It's much easier to learn how to read guitar tabs than it is to learn sight reading on guitar. Knowing exactly which fret and string to put your fingers on is the main advantage of tabs over notes. However, most tabs don't clearly express the rhythm of the music so it's best to also have a recording of the song you are learning.
Guitar tabs are written on a six lined staff. Each line represents a string on the guitar. The top line of a guitar tab is for the high E string, and the bottom line is for the low E string. All of the other strings fall between in order.
Here's what a guitar tab staff looks like:
e--------------------- <- high E string
B--------------------- <- B string
G--------------------- <- G string
D--------------------- <- D string
A--------------------- <- A string
E--------------------- <- low E string
Sometimes the string names won't be written at the beginning of the tab staff, and it will look something like this:
-----------------------------------------------
------7--5-----------------8-----------8/10-
------7--5h6----------------7b9r7p6--------
--------------7---5-6-7----------------------
----------------7--------0--------------------
--5-5-----------------------------------------
But don't worry, it works just the same as before.
If you're not quite sure about your string names yet, here's an easy mnemonic device to help you remember them:
Ed And Dan Go Bowling Every Day.
What do the numbers mean?
The numbers on the lines tell you which frets to play. So, a 1 will mean the first fret, 2 stands for the second fret, etc. If you see a zero, that means to play the open string.
Here's an example:
e--------------------
B--------------------
G--------------------
D-----2--------------
A--------1-0---------
E--0----------3--0---
Alright, let's walk through it.
First, play the open low E string. Then play the second fret on the D string. After that play the first fret on the A string, then the open A string. Play the third fret on the low E string, and finally the open low E string again.
See? It's not hard to figure out how to read guitar tabs!
What about chords?
Chords are written the same way, except the fret numbers are stacked on top of one another. Here's an E7 chord for example:
e--0-----
B--0-----
G--1-----
D--0-----
A--2-----
E--0-----
Sometimes, if you're supposed to take your time strumming, the tab will look like this:
e------0-
B-----0--
G----1---
D---0----
A--2-----
E-0------
There are some other symbols that you are likely to see on tabs besides just numbers. Here's a list of what they mean:
- h - hammer on
- p - pull off
- / - slide up
- - slide down
- b - bend
- r - release bend
- ~ or v - vibrato
- x - mute
- t - tap
- pm - palm mute
- tr - trill, rapid hammer ons and pull offs
So, learning how to read guitar tabs is not that hard, especially when you compare it to note reading! To get the most out of a tab, get a recording of a song to practice with and get the rhythm from.
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