Reading music
Guitar tablature (tab for short) is a form of musical notation that graphically represents strings and frets of the guitar fretboard. Tabs shows how you play music over a period of time by indicating what particular string to play on a specific fret. Hopefully, although it may seem complex at first, after reading this, you'll be able to read guitar tabs easily in no time.
I was still in highschool the first time I came across the guitar tabs. Years before that, I was only using typical songbooks found on music stores to look for the chords of the songs I wanted to play. One day, I heard a very beautiful acoustic revival of the song entitled "Especially for you" which was originally sang by Kylie Minogue. I immediately went to the nearby music store and asked for a songhits/magazine that features the song. Fortunately, I was able to find one from the pile of old mags that were unsold.
Playing with the songhits.
I went home as fast as I can and started playing the song right away. After playing few lines of it, I noticed the chords written on the magazine were somewhat incomplete. The base chords were correct but I can't seem to get the right sound as played on the radio. At that time, I still don't know how to play broken chords.
My sister came home few hours later and she heard me practicing the song over and over. She also noticed that the chords that I was using lacked something. I told her that I noticed it too but I didn't know what were the actual chords used by the acoustic guitarist. In an instant, she came up with an idea to look for it over the Internet. That time, we didn't have Internet at our house and not even a computer but she had access to it in her office.
The next day, she came home carrying a few sheets of paper with something printed on it and she handed it over to me. When I read it, I didn't know what I was actually looking into. All I could see were lines, dots, and numbers and the title which says, "ESPECIALLY FOR YOU GUITAR TAB". I didn't know how to interpret it and I didn't even know what a guitar tab is.
Knowing that I can't figure it out on my own, I sought the help of some books in our house. Luckily, I found one that gave me a brief explanation about guitar tabs. From there, I was able to decipher what the symbols on the guitar tab meant and I slowly understood how those stuff come together. In a weeks time, I was able to play the whole song. And this time, I sounded almost the same as the acoustic guitarist who revived it.
Now, read on if you want to learn how to decipher guitar tablature.
The LINES
Guitar tabs are written in six horizontal lines and each of the lines represent the string on a guitar. The bottom line of the staff represents your lowest "E" string and the top line of the tab staff represents the 1st string of the guitar or your "high E" string.
The NUMBERS
Numbers are then placed on these lines(strings) to represent finger positions on the guitar fret board. For example, in the illustration above, the tab is telling you to play the third string (third line) on fifth fret. When the number "0" is used in tablature, this means that you play the open string.
CHORDS
Reading chords within a guitar tab is fairly easy. Tabs show chords as a series of numbers stacked vertically indicating to play all the notes at the same time. The tablature above indicates that you should hold down the notes in a C Major Chord and strum the 5th string down to the 1st string at once.
Now, you know it, right?
This is the most basic concept about reading tabs. Along the way, we will encounter more symbols used to describe different techniques in playing the guitar. Guitar tabs work best if you listen to the song for guidance on timing then read the notes and practice it.
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