Guitar tablature is the simplest method of transcribing and reading guitar music. You don’t have to know how to read traditional music to read guitar “tabs”. However, if you decide to learn to play this way, you will have to learn to overcome a few limitations.
Rhythm is the biggest problem you will encounter when reading tabs because there is no way to denote rhythmic figures. You’ll see the notes that you need to play but you won’t be able to tell by the notation how long to play each note. You will be better off if you can hear the piece or if you know the song you are learning to play. If you try to learn a new piece that you’ve never heard before, you’ll find yourself stumbling over the melody.
The other main drawback is that tabs don’t explain fingering. The tabs will show you what frets to put your fingers on, but not what specific fingers to put on the frets. This can be frustrating for technical personalities who want to be shown exact fingering for playing a song. If you find yourself frustrated by this tab limitation, you should probably consider learning to read traditional music
Even though these two limitations are present, they haven’t stopped guitar tablature from becoming the most popular way to read and notate guitar music, and by combining tabs with some other basic knowledge, you can be off and running in no time. To really get the hang of it, there are a couple things I would suggest you do right away.
First, click here to download my free guide to reading guitar tabs. It comes complimentary just for joining my newsletter (where you’ll also get loads more lessons — all free by the way).
Second, to really jumpstart your playing, pick up an inexpensive membership to one of the online guitar learning programs. There’s one that’s offering around a 50% discount for a limited time right now, making it less than the cost of a couple pizzas. It’s an insane bargain, and you can find that right here (click on the link to check it out. I think you’ll be impressed.)
And now onto the guitar tab tutorial…
HOW TO READ TABS
Many musicians have an ‘ear’ for how melodies should sound and don’t mind trading the lack of rhythmic notation for an easy way to look at the music without having to learn years of traditional music theory. Tabs are a visual representation of the fret board of a guitar. Six lines are present representing the six strings of the guitar with the bottom line being the lowest “E” string. The second string represents the “A” string and so forth.
E————————-
B————————-
G————————-
D————————-
A————————-
E————————-
Melody
Numbers are placed on the lines that simply represent which fret to place your finger on. So in the following example, you would put a finger on the 4th fret of the “B” string, and play that note twice. Then you’d put a finger on the 2nd fret of the “G” string and play that once. When the number “0” is used, it indicates that you are to play an open string. So, in this example, after the 2nd fret of the “G” is played, you would play the open “D” string.
E————————-
B——4—4————-
G—————–2——
D———————-0–
A————————-
E————————-
Chords
When numbers are stacked up vertically on the tab, it means you should play them all at the same time resulting in a chord. By definition, a chord is a combination of 3 or more tones played at the same time. So in this example, you would play 5 notes: The open “E” string, the first fret of the “B” string, the open “G” string, the 2nd fret of the “D” string, and the 3rd fret of the “A” string. This is the “C” Chord, and often it will be notated above the notation to help you out.
C
E———-0————-
B———-1————-
G———-0————-
D———-2————-
A———-3————-
E————————-
Other Symbols you might see in TAB and what they mean:
h - hammer on
p - pull off
b - bend string up – pluck first note and bend string up (or down).
r - release bend
/ - slide up- Pick the first note, keep pressure while sliding to the next. Don’t pick the note you slide to.
\ - slide down
v - vibrato (sometimes written as ~) – shake the note by toggling the fretting hand wrist.
t - tap (with strumming hand)
x - muted, struck string
These notations are to help you interpret the piece of music you are learning to play. You can consult magazine legends (keys, as to a map) to describe particular symbols you might see in magazines or online.
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28 responses so far ↓
1 kristie // Apr 4, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I am just learning how to play guitar and I find this website very helpful. I am teaching myself so any advice I can find on the internet is awesome. Thank you for making your site free…it shows that you really love what you are doing rather than charging people an arm and a leg for your advice.
I’ll be checking in more as I progress!
2 Ted // Apr 4, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Hey, thanks Kristie. Good luck.
3 krystal // Apr 4, 2008 at 11:39 pm
hey thanks really helpfull!!
i agree with kristie..
im a beginner to!!
and its awsome that its free!!
thanks man..good luck with everything!!
4 Just a guy tryen to make it in the world.. :P // Apr 5, 2008 at 1:13 am
Thanks.. that actuly helped me out alot.. Something just clicked in my head.. Sweet! I wright alot of lyrics but still lack the ability to play the guitar correctly.. I just need to stick my foot in it! Peace Out Ya’ll
5 Julie // Apr 6, 2008 at 6:54 pm
this is pretty helpful for learning tabs this site helped me with my tabs thanks…..but isn’t the melody EGBDF every good boy deserves fudge?
6 mike baltzis // Apr 7, 2008 at 3:16 am
many thanks…..helped me out alot….clarified many
issues for me. keep up the good work.
7 mike baltzis // Apr 7, 2008 at 3:19 am
now when I write songs for my band I can illustrate the song better with these few chords rather than just playing the drums and singing and let our lead guitar try and figure out what the hell I was thinking.
Again many thanx.
8 Easy Guitar Tabs | GuitarHack.com // Apr 7, 2008 at 10:28 am
[…] How to Read Guitar Tabs […]
9 Brooke // Apr 9, 2008 at 2:19 am
Now I can play what I’ve really wanted. Animal by three days grace!!!!! Thanks
10 Bob Blake // Apr 10, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Hi Thanks for a great site,easy to understand for a 58yrs old Grandad, i wished i had started earlier the old brain and fingers would have been quicker.
cheers and thanks Bob
11 Robert(sk8 til deth) // Apr 11, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Well im jus starting to play and this opened me up alot to how the guitar is played.Thanks alot and God bless you…
Sk8 til deth
12 Al( Bagavaughn) // Apr 12, 2008 at 1:29 am
I promised myself i’d learn to play a song on my guitar for my son when he was born. 2yrs and one deployment later, no song. It all rides with you, so far…Best thing yet…
13 D G Dingledine // Apr 12, 2008 at 11:55 am
Thank you so much, this will give me a good start
14 rick bush // Apr 12, 2008 at 12:37 pm
looks easier the way you describe it–look forward to trying.
15 Roy // Apr 13, 2008 at 11:17 am
Thanks. This is great. So nice it’s free…appreciate the help. Thanks
16 Jeff Meader // Apr 13, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Great help. Thanks alot.
17 Bob // Apr 13, 2008 at 3:55 pm
i agree with kirstie its same 4 me 2 tnks
18 Rob6707 // Apr 13, 2008 at 6:15 pm
yo thanks whoever put this up cause im mainly a drummer and guitar player and i always wanted to know how to play my favorite songs and thanks to you guys now i can so thanks for helping me out you guys are great
19 Chris Nixon // Apr 14, 2008 at 1:12 am
this is asem learning like this no more pay for guiter lessons what a wanderful time and world we live in.
20 Ryan // Apr 15, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Hey man thanx for all the great tips id probably still just be playing enter sandman and unforgiven PEacE
21 Scott Sensabaugh // Apr 15, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Thank You
22 terri beth // Apr 17, 2008 at 1:34 am
Your site has been very usefull in understanding
how to read tabs, keep up all your good work.
thanks. Terri beth
23 Danny // Apr 30, 2008 at 8:07 pm
thanks alot for this free site ohh my god it’s awesome i’m really improving thanks to this wonderful site!!!
24 Jess // May 13, 2008 at 1:54 pm
There’s one song I’m desperate to learn without committing to lessons, and I had the tabs but had no idea what they meant. This is a really helpful guide, THANKYOU <3
25 Adam Young // May 18, 2008 at 9:33 am
Thanks so much. This is legendary! Soooo helpful
26 Michael GV Tan // May 24, 2008 at 1:21 pm
thanks for this site, now i can try to play my guitar using tab .
Thanks a lot!!!
27 jack // May 24, 2008 at 5:45 pm
hey im jus startin out nd im learin to play a song. wat is a pull off?
28 joey // Jun 9, 2008 at 10:40 am
hey i can read tab pretty good already but have troubles gettin difficult leads sounding good or just sounding right really got any tips for me
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