How to Read Guitar Tabs

Guitar tabs are the most popular way for guitarists to learn how to play music. This page will get you rockin' along with your favorite tunes in no time!

Categories

Introduction: How to Read Guitar Tabs
- Guitar tablature, or "tabs," are a simple method of transcribing guitar music. Even if you can't read music, you can still read guitar tabs. Although there are some drawbacks and limitations to tabs (as discussed on this page), it has become an extremely popular method to learn new playing techniques or to learn your favorite songs. With guitar tabs available in transcription books, not to mention all over the Internet, there is a wealth of information and learning material for guitarists. Read on so you can learn how to read tablature and take advantage of all it has to offer.
Resources for How to Read Guitar Tabs
Finger Positions
- Another drawback is the fact that tabs do not show the fingering of the music, so while you know what frets to put your fingers on, you don't know what fingers you should be using on said frets. Traditional music does not have this feature, either, but many guitar transcriptions will add finger numbers (1=index finger, 2=middle finger, 3=ring finger, 4=pinky) above the notes to specify which digits you should be using.
The Frets
- Now that we have the strings taken care of in tab, we need to visualize the frets. These are written by inserting numbers onto the horizontal lines. A zero represents an open string, a 5 represents fret five, etc. The next section will show you some examples of this.
Chords
- You're now already armed with enough info to start reading some guitar tabs! For our first example, we look at the E major chord:
- E Major as Tab:
  - e-------0-------
  - B-------0-------
  - G-------1-------
  - D-------2-------
  - A-------2-------
  - E-------0-------
- As you can see, the zeros denote playing open strings, and the numbers show what frets to put your fingers on for the other strings. The tab shows that you play an open low E string, the second fret of the A string, the second fret of the D string, the first fret of the G string, and open B and high E strings.
- An "x" means you mute or do not play a string. For an example, take a look at a C major chord on the fretboard and as tablature:
- C Major as Tab:
  - e-------0-------
  - B-------1-------
  - G-------0-------
  - D-------2-------
  - A-------3-------
  - E-------x-------
- The "x" on the bottom line of the tab means you do not play the low E string while playing this voicing of the C chord. Since an "x" is used in the chord symbols that most people reference while learning guitar, this is just another intuitive aspect of reading tabs.
Step 5: Learn Symbols and Notation
- Since playing guitar is often more complicated than just putting your fingers on some frets, there are symbols and notations for special techniques that guitarists use. Notation for online tabs can vary depending on the person who transcribed it, but here are some general rules for common techniques that will help you on your way.
Tab Publishers
Rhythm
- The main drawback of tab is that there is no official way to denote rhythmic figures. Consequently, tab alone can be difficult to read because you cannot accurately determine the duration of any given note or chord and will often have to resort to using
- Most tab books will publish the tab underneath traditional music notation in order to get around the rhythmic limitations. Guitar World Magazine publishes transcriptions using a modified version of guitar tab that adds "stems" to the numbers to represent

Categories

Introduction: How to Read Guitar Tabs

Resources for How to Read Guitar Tabs

Finger Positions

The Frets

Chords

Step 5: Learn Symbols and Notation

Tab Publishers

Rhythm