How to Read Guitar Tabs

What's a Tab?

If you're like many guitar enthusiasts, your earliest dabbling with your instrument was probably trying to pick out melodies on your own, or having a friend show you a few chords. If so, you have a lot of company. Many people have picked up the guitar on their own, including some of the greatest artists of our time like Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon. Lessons are great if you can afford them, and they can certainly improve your playing, but not everyone chooses to take the formal route. Most of us want to start playing now.

Guitar tabs are a sort of musical shorthand that enables enthusiasts to begin playing recognizable melodies immediately without the benefit of being able to read standard musical notations. Each tab has a few main components that result in a basic chart that almost anyone can learn to follow and play a particular tune. If this sounds enticing to you, read on.

Learning How to Read Guitar Tabs

In order to learn how to read guitar tabs, we need to break them down piece by piece.

Staff

Every guitar tab has a staff consisting of six horizontal lines that correlate with the six strings of a basic guitar. The lowest line on the chart represents the low E string, and the strings progress upward from that point with the A, D, G, B and top E notes. This gives us the basic format for a tab.

E---------------

B---------------

G---------------

D---------------

A---------------

E---------------

Fret Numbers

In order to create a certain note on one of your guitar stings, you have to push the string down on the appropriate fret, those metal bars spaced along the length of the instrument's neck.

In tab notations, the frets are designated by their number placement on the fret board, beginning with fret number 1 closest to the guitar's head. The tab indicates which number fret to push down and strum on a particular string to create the note you need.

Sometimes an open string, one you don't press down on, is exactly the note you need. In this case, you'll see the number 0 on that string in the tab. Play it without pressing a fret.

E-------------6--

B----------5-----

G--------4-------

D-----3----------

A---2------------

E-1--------------

Combining Frets and Strings

It's the combination of fret number and string that creates your note. For example, if you are looking at a tab that indicates to play frets 3 on string A, 7 on string D and 9 on string G in order, you will hear three distinct notes as you do so, and hopefully recognize the beginning of your song.

Simple melodies will look like a line of numbers placed on various strings in the tab chart. Follow along from left to right in order to pluck out your tune.

Playing Chords

Guitar tabs can be used to create chords. When you see several fret numbers spaced over different strings stacked directly on top of one another on your tab chart, strum them together to create your chord.

Hammering On

When playing the guitar it's possible to strike a note on a particular fret and slide your finger up to a higher fret to change to a higher note, all with a single strong strum. This technique is called hammering on. Hammering is noted on a guitar tab by placing the letter H between the two designated frets on a particular string. For example, the notation might look like 5H7 on the A string.

Pulling Off

Think of pulling off as a hammer on in reverse. You'll actually start at one fret and slide back to the next designated fret to create a lower note. Pull offs are usually designated with a letter P. So as an example, you might see 5P3 listed for your D string.

Slides

Chart your own tabs and chords.

Slides are a combination of hammering on and pulling off, and you can go from low to high note or high to low note as the tab indicates. Sliding forward is indicated by placing a / between the fret notes, while sliding back is indicated with a \. One example of a slide forward and back would be 4/7\4.

Bends and Returns

Bending is a string technique used by many lead guitarists to raise the original pitch of a single note without actually pushing down on the fret of the new note note. On a guitar tab, bends are indicated by placing a B between the original fret number and the fret number of the desired pitch you want the string to hit. One example of this would be 3B5, or sometimes 3B(5).

In some instances, you'll want to immediately return to the pitch of the original note. Returns are designated with an R. An example of tab notation for this is 3B(5)R3.

The Tab's Main Shortcoming

The main drawback to using tabs is that most have no time signature to help you keep rhythm, nor do the fret numbers indicate how long to hold each note. Guitar tabs were created by players for other players, usually by listening to a favorite song over and over in order to pick out the individual notes and write them on the chart. To make the most of guitar tabs, you need to be familiar with the song you're trying to play. If you are, tabs will give you a jump start on learning that song.

Finding Guitar Tabs

Guitar tabs can be found on the Internet, in book/music stores and probably from other players too. You can find tabs for famous strummers from Eric Clapton to classic bands like ELO. Once you learn how to read guitar tabs, you can play all of your favorites.