That's the difference with sheet music and tabs. Sheet music won't tell you where to play, jsut what notes - it's kind of up to you where to play based on the preceding and following notes. Starting out I could imagine this would be very difficutl but you would get used to it after a while. The difference between an open E and a 24th fret e off the same string on sheet music is two full octaves higher (eg the 24th note above the open E on the treble clef). Sheet music is a lot easier for the piano which is how I learned to read but I havent a clue how to read music and play it on the guitar!