How To Play Guitar Tabs
How To Read And Play Guitar Tablature
Guitar tablature, or tab as it is more commonly known is a system of writing down music for the guitar that has been in exsistence for almost as long as standard music notation. It indicates the fret and string numbers rather than the actual notes.
It may suprise you to know that the first appearance of tab is recorded as being in around 1300 in Europe. It was then used for organ music.
These days guitar tablature is found all over the internet and the chances are no matter what song you want to learn, somebody somewhere, will have tabbed it out and uploaded it to the internet. The quality of these tablatures can at times leave a lot to be desired in regards to their accuracy; but they can be a great starting point if you want to work out a tune yourself or if you are struggling to play it by ear.
Guitar players are usually left behind when it comes to reading music by other players, especially pianists. Piano players learn to sight read right from the start of their learning, guitar players tend not to.Because learning to read music takes a lot of study and our hero guitarists dont stand on stage and read the dots whilst they are performing, its not considered cool. If you are looking to make a career for yourself in the music industry I would say that learning to read standard notation is essential, but if you want to play for pleasure and not get too bogged down in theory then tablature is the way to go.
Admittedly there are flaws with guitar tab, the biggest one being that there is not usually rhythm information. Newer versions of tab do include some of that critical info, but if used in conjunction with standard notation the problem is solved.
Online tabs tend to be basic if written in a code known as ASCii which you can see below
E------------------3-------------------------------------------------
B---------------3-----3----------------------------------------------
G------------4-----------4-------------------------------------------
D---------5-----------------5----------------------------------------
A------5-----------------------5-------------------------------------
E---3-----------------------------3----------------------------------
This is fairly basic, but there are commercial tab editors for guitarists, the main two being Guitar Pro which is paid for and Power Tab which is free. Both make writing professional looking tabs easier. Both are also excellent for helping you to learn tab as they play it aswell.
As you can see above, the tab staff consists of 6 horizontal lines. Each one represents a string on the guitar. The low E string, the thickest is at the bottom, which is handy as it has the lowest sound. The high E, the thinnest string is at the top.
There is no treble clef on guitar tab, this is the swirly shaped thing on the left which, you'll see at the start of standard notation. This defines the G note which is above the middle C in normal music notation. We dont need it with tablature, we know what the notes are.
Also in the above example you'll see numbers. These are the fret numbers that are to be played on each string. The first one the 3 on the low E string simply means play the 3rd fret of the low E string, followed by the 5th fret on the A or 5th string. A 0 or zero means play the string open.
Playing a chord in tablature is shown simply as the fret numbers stacked on top of each other. So to a C major chord would look like this
E----0------------------------------------------------------------
B----1------------------------------------------------------------
G----0------------------------------------------------------------
D----2------------------------------------------------------------
A----3------------------------------------------------------------
E-----------------------------------------------------------------
Note that the low E string is not played. This doesn't have to be shown with an X as is usual with chord boxes. If there is no number on the line, then the string isn't played. The name of the chord will often be printed on the top of the tab so you can identify it quickly. As the notes are shown on top of each other, the notes are played together as a strum. Sometimes there will be arrows alongside the notes showing the prefered direction of the strum. If the arrow points up its a down stroke and if it points down its an upstroke!
This might sound strange but if you think about it, as we are looking at the tab with the low E at the bottom, when we strum from that string to the top E, we are strumming down the strings towards the floor even though on the tab the arrow goes up. Try it a few times and you'll figure it. Sometimes the fact that it sounds so silly when written down can help us to remember it.
Going back to the first example, which you can see is actually a G major barre chord
E------------------3-------------------------------------------------
B---------------3-----3----------------------------------------------
G------------4-----------4-------------------------------------------
D---------5-----------------5----------------------------------------
A------5-----------------------5-------------------------------------
E---3-----------------------------3----------------------------------
The notes are not played at the same time, they are separated and played one at a time. This is known as an arpeggio. You may wonder how long we play each note for. Thats a great question and highlights the main flaw with guitar tab. Lack of rhythm information. Some times the rhythm and note timings are shown by adding tails to the notes as in standard notation, but really I find it best to get this either by listening to the tune and figuring it out from that, or by looking at the normal musical notation.
These are the basics of guitar tablature. There are lots of other symbols that you will need to know to play the guitar tab properly such as bends, slides, hammer ons, pull offs etc. Before looking at these though I would like to suggest that you use tablature as a guide rather than a definitive way of playing a tune. When tabbing out a song some people try to capture every single noise that comes from a guitar players instrument. I know this is the authentic way and seems the most logical thing to do, but sometimes the little nuances of a players style just cant be captured on paper without the tab becoming confusing. Best to use it as a framework and develop our own style as you go.
Sermon over, back to the tab. Slides can be shown as a / or \ depending on whether its sliding up or down. So if the notation says 6/8\6 it means slide from the 6th fret, to the 8th fret and then slide back to the 6th. If there is no number before the slide this means just slide to the following note from whichever fret feels best at the time.
Hammer ons and pull offs are notated by the letters H and P. So 6h8 would mean pick the note at the 6th fret and hammer on to the 8th. 8p6 would mean pick the 8th fret and pull of to the 6th. In Guitar Pro which I use to tab out songs and lessons, the hammers and pulls are notated as what looks like a standard notations tie between the two notes. Its easy enough to see which is the technique to use by looking at whether the notes are going up the neck or down. Its just a little difference that you may come across.
When it comes to bending notes there are a few ways to write it down. In Guitar Pro there is a bent arrow above the note with eith full or 1/2 or 1/4 written by the side to indicate the strenth of the bend. On tabs that you might come across online you could see 7b9, which means bend the 7th fret up a full tone to the 9th. The b might be in brackets. Sometimes you'll find that the tone that you are aiming for will be in brackets as in 7b(9). The more tabs you look at, the easier it will get to understand them. Occasionally you may see an r after a bend, such as 7b9r. This means release the bend back to the 7th fret after bending it to the ninth.
Muted strings can be shown by an x. As I stated earlier, the x doesnt mean dont play the string. It means play the string, but mute it so that it sounds as a click rather than a note. X's on adjacent strings mean that you play a muted strum or rake as its called over all the strings shown.
The letter t when shown in conjunction with h and p can means taps, using the right hand to tap a fret whilst the left plays hammer ons and pull offs. Very much like Eddie Van Halen. So for instance 2h5t12p5p2 would mean pick fret two, hammer on at fret 5, tap at fret 12, pull off to fret 5 and finish with a pull off to fret two. A mouthful to say or write, but not too difficult to play with practice.
This should get you started, but the best way to learn how to read guitar tab is find some beginners tabs and just practice. There are a selection of tabs with my video lessons and they could be a could place for you to start as you can play along with the videos. Have fun.
If you want to have a go at learning standard music notation, take a look at these books found on eBay.
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