Oct 19 2008
How To Read GuitarTabs
Tabs are an easy and quick way of writing music. The six lines of a TAB show the six strings on your guitar.
Tabs Will (Usually) Not:
- tell you the note lengths of the notes
- which fingers you use to fret which note
- tell you anything about picking and strumming
To play a song from tabs you need to have heard that song before to figure out the rhythmic strumming and tempo.
Imagine the headstock of your guitar pointing to the left. The smallest string (#1) would then be at the top and the largest (#6) at the bottom.
Reading Tabs
Now that you know the tabs represent your guitar neck playing will be easy.
- The following example tells you to play the second string open.
- Then put a finger on first fret second string and play that note.
- Put finger on second fret third string and play that note.
- Put a finger on the first fret third string.
- And finally play an open third string…
Picking (strumming)
This is not intended to be a strumming lesson (we will also see that later). Tabs sometimes have symbols over the fret numbers indicating weather you should strum up or down.
In this example you play an open string on the first string, like so.
Down, down, down,down, up, up, up, up.
In the last example you can see numbers under the tab. Those numbers are the fingers you are supposed to use to play the notes. Learn to play correctly from the beginning, you’ll be a better musician and pick up more speed.
Sometimes the numbers are indicated below the tabs. These are the number of the finger that should be used to press a string.
Here is a list of markings you should also get familiar with:
- h - hammer on
- p - pull off
- b - bend string up
- r - release bend
- / - slide up
- \ - slide down
- v - vibrato (sometimes written as ~)
- t - right hand tap
- x - play ‘note’ with heavy damping
I suggest reading this blog article if you need some examples of beginner strumming patterns .
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