How to Read Guitar Tablature -

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

guitar not needed, but helpful
time to study the article

Step 1

HOW TO READ GUITAR TABLATURE - names of your strings

The first and most important thing to learn about reading guitar tablature is that at first it will appear to be upside down. What do I mean by that? If you look at the image in this step, you will notice six lines. Each of those lines represents a string on your guitar. The letters next to each line is the is the open note of that string. Notice that the low E thick string in on the bottom of the tablature. And the high E thin string is at the top of the tablature. Now if you have a guitar in front of you, the Low E thick string is on top, and the high E thin string is on the bottom. This is why I say at first, guitar tablature may appear to be upside down. It just takes a little getting use to.
Step 2

So why do they place the order of the strings in tablature form upside down? The answer is, they don't. It just appears that way. Place your guitar in your lap on it's back, so the strings face upwards. Now the Low E thick string appears on the bottom, and the high E thin string appears on the top, just like in guitar tablature. Like I said, it just takes a little getting use to, but with a little practice, nearly everyone learns how to read tablature.
Step 3

HOW TO READ GUITAR TABLATURE - how to remember names of your strings

And since we are learning how to read tablature, here is another neat trick to learn the names of your open strings. Take the letter of each open string and give it a name to form a sentence. For me, I chose Every Bad Girl Deserves An Erring. That is just an example, but many players use this method when starting out to remember the names of their open strings.
Step 4

Okay, now let's look at what a simple two note power chord would look like in tablature form. The image shows the A power chord with the root note first on the Low E string, and then on the open A string.
To play the first chord, we would place a finger at the 5th fret of the Low E string, and another finger at the 7th fret of the A string, then strum just those two strings together. That is an A power chord with it's root on the Low e string. Now place a finger on the 2nd fret of the D string, and notice that the A string has a zero, that means you place no finger on that string, it is played open. No strum only the A and D string together, that is an A power chord with it's root on the A string. Any time you have lines above or below notes, those strings are not played.
Step 5

HOW TO READ GUITAR TABLATURE - the cheater's G chord

Now look closely at the photo above. This is what some players refer to as the cheater G chord. And I am including it for a reason, to be able to read tablature, you have to know how to know what to do with unused strings. What I am going to ask you to do here is to not play that A string. Try to silence it as you play. So when you see something like this in tablature, you have to mute that string. The best way to do this is by leaning your pointer finger lightly against the A string, thus preventing it from ringing as you strum all six strings.
Step 6

Now you should take your guitar and looking at the photo try to play some of these tablature symbols, so lets look at the symbols and what they mean. I will not go into detail on each technique involved, I will assume you know something about guitar. But if you don't know the meanings of the symbols or how to apply the technique, maybe I can do another article on guitar techniques. So let us move on and look at just some of the many symbols used in guitar tablature.
Step 7

Study these and become familiar with them. As you practice these guitar techniques, you should also keep in mind that sometimes you will find more then one meaning for the same symbol, it all depends on who wrote the tablature and what their understanding of tablature was at the time they wrote it.

B or curved upward arrow = bend
H or HO = hammer on
P or PO = pull off
/ = slide (usually from one fret to another)
sl = rapid slide or slur
^^^^^^^^ = vibrato
/// = tremolo picking
X = muted string or strings
X^^^^^ = pick scrape
PM = palm mute
PM................. = extended palm mute
T = thumb
T = also can mean tapping
0 = open unfretted string

This has been an introduction on how to read guitar tablature. I hope you find it useful. You will also come across many other symbols the more you play guitar, and I would encourage you to learn all of their meanings and how to apply each technique, as it will make you a better player in the end.

Comments

honeypale said

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on 10/22/2009 Great article!

jseven said

on 10/9/2009 Thanks for this info, I need to get back to my lessons~~lol.

on 10/9/2009 Excellent article with easy to figure out details. I have been perusing "beginner's" guitar instructions and have found that most assume you know something already. This is a great start for a true beginner, thirdstone. Please write more! *****