so you can see what number of the fret to play.

Some guitar tablatures have notation for sliding notes or tapping (hammer on, hammer off), but that's beyond the scope of this article. You should be able to figure out most guitar tabs now. If you are a novice guitar player, it can be very slow playing tabs at first, but as you practice and improve it should get a lot quicker and easier. Enjoy this new world of music that guitar tablature will open up for you!