How to Read Guitar Tabs
What is Guitar Tab?!?
It is an alternative way of reading music. Instead of reading notes on staff paper which can be quite tricky, it is made up of a number system that is so easy my granmda can play ‘smoke on the water’ with ease!! NO joke.
The following 6 lines do not represent your typical ‘music staff’ which actually has 5 lines. These 6 lines represent the 6 strings on your guitar.
The Top Line represents the thinnest or ‘highest pitched’ string on your guitar. The string that is closest to the floor. The bottom Line represents the LOWEST SOUNDING String on the guitar and this one is the thickest. It also is the closest to the ceiling.
String #
____________________________________________1
____________________________________________2
T___________________________________________3
A___________________________________________4
B___________________________________________5
____________________________________________6
NOW…..
This is what blank Guitar Tab looks like. Right now all you see are the 6 lines (6 Strings) I know you’re thinking “why is it upside down?” I have no idea. That’s how
Tablature was invented. Just imagine the bottom line as being the top string that’s closest to you. With that out of the way we can work on our next keyword. “Frets.”
I am sure you have heard this term before ‘Guitar Frets.’ If not, they are the metal strips that go up and down across the fingerboard of the guitar. They separate the notes (tones) on the guitar. When you place your finger (form your left hand) in between two frets and hold down the string you are then prepared to strum or pick the string with your right hand. Strings aren’t meant to only be played open. When you hold down a string at a given ‘fret’ what you are actually doing is making the string shorter, thus making the pitch ‘Higher’ and changing the note (or tone).
There are usually about 20 something frets on a standard guitar. It doesn’t make a big difference if you have 20, 22, or 24 frets on your guitar. This just means that you can play a couple notes higher on the guitar and those notes are so high pitched they are pretty annoying to listen to anyway!
You will stay in the lower range of the guitar most of the time.
Now let’s get this ‘Higher’ and ‘Lower’ thing straight. In music, the musical notes (tones, pitches, whatever you call them) are changed by pitch. We all know that pitch means the frequency of sound so something high pitched would be like an opera singing lady who breaks a wine glass with a super high note.
A Low pitch is similar to a Bass instrument or a man with a really deep voice. ‘Deep’ is the same as ‘Low’ when talking about pitch. On a slide whistle you blow into it and move the slide up and down to change the pitch. The closer you bring the slide to you the higher the pitch gets and vise versa.
On the guitar however it is not up and down. It is left to right. When you play a string open, that is the lowest (deepest) sound you will hear produced from that string. As soon as you place your finger on the First ‘Fret’ and then strike the same string again the pitch will be slightly higher. The more you move to the right the higher the pitch will get. (Because the string is getting shorter!).
There are usually dots on the fingerboard of your guitar to act as a guide when moving around and holding down different frets. Normally they are on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 12th frets.
*TIP*:
You don’t want to put your finger on the metal fret itself…but just slightly to the right of it produces the best sound.
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