Need Help Learning How to Read Guitar Tabs?

Once you have decided to learn how to play the guitar, you are very likely brimming over with excitement; you have your brand new guitar, some accessories and even some guitar tabs to get you off to a good start. You're excited; at least until you look at those tabs and realize you haven't a clue how to read guitar tabs! Luckily, reading guitar tabs is not terribly difficult. Once you learn how to read guitar tabs, you'll be playing from tabs in no time! They are easier than sheet music and are designed specifically with beginning players in mind.

Reading guitar tabs is easy once you get to know the layout of the tabs. Tabs are the preferred method of music for many beginning guitar players, because it allows you to start learning how to play guitar before you even learn how to read sheet music. There are many differences and similarities between traditional sheet music and guitar tabs. First, guitar tabs show you where each note that is to be played is and how to play it.

When learning how to read guitar tabs, you will also notice that the tab has six lines, whereas a piece of sheet music only has five. Again, when reading guitar tabs, you will notice that it shows you the placement of your fingers. Therefore, because the guitar has six strings, the tab will have six lines, with each line designated as a guitar string. Therefore, it is most important that you learn the strings on a guitar before you begin reading guitar tabs.

There are six strings on a guitar, E, B, G, D, A, and E again. The first E, is a high E, with the last E being the low. When learning how to read guitar tabs, you will need to know the placement of these strings on the tab itself. The lines go from top to bottom, the higher E will be on top, which is then followed by the B, G, D, A, and lower E on the bottom, in that order.

The strings on your guitar correspond to the following notes: E, B, G, D, A and E. The first E is the high E string and the sixth string is the low E. When you are learning how to read guitar tabs, you need to know how the tabs translate to your guitar strings. The lines on these tabs are directly related, with the top line being your high E string and so on down.

You will find numbers in accordance to the guitar frets on the guitar tab; however, you might find a zero on the tab as well. This will mean that the string indicated will be openly played, instead of pressed. A good example of frets is if you were to see the number three on the A tab line, you would play the A note on the third fret.

These numbers correspond to the frets on your guitar, numbered from top to bottom; you will also see when you are learning how to read guitar tabs that there are also zeros on the tabs - this tells you to play that string "open", that is, with no fret being pressed. For example, if the line corresponding to the A string in your guitar tab says 6, then you would place your finger on the 6th fret and so on.

To briefly run down the other symbols, an H denotes a hammer-on, R release, T is for tap, PM means to palm mute that note or chord and a / means to slide. When you are learning to read guitar tabs, you will gradually become with all of these parts of playing and reading tabs - frets, symbols and everything else.

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