Uncovering The Mystery: Deciphering Guitar Tablature

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.

The Ups And Downs Of Playing The Guitar

Do you know what rhythm slashes mean?

Music class. Photo Credits

Rhythm slashes are slash marks (/) that simply tell you how to play rhythmically or in a systematic pattern over a period of time.

Dissecting chord diagrams

Few years ago, I had a classmate who was very interested to learn how to play the guitar.
Without second thoughts, she immediately bought a brand new guitar from the nearby music store.
Her guitar came packaged with a few song books.

A girl playing the guitar while reading the songhits. Photo Credits

However, when she opened the books to learn how to play the chords, she didn't know how to read the diagrams and she became very frustrated.
Hopefully, after reading this you won't be confused reading chord diagrams and be on your way to start playing the songs you like.

Guitar Notations: You Don't Need To Read Music To Play The Guitar

Way back in high school I had a friend who took formal piano lessons.
Often, I was able to come with him in his class.
I found out that learning to play the piano is actually harder than learning to play the guitar.

WHY? Because, you need to learn how to read music first before you can start to play.

At first, they were taught where the notes should fall on the staff and how long they should hold the notes. After a couple of weeks, they eventually moved on to practicing scales and so on...

Every time they play, they always follow a piece of paper or a book with musical stuff written on it.
My friend and I found it very difficult to understand.
Slashes, even more slashes, bars, dots, weird symbols... Shocks!!!

One afternoon, I came in his class and heard him playing a weird sounding piece.
I asked him, "What's the title of that song?" and he answered, "I don't know!"
That's because they were just instructed by their teacher to practice song after unrecognizable song that they didn't even wanted to play.

On the other hand, I can say that guitar notations are easier to understand and playing the guitar actually does not require you to know how to read music. Thanks to those early musicians who, through the years, developed a way to communicate basic ideas such as chord construction, chord progressions, rhythmic figures, and song structure in a much simpler manner.

And that's what I am going to share with you.

In my next posts, I'll be showing you how to read the following:

- Guitar chord diagrams
- Guitar rhythmic slashes and strumming symbols
- Guitar tablature (tabs)

It has been said that many great guitarists don’t know how to read music, and many who can read music learned to do so after they learned to play the guitar.

Proper Hand Positioning

Left hand position (Fretting hand)

Getting your hands into the correct position is fairly easy. Simply follow the steps with images below:

1. Extend your left hand with your palm facing upwards.

2. Make a loose fist, placing your thumb roughly between your first and second fingers.

The best positions every guitarist should know

Balancing a book. Photo Credits.

Do you still remember those times when your parents would frequently remind you not to slouch when sitting on a chair or to keep both of your feet straight with your breast out when standing? Our parents tend to become very strict about this because they simply don't want their children to develop bad habits. Just like a parent, I don't want you to develop bad guitar playing habits that will eventually lead to muscle strain and fatigue which can prevent you from progressing further on your guitar. This topic might be boring to some of you but you must pay attention to it.

Get Ready Get Set But Not Yet

Hey guys! How are you?

I was away for a week to do some stuff but here I am back again.

Guitarist fingering a chord. Photo source

How's your tuning going?

I do hope that you already mastered tuning your guitar using the relative tuning method, at least.
Anyway, you can easily review my previous posts about tuning if you are having problems getting your guitar in tune.

After learning how to tune, you are almost ready to start learning how to play your guitar.
Sounds exciting, right?