Explain Tablature

Are you looking on the Internet for someone to explain tablature to you? Sometimes the format and numbers in tab notation can be confusing to first time learners. Keep reading to if you would like to have someone finally explain tablature to you in an easy manner!

Tab is a common form of reading music that can be used for most stringed instruments with frets (but is most commonly used for guitars and basses). The form makes it so that you don't actually need to know how to read music or what a chord or note is in order to play a given song.

It is most commonly used to transcribe popular songs or melodies into formats that anyone can read. Songs from your favorite artists transcribed in tab can be found on the Internet or can be purchased in book form (though, the legalities of tablature concerning copyright infringement are often debated).

• You don't need formal training to read or play it.
• You can easily play your favorite songs.
• Universally understood.

• Most tabs don't come with accurate or common ways to show how long to hold each note.
• If you are interested in learning how to play guitar on a grander level, tablature won't help you learn how different chords or notes relate to each other musically.

Tablature comes in the form of six parallel lines. Each of these lines represents a string on the guitar.

The setup of most tablature is as follows:

Some tablature will list the strings for users, while others will generally assume that it is known. The highest string on the tablature image is the highest (in pitch) string on your guitar, or the high E. The lowest string on the image is the low E string.

In the case of bass players, there are only four strings with the top string in the image being the G string and the low string on the image being the low E string.

The most difficult part of tablature for new players to understand is that there is no way to figure out the melody or tune without having heard it prior. For this reason, people will usually seek tabs of songs because they have heard the song before.

Tablature is written so that there will be a number on one of the guitar strings, indicating that your finger needs to be on that string. The number itself indicates what fret (the first fret, the second fret, etc.) your finger needs to be on.

In the below example, one would need to place their finger on the third fret on the first string for three notes, then on the third fret of the fourth string, followed by the fifth fret on the same string for two notes. After that, the player would place a finger on the seventh fret of the sixth string before ending back on the fifth fret of the fourth string.

When the notes are laid out as in the above example, each note is played separately. However, it is common is important to cover chord tabs in order to explain tablature. When numbers are laid right on top of one another, they are meant to be played together. In the below example, the player would need to have a finger on the third fret of the first and second strings along with a finger on the fifth fret of the third string in order to play the first chord of the tab.

There are a handful of other notational symbols used in tablature. Some sites or books will explain tablature notation that they individually choose to use but this is rare.

Common symbols include:

• A lowercase 'h' to indicate the following note should be hammered on
• A lowercase 'p' to indicate the following note should be pulled off
• A slash mark to indicate that the player should slide up (/) or slide down (\) to the following note
• A lowercase 'v' or a ~ mark to indicate vibrato
• Occasionally, there will be a curved line connecting notes. This is meant to indicate the notes should be 'slurred' together. This means that the notes--though different--should flow into one another neatly.

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