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Learning how to read and play guitar tablature is a first step that all beginners get excited about.

Hands down there’s no quicker way to learn a song then from guitar tabs. The majority of us decide to learn guitar because we want to play our favorite tunes, because if this it makes sense that beginners should learn to read tabs quickly.

I’m going to share with you how to use and read guitar tabs with 3 tips: First, how to read and underStand guitar tab, next some examples and finally tips to break a song down so you can learn quickly.

The Basics of Guitar Tab

Compared to reading music, which might feel like learning a second language to some, understanding guitar tabs is simple.

Example of Basic Guitar Tab:

e——–

B——–

G——–

D——–

A——–

E——–

Each line of guitar tab corresponds directly to a string on your guitar. The first or top line is the same as the bottom or first high e string on your guitar and the bottom line is the same as your low E or 6th string on your guitar.

Reading Tab

Guitar tabs are simply a mix of numbers and symbols placed on different lines. Here’s a very simple tab for the E chord.

e—0—-

B—0—-

G—1—-

D—2—-

A—2—-

E—0—-

The number correspond to the fret you press down on that particular string. For this tab you would be playing: 2nd fret A string, 2nd Fret D string and first fret of the G string. The other 3 strings (E, B and e) are strummed open which is what the 0 means on the tab.

From looking at this tab you can tell it’s a chord because the numbers are perfectly stacked on each other in a vertical line. If you say something like this:

e———–

B———7-

G———–

D———–

A—–5—–

E-3———

You would be picking individual strings. In this example you would be playing: 3rd fret E string, 5th fret A string and 7th fret B string.

While there are other symbols you can run into this is the basics of how to read guitar tab.

Tips for Learning Songs from Guitar Tab

This might seem straight forward but I have met many beginner guitar players who don’t think of this basic technique.

When learning a new song it’s important to break the song down into parts.

For example if the guitar tab has the verse, chorus and bridge parts all separated out then first practice the verse chords or what ever it may be. By learning to play a song by it’s parts, first starting out slow then adding speed and learning each part on it’s own before you combine it will make it more enjoyable and less frustrating.

What if you’re a complete newbie and as of yet haven’t learned your basic guitar chords I’d suggest getting a good guitar lesson dvd or learn guitar dvd to help you along the way. Some of these programs can rival private lessons for quality as long as you find a good teacher who has taken the time to create a great product. Ensuring you buy a good dvd will ensure there are no gaps in your learning later on.

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As the first method that beginner guitar players use to learn songs guitar tabs are an important skill to understand. Most guitar dvd or similar guitar training product tabs are usually introduced early on since they’re such a vital role to your learning. If this is your first intro to guitar tab don’t worry I’ll go easy on you, and if you’re using a guitar lesson course at home rest assured you will have some lessons on reading tab.

In this article you’ll learn how to create tabs, how to read them and how to play guitar tabs. After you read this guitar tab lesson you should be able to read most basic tabs and underStand how to play them. Starting out take your time learning tabs, it’s a good idea to master a song or piece from a tab slow first then add speed, accuracy is what makes a great guitar player.

Let’s Begin

How Guitar Tabs are Made

A guitar tab is like looking at your guitar neck if the guitar was in the case. A guitar tab has 6 lines, one for each string on your guitar. The top line of guitar tab corresponds to the first string on your guitar or the high E. The bottom string on a guitar tab corresponds to the sixth string or your low E string.

Here’s a quick example

1st ——–
2nd ——–
3rd ——–
4th ——–
5th ——–
6th ——–

How to Read Guitar Tablature

The second part of reading guitar tabs is knowing which note or fret to play on each string. The nice thing about tab is you don’t need to know note names, it’s all about playing particular frets on particular strings.

Here’s another example

1st -2——
2nd ——–
3rd ——–
4th —–6–
5th ——–
6th ——-3

The number on each string line corresponds to the fret you are supposed to use when playing that string at that point in the song. In the above example you’re to play the second fret on the first string, then the sixth fret on the fourth string followed by the third fret on the sixth string.

A full song tabbed will look just like the above example with lines and numbers. Some songs will be all single notes on one or two strings while others will have full tabbed chords to play. Below is an example of a tabbed C chord.

1st ———
2nd –1—–
3rd —2—-
4th ——–
5th —3—-
6th —x—-

Above it the right fingering for a C major chord. Notice the x on the 6th string, this is something we haven’t looked at before the X means you do not play this string. So if you see an x on a particular string don’t strum or pluck that string.

With this information you should be able to go out and find some tabs of your favorite songs. There are some more advanced symbols you might run into in tabs, don’t worry you’ll learn them as your progress.

Quality guitar lessons on dvd will be of assistance to teach you more advanced tab reading skills. It’s important to not stop learning, tab is just one skill you should strive to master on the guitar. You will become a better guitar player and better musician if you push to learn how to also read music and understand theory as well as reading tabs.

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