A Simple Guide To Learn Guitar Tab
In This Post You Will Learn…
- The Advantages and Disadvantages of Guitar Tab
- How To Use The Basic Guitar Tab Diagram
- How To Show Notes on a Guitar Tab Diagram
- How To Show Chords and Strumming Patterns on a Guitar Tab Diagram
Are You a DIY Guitarist?
Guitar is different from most common instruments because the people who learn it are normally self thought.
You get by on a few home study courses, a bit of Internet browsing and some help from more experienced friends.
While it’s not a disaster learning guitar by yourself it takes a lot of discipline and determination.
For me at least, that discipline didn’t stretch as far as learning to read music (although I did eventually get to that years later)
So we run into the problem of how to read music without learning to read it – sounds like a puzzle the Joker would set up for Batman, doesn’t it?.
Luckily for you there is a solution – Learn Guitar Tab…
Although it’s not as effective as music notation guitar tab does have it’s uses…
Guitar tab will tell you…
- The notes to play
- The strings to play
- The techniques to use – hammer-ons, pull offs, vibrato etc…
- The tuning the song is in and whether a capo is required
Sound great but there are problems…
Guitar tab is next to useless when it comes to timing.
While standard music notation will tell you the exact length of every note, guitar tab has no way of showing this information. The closest thing we’ve got is a system of spacing longer notes further apart – but more about that later…
The speed and rhythm of the song are also missing on tab notation.
What this basically means is that if you have never heard the song, and all you have is the tab, playing it WILL be difficult. (unless you have guitar pro)
Standard music notation offers more musical info such as the pitch of the note, note duration etc. but tab is a quick, easy and freely available way to get the music for the tunes you want to play – right now
With that said let’s get down to business…
The Basic Tab Diagram
The basic layout of guitar tab is shown in the diagram below. Each line of the diagram represents one string on your guitar. The top line is the 1st string of your guitar – the string with the highest pitch. The bottom line represents the 6th string of your guitar – the string with the lowest pitch.
I’ve labelled each of the strings in the diagram below, but normally this will not be done -unless the song is in a strange tuning.
E|———————— (Thinnest String, highest pitch)
B|————————
G|————————
D|————————
A|————————
E|———————— (Thickest String, lowest pitch)
Notes on the Guitar Tab Diagram
Now that you know the basic layout of guitar tab let’s add some notes.
Notes on a guitar tab diagram are shown by numbers. The numbers will be placed in the middle of the line representing a string.
Have a look at the diagram below…
- The first number is a ’2′ on the 2nd string (B string). This ’2′ tells you that you need to play the 2nd string on the 2nd fret. The note you will be playing is C#.
- The second number is a ’4′ on the 1st string. This tells you to play the 1st string on the 4th fret. The note you will be playing is G#.
E|———4————– (Thinnest String, highest pitch)
B|—-2——————-
G|————————
D|————————
A|————————
E|———————— (Thickest String, lowest pitch)
What happens if you don’t want to fret the string? An open string is shown on guitar tab by a ’0′. In the diagram below you would play the 3rd string open followed by the 2nd string open, followed the first string open.
E|———0————– (Thinnest String, highest pitch)
B|—-0——————-
G|-0———————-
D|————————
A|————————
E|———————— (Thickest String, lowest pitch)
Two Notes at The Same Time and Guitar Chords
To show 2 notes at the same time on a guitar tab you simply stack the notes on top of each other. Look at the diagram below. You would play the 2nd fret on the 2nd string and the second fret on the 3rd string at the same time. You don’t play any of the other strings.
E|———————— (Thinnest String, highest pitch)
B|—–2——————
G|—–2——————
D|————————
A|————————
E|———————— (Thickest String, lowest pitch)
Note: It is an understanding between all guitarists that if a line in a guitar tab has no symbol on it you don’t play that line at all.
Sometimes you may see a tab where the notes are separated like the two notes below. In this case you will only play the strings that are marked. The other string will need to be muted.
Tab like this is more common with guitar fingerpicking songs because it is so easy to pick two strings simultaneously.
E|———————— (Thinnest String, highest pitch)
B|—–3——————
G|————————(you will not play this string)
D|—-3——————-
A|————————
E|———————— (Thickest String, lowest pitch)
How To Tab Guitar Chords
The number stacking rule holds true for guitar chords also. The diagram below shows an E major chord followed by a D major chord and an F major chord.
Pay attention to the ‘x’ that tells us to mute the string when we are playing. Normally in tab an ‘x’ means to play the string dampened but when it is included in a chord shape it means a muted string.
E|—-0-2—-1———— (Thinnest String, highest pitch)
B|—-0-3—-1————
G|—-1-2—-2————
D|—-2-0—-3————
A|—-2-0—-3————
E|—-0-x—-1———— (Thickest String, lowest pitch)
Guitar Strumming Patterns in Guitar Tab
One last thing for today. If you see a ‘u’ or a ‘d’ below chords in a guitar tab it means an up or a down stroke. The example below is fairly self explanatory
E|—-0-2—-1———— (Thinnest String, highest pitch)
B|—-0-3—-1————
G|—-1-2—-2————
D|—-2-0—-3————
A|—-2-0—-3————
E|—-0-x—-1———— (Thickest String, lowest pitch)
d u d
What To Do Next…
- Watch the YouTube Video Below on Learning Guitar Tab
- Do the test yourself section at the end of this post to make sure you’ve learned everything correctly…
- Sign Up For Our Newsletter and Get Your FREE 17 Page Learn Guitar Tab book (plus 2 more E-books on Learning Guitar Chords and Learning Guitar Scales)
- Post a comment – I answer all the questions in the comment section in my newsletter on a weekly basis…
- Check out the useful links section at the end of the post for other sites I’ve found on learning guitar tab…
Learn Guitar Tab Videos
The video below is something I posted on YouTube a while ago
Test Yourself on Guitar Tab
- What do the lines mean on a guitar tab diagram?
- How do you show an open string on a guitar tab diagram?
- You see an A7 chord in a song. What would the tab look like if you only wanted to play the notes of the A7 chord on the 2nd and 4th strings?
Useful Links
Ultimate Guitar Tabs – The No. 1 Site on the web for Guiatr Tabs, Bass Tabs and Guitar Pro Tabs
Nice clear instructions. I like that you pointed out the limitations of guitar tab, too.
Yes, proper music notation is better, but the learning curve is steeper.
Good advice.