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learn to sing

The printed music is the roadmap through which all musicians adhere to, and when you learn to read music you will know the very meaning of the phrase “being on the same page”.

It would be foolish to expect that someone could communicate with a Spanish speaker without knowledge of the language, why then would we expect to be able to speak with one another without the basics of this language?

All musical groups must have this written roadmap before they begin. As far back as we can research, some sort of written notation existed to pass the singing of a generation to the next one, as well as teaching people to sing together.

Before improvisation was the written note.

The sad truth is that if you do not read you are limiting yourself to only those groups that do not require it.

It is impossible to follow anything but the most rudimentary knowledge of music theory without the written note. The theory of music is by necessity based on the written note. I know you say well, this is boring, but someday you will be so glad you started now.

You can learn music by only reading it like you would a book. You will not have to replay the tape or cd a million times or learn from someone else. If you can read music you can learn a song without ever hearing it first. If you can read music you can go straight to the book and get all of the basic information on your own. Have you ever learned a song from someone else and not known if you got it right or got all of the information you need? This greatly speeds up the learning curve. You cannot learn from a book the particular way a band performs the song, but you can get the basis of the song and go from there.

It is compelling to realize the author may have intended something different that what you have heard recorded. I have many times been very surprised to find out a song was written very differently than I have always heard it performed. In “Georgia On My Mind” by Hoagy Carmichael, for example, no ones plays the intro. The fact remains that just because you have heard it on the radio a million times does not mean it was written that way. It may be even better the way the author originally intended it! If you are involved in songwriting, I am sure you would want people to know the way you wrote it. Think about that for a moment.

If you can read, you can discover new music. If you can read music you can open up a songbook and discover new worlds. I have found many songs this way that are favorites of mine now and if I did not read I certainly would never have found them.

If you can read, you can discover new music. Everything you learn is hard at first but soon it becomes a delight and fun. Think of how hard it was at first to ride a bike and how many times you fell over.

You will only become a better musician if you learn to read music.    Learn to read music and you can discover music you would never hear otherwise, be able to speak with authority 
about the intent of the author and you will have more fun, I guarantee it.

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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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