Guitar Tab Guide

Song & Guitar Tab Library

How To Read Guitar Tabs

 

Learning how to read guitar tablature is an essential part of learning how to play guitar. The best part is that tabs are simple and easy to understand, even for beginners.

So what’s a guitar tab? Guitar tablature, or tabs for short, is a visual representation of guitar music that doesn’t require any knowledge of how to read musical notation.

Guitar tab symbols tell a guitar player exactly what to do when reading guitar tablature.

Tablature is different from standard notation because tabs will specifically explain the motions, fingers, frets and techniques without you needing to memorize the complicated system and music theory that is standard music notation.

This is especially helpful for beginners since they’d be able to learn how to play a song on guitar immediately and start having fun right away.

Guitar tabs look a little like standard musical notation which has five lines running horizontally. Tabs are set up to look like the neck of your guitar with six lines running horizontally representing the six strings on a guitar.

E|------------------------|
B|------------------------|
G|------------------------|
D|------------------------|
A|------------------------|
E|------------------------|
            

Notice how the high E string is the top most string on the tab. Guitar tabs are displayed this way because it goes from the highest pitch to the lowest.

Also, if you set your guitar down on a flat surface, that’s the way your strings would be laid out, with the high E string at the top, and the low E string at the bottom.

On these six lines, you will see numbers. The numbers on guitar tabs represent which fret should be pressed down with your fingers:

E|------------------------|
B|----1-------------------|
G|------------------------|
D|------------------------|
A|------------------------|
E|------------------------|
            

In the above example tab, the 1 represents the 1st fret on a guitar. And since this 1 is placed on the B string, that means the tab is telling you to play the 1st fret on the B string.

Usually you'll come across numbers that are stacked on top of each other. These patterns represent guitar chords.

Try playing this E Major chord:

      E Major
E|----0-------------------|
B|----0-------------------|
G|----1-------------------|
D|----2-------------------|
A|----2-------------------|
E|----0-------------------|
            

All you do is position your fingers as outlined by the tablature and strum the chord as you would normally.

You might then see some chord progressions written like this:

  E Major    G Major    A Minor
E|----0-------3------0----|
B|----0-------0------1----|
G|----1-------0------2----|
D|----2-------0------2----|
A|----2-------2------0----|
E|----0-------3------X----|
            

When you see an X, this means you do not play that string. In an A Minor chord, you would not play the open Low E string as part of that chord.

Let’s throw in some more notes:

E|------------------------1--|
B|-----1---------------------|
G|------------2--------------|
D|------------------3--------|
A|---------------------------|
E|---------------------------|
            

Notice there is now a 1 on the B string, a 2 on the G string, a 3 on the D string and finally another 1 on the high E string. Again, each of these numbers represent a fret on your guitar.

Just like in standard music notation, you read and play tablature from left to right. So how would you play this?
You'd first start by playing the 1st fret of the B string (it’s the furthest to the left), then the 2nd fret of the G string, then the 3rd fret on the D string then finally the 1st fret on the high E string.

It can't be that easy right? Well, it is that easy. But more advanced songs require more advanced techniques like bending notes, sliding, pulling off, or even using hammer-ons.

You’ll start to see tabs that look something like this:

E|------1---1----------------|
B|---------------------------|
G|--------------------3/5----|
D|---------------------------|
A|---------------------------|
E|---------------------------|
            

With the above example, you'll play the 1st fret of the high E string. Then you’ll play that same 1st fret on the high E string.

If there's a forward slash between two notes on a tab, that means you must do a 'slide.' In the example above, you must slide from the 3rd fret on the G string up to the 5th fret on the G string.

For a full list of guitar tab symbols go here: Guitar Tab Symbol Guide

But what if it was like this instead:

E|-----1---1-----------------|
B|---------------------------|
G|------------------5\3------|
D|---------------------------|
A|---------------------------|
E|---------------------------|
            

Notice the forward slash is now a back slash. This indicates that you'll be sliding from a high note to a lower note. This means you'll have to slide starting from the higher note, the 5th fret on the G string, to the lower note, the 3rd fret on the G string.

Pull-offs and hammer-ons have a different tab symbol:

E|---------------------------|
B|---------------------------|
G|------------------5p3------|
D|---------------------------|
A|---------------------------|
E|---------------------------|
            

When you see a "p" between two notes on a tab, that means pull-off from the first note to the second note.

The tab above is telling you to pull-off from the 5th fret of the G string to the 3rd fret of the G string.

For a full list of guitar tab symbols go here: Guitar Tab Symbol Guide

Now, let's throw in a hammer-on:

E|---------------------------|
B|---------------------------|
G|------------------3h5------|
D|---------------------------|
A|---------------------------|
E|---------------------------|
            

The "h" stands for hammer-on. The tab above is telling you to start from the 3rd fret of the G string and hammer on the 5th fret of the G string.

At times, there cam be complicated techniques being represented in guitar tablature. So you might start seeing tabs that look like this:

E|---------------------------|
B|---------------------------|
G|--------------5p3h5--------|
D|---------------------------|
A|---------------------------|
E|---------------------------|
            

Notice that we've added the "h5" to the end of the original pull-off tab. This tab is telling you to pull-off from the 5th fret of the G string to the 3rd fret of that string, and then hammer-on the 5th fret.

The last symbol we'll look at is "b" for bending:

E|---------------------------|
B|-------------2b4-----------|
G|---------------------------|
D|---------------------------|
A|---------------------------|
E|---------------------------|
            

So the "b" stands for bending, and the tab above is telling you to start on the 2nd fret of the B string, and then perform a bend up to the note which is heard when playing the 4th fret (up a whole step).

Tablature Legend Graphic

Even with a guitar tab symbol key, some specific symbols might be confusing when it comes time to actually play a tablature.

As you can see from the Tablature Legend above, there are a lot of techniques being represented with these symbols.

Let's take a look at a piece of music on a tab that incorporates a few of these symbols. 

Double Bends Graphic

First the tab is asking for the guitar player to slide into the 14th fret note on the A string. To do this, simply slide into that note, and then play the next three notes, which are standard notes you can pick. 

The next part is where it gets really interesting. These symbols indicate a double bend, which means bending up at the 14th fret of the G string, and then sliding into another bend at the 16th fret of the same string, and then adding vibrato to the end of the note (that squiggly line).

Tablature is typically connected directly underneath the standard musical notation of a piece. Which is very helpful because tablature has one fatal flaw; there is no way to show rhythm in tablature. So you will need to reference any connected standard notation to understand the rhythm of the tab'd riff or figure.

Listening to the piece of music while reading along with the tabs is a great way to learn how to read guitar tabs even more quickly.

As you can see, even on a single bar of music, a lot of movements are possible, and a lot of techniques are used, which is why it is so important to familiarize yourself with guitar tab symbols. But most tabs aren't this complicated. Simply take it slow, start off with some easy guitar songs, and have fun!