Lessons On Reading Guitar Tabs

If you’re a beginner learning how to play the guitar, you may not be aware that there are two types of notation guitarists can use for playing songs. The first is standard notation, the familiar form of notation you’ve seen on sheet music, with five-line staffs and notes, which is universal to all instruments. The second is guitar tablature, also called guitar tabs, which is unique to guitars and similar string instruments.

If you intend to play guitar professionally, chances are you’ll eventually need to learn standard notation through formal training. If you simply want to play for fun, a more informal approach is fine and you can opt to take lessons on reading guitar tabs, which goes much faster and easier than learning standard notation.

The key difference between standard notation and guitar tablature is sight reading. To use standard notation, you must be able to sight read the written melodies and rhythms as conveyed by the notes in the staffs and so understand which notes and chords to play with the proper fretboard positioning and fingering techniques.

Guitar tablature, by contrast, eliminates the need to sight read music and directly shows the guitarist precisely which strings to play and at which frets to play them. Basic lessons on reading guitar tabs will explain that the guitar strings are represented by six horizontal lines, and frets are represented by numbers on the lines. For example, if a guitar tab showed a number one on the top line, you would be expected to play the first string at the first fret.

After you learn how to use guitar tabs to play individual notes, the next basic step in lessons on reading guitar tabs is playing chords. A chord in which each note is played simultaneously is represented by a number (designating a fret) on each of the six lines (designating strings), displayed vertically. A chord in which each note is played successively is represented by a number on each of the six lines, displayed diagonally.

Though guitar tabs make playing much easier and more convenient for the amateur guitarist, they do have one drawback. It is difficult to impossible to represent rhythmic notation with guitar tabs. Some musicians add stems to the numbers to represent quarter notes, eighth notes, and so on, but they are difficult to distinguish, not to mention their similarity to standard notation misses the point of guitar tabs.

In general, guitar tablature is easy to read and follow, and taking lessons on reading guitar tabs is far simpler and faster than learning standard notation. It is highly recommended for beginner and leisure guitarists. Though guitar tabs are not superior for conveying rhythm within a composition, and may not be the best choice for learning a new song, they are perfectly useful for learning to play an already-familiar or favorite song.