Guitar tablature, or also known as Guitar Tab, is a type of music notation that is used to represent strings and frets of the guitar fretboard graphically. If you are a beginner learning how to play guitar, then it is necessary for you to understand how to read guitar tab as it will tell you how to play the guitar note by placing a number which indicates the fret to play, on the appropriate string.
A guitar tab consists of 6 lines, with each line representing a string on the guitar. The low E, which is the thickest string, is right at the bottom whereas the high E, the thinnest string is at the topmost.
e ———— Thinnest string
B ———— Next thinnest string
G ————
D ————
A ————
E ———— Thickest string
Numbers are then placed on these lines to represent finger positions on the guitar fret board. These numbers will tell which fret to play on that string. A number “1″ would mean 1st fret, a “2″ would mean 2nd fret and so on. A “0″ represents playing an open string., which mean you will play the string with no finger positioned on the fretboard. An “X” means the string is not played at all.
For instance, to play a “G” on the thickest string, the tab would look like this.
e————————-
B————————-
G————————-
D————————-
A————————-
E—-3———————
It is alright if you are lost at this stage, let explain a little bit more in details.
When you hold the guitar, and assuming that you are right handed, your left hand will be holding the neck or also known as the fret board, while your right hand will be the picking hand. On the guitar neck, there will have about 22 bars (some guitars have more) that run across the neck, with the bars getting closer to each other as they are nearer toward the guitar body. So, for the example above, you will place the third finger of your left hand just behind the third fret of the thickest string and then pick the string with your right hand.
Simple right?
Now let’s look at a tab for a group of notes.
e—3–5–3————————————————
B————-5–3—————————————–
G——————-4–2———————————–
D————————-5–2—————————–
A——————————-5–2———————–
E————————————–5–3—————-
The first note is a G. The TAB shows the number “3″, so, you know that the note is played at the 3rd fret. The next note is the number “5″ (an A note), which will be at the 5th fret. The third note brings you back to the 3rd fret, still on the 1st string. The fourth note is played at the 5th fret, but this time on the second string (the B string) of the guitar. Since the “5″ is on the second line, you will then play the 2nd string of the guitar and so on.
Next, we will look at how to tab out a chord, which mean playing at least three notes together. The tablature for chord will still be the same like the single notes, except that for chord, the numbers will be stacked together and you will strum the strings together in one motion.
Let take a look at a “C” chord tab.
E——0———————————————————
B——1———————————————————
G——0———————————————————
D——2———————————————————
A——3———————————————————
E——X———————————————————
In the example above, you would put your finger on the 1st fret of the 2nd string, 2nd fret on the 4th string, 3rd fret on the 5th string. To play the C chord, you would strum all the strings together in one motion, with the exception of the last string marked with “X”, which is mute and not to play.
That’s how guitarist read the guitar tab. It’s not that difficult to read the guitar tab, isn’t it?