How to Read Guitar Tabs – Easy Tips For Reading Guitar Tabs
How to Read Guitar Tabs - Easy Tips For Reading Guitar Tabs
By Wendy Pan
Many guitarists are self taught, with no idea how to read actual sheet music. Instead, guitar tablature (tabs) break songs down into which notes are played on which strings. This makes it possible for even players who cannot read traditional sheet music to enjoy playing guitar. This process allows guitarists, many who cannot read music, to share songs with one another and learn them quickly and easily. It's relatively simple to learn how to read guitar tabs, and this article will teach you how.
Standard notation uses five horizontal lines to indicate what degree of pitch each note takes on. Each note has a shape that indicates how long to hold it. This system developed to suit the needs of vocal singers and some keyboard instruments. Tablature, however has been around as long as plucked stringed instruments. The English musicians in Elizabethan times used it to notate their lute songs. So for centuries, tablature has actually been the preferred method of notation for guitarists worldwide.
Unlike standard notation's five lines, guitar tablature consists of six horizontal lines, each representing a string of the guitar. This makes learning how to read guitar tabs a primarily visual skill, and eliminates the need to read sheet music. The lowest line of tablature represents the low E, or fattest, string on the guitar. An easy way to think about it is that the lowest line is the lowest pitched string. Another way to imagine this configuration is as if you were looking down at your guitar from the playing position.
The next thing to consider is all of those numbers. Each number represents a fret on the guitar. It's really very simple. A number 2 written on the lowest line means that you are to play the lowest string on the second fret, or F#. This is easy enough to comprehend, if not a little awkward to get used to.
Often with guitar music, you won't be playing single note lines, but rather chords and double stops (two notes at once, harmonizing). Learning how to read guitar tabs for chords is slightly different. Chords are written just like they're played- with the notes stacked on top of one another. Numbers written vertically across the six lines mean to play all of them together as one, usually in a strumming fashion.
Standard notation often falls short when writing for guitar. This is because the guitar has not historically been a major instrument in Western classical music. Major force in popular music, yes, but not as popular as the bowed strings or woodwinds for orchestras. Because of this, standard notation has evolved to suit the needs of the masses rather than specific instruments. Of course, there are symbols that are instrument specific, but since the guitar uses so many different techniques, standard notation often falls flat.
With a little practice, you'll learn how to read guitar tabs in no time. Once you do, a whole new world of music will open up to you.
Wendy Pan is an accomplished niche website developer and author.
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