Confused about Tab vs. Chords

I am new to guitar and currently taking the Guitar Fundamentals 1 course. I have learned the Am,C,D,G,Em chords so far. In my search for some songs to play, I have become quite confused on TAB vs Chords. For instance, when I look at the Tab of a song it looks like you strum each string separately as in what we learned with melodies. But yet if Iook at the chords for the song, it is different. In this example of Amazing Grace...Amazing Grace Tab & Chords the tab looks to be completely different than the chords to play. So isn't it better to play chords to make the whole guitar sound instead of one string at a time?

Hey & welcome to GT!

Originally Posted by: janejanejo

I have become quite confused on TAB vs Chords.

What you are seeing on that page with Amazing Grace is the melody in tab, just the notes that you sing. The guitar part would be to play the full chords while you sing the melody. So, yes, play the full chords if you can.

Alternately, you could play the chords (the accompaniment), while someone else plays the single note melody.

Hope that makes sense!

Thanks for your reply. So when looking for songs to play, I should play the chords and not the tabs? It seems like a lot of people say they learn to play a song using Tabs. To me that would sound kind of bland if you are just playing one string at a time. Also, how do you know what the strumming pattern would be when using the chords for the song? I am very new to this and I haven't really learned strumming patterns yet but when searching for some songs to learn it doesn't seem as easy as everyone makes it out to be.

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