For those of you that aren't totally comfortable with reading guitar tabs, I've added a couple diagrams to get you started. Keep in mind that while these are a bit fancier type of diagram, all guitar tabs are displayed with six horizontal lines that represent the six strings of the guitar.
Here's what it looks like in plain text:
E|--3------0--0----1--0-----3--2--0--2-|
B|--0------0--0----1--1-----3--3--3--3-|
G|--0------0--0----2--0-----2--2--2--2-|
D|--0------2--2----3--2-----0--0--0--0-|
A|--2------2--2----3--3----------------|
E|--3--2---0--0----1-------------------|
Here are the elements:
- Each horizontal line represents a string
- Each number represents the fret of the note you play
Pretty simple.
When numbers are stacked, as in the above example, that means you're playing chords.
Here's what it looks like with single notes:
E|-------------------------------|
B|-------------------------------|
G|-------------------------------|
D|--------------3--4--5--7-------|
A|--3--4--5--7-------------------|
E|-------------------------------|
So to summarize: Wherever a note should be played or "tabbed", a number will be used to indicate which fret and string it should be played.
For example, in the diagram below (a more formalized tablature style) you would play the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh fret notes on the fourth string (low D).
These tabs are preferable to the plain text versions, since they incorporate more information like measures, time signatures, and note types (quarter, eighth, etc.).
I prefer these formalized guitar tabs, which are used by Songsterr the Guitar Pro software, because they display beat and a number of other important pieces of musical information. They're a lot more comprehensive than the plain text tab we covered earlier.
These tabs are typically used by software and premium tab resources, including Guitar Pro, Ultimate Guitar Pro, and Songsterr.
Yet, the most important part is still the line and numbering system. If you understand that, you're good to go.
Questions?
If you have questions about how to read guitar tabs, feel free to get in touch via the comments section below and we'll help out as much as possible. Thanks for reading and for trusting our content.
Banner image via Guitar.Tablature
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