How to Find Free Guitar Tabs

Learn how to find free guitar tabs.

Do you want to learn to play your favorite songs on the guitar?

Guitar tabulations (tabs) are an easy-to-learn alternative to sheet music that many musicians both novice and experienced use to quickly learn new songs.

Due to copyright restrictions, sites that once offered downloads of free guitar tabs have been forced to end downloads under threat of prosecution.

However, thousands of free guitar tabs remain on the internet, easily accessible for everyone.

Instructions

1. Bypass the Copyright Legally

   Copyright laws do not allow unauthorized downloads of copyrighted material. However, material can be displayed for educational purposes. Many sites that offer guitar instruction and tips also display text-only versions of thousands of 'free' guitar tabs. Without a download link, the site is technically not distributing free guitar tabs. As with any website content, you can easily select the text of the tab and copy it, then paste it into a word processing document which you save on your computer. You can print out the tab to use for reference while learning the song. It isn't much different from typing out song lyrics so that you can learn them.

2. Search online

   The easiest way to find sites that offer free guitar tabs is to use one of the major search engines. Typing in search words such as "free guitar tabs" or simply, "guitar tabs" will yield thousands of results. Bookmark any good sites that you find, so you can return to them again. Many sites allow users to upload tabs, so they're constantly being updated with new content. If you're looking for a specific song, type the name of the song or artist into the search engine, along with the word "tab" to find sites that specifically contain that song.

3. Peer-to-Peer Search

   Peer-to-peer software is another way that Internet users can share material with each other. Using software such as Limewire or Ares lets you search the contents of other users' computers for the material that you want, including documents that contain free guitar tabs.

   The online sharing of free guitar tabs is a gray area where copyright laws are concerned, because many of them are written by users who have learned the song by ear. Learning songs by way of free guitar tabs is no different than photocopying sheet music for the purpose of learning.

4. While you're here be sure to take a look around for more tips and information on playing the guitar.