How to read guitar tab and why it’s useful (and why it’s not!)

Guitar tab (formally known as guitar tablature) is a common and extremely popular way for guitar music to be written.

It’s different to traditional music notation (manuscript).

Guitar tab tends to have much less information in it compared with traditional manuscript. The most common thing missing from tab is the rhythm.

Despite this, it can be a great ‘note form’ for guitar music and learning how to read guitar tab is pretty much an necessity for any guitar player.

The main assumption that most guitar tabs make is that you can listen to the song. If you were using manuscript, you would be able to play a song that you had never heard.

In this article we are going to cover the basics of guitar tab and some of the common symbols that are used.

Although guitar tab can be written for any guitar tuning, we are going to be referring to standard tuning as this is the most common tuning for the guitar. Once you understand how tab works in standard tuning, you shouldn’t have a problem with using it with alternative tuning such as drop tunings as well.

Guitar tab basics:

• The Lines

The notation:

• Open Strings
• The Frets
• Chords
• Common Guitar Tab Symbols

We’ll also take a look at when tab can be useful and also when it’s not:

• Why Guitar Tab is Useful
• What Guitar Tab Lacks
• Drawback: Tab can make you lazy!

So let’s get going…

How To Read Guitar Tab: The Lines

One of the most asked questions when it comes to tab is:

“Which E string is the bottom line?”

Guitar tab is written with the thickest string being represented by the bottom line and the thinnest string at the top. At this point a lot of people wonder why it’s upside and I mean, it kind of is.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense if it was written the other way around?”

Guitar tab is written so that the lowest sounding notes are at the bottom and the highest sounding notes are at the top. You also read it from left to right.

This is the same way that musical manuscript works.

It can take a bit of getting used to but please please please resist rewriting it all out ‘the right way around’. Just don’t waste your time on this, it’s not worth the hassle! Put the pen down…. OK great.

Notation: Open Strings

Each line represents a string. Often the ‘high e string’ is written in lower case while the ‘low E string’ is written as a CAPITAL E (this isn’t always true).

The numbers on the lines are the fret numbers that need to be played on that string.

Open strings are written as zero’s, like the example below:

So you would play the open low E, followed by the open A, then the open D, etc.

These are all individual notes.

Notation: The Frets

Fretted notes are written on the lines the same way as open strings. Rather than 0’s the numbers on the lines are the frets on that string.

An A Pentatonic Minor Scale Written in Guitar Tab

The A Pentatonic Minor scale would be written like this:

It starts on the 5th fret on the low E, followed by the 8th fret on the same string.

After that the numbers go up a line (string) so at this point you would change to the A string and play the 5th and 7th fret on that string.

Notation: Chords

Can you write chords in guitar tab?

Yes, you can write both single notes and chords all on the same tab, which is really useful as many songs use both.

The difference between single notes and chords, is that for chords the numbers are stacked:

For the first chord, you would hold down the second fret on the A string and strum both this and the low open E string together, giving you an E5 chord.

The second chord in the example is an Em chord. You would fret the A and D strings at the second fret and then play all of the other strings open in one strum. If you need to play the same chord multiple times, then there would be a stack for each strum.

Common Guitar Tab Symbols

These are some of the most common symbols that you will see in tab to show techniques.

Why Guitar Tab Is Useful

• • Guitar tab makes it easier to start playing something than learning to read traditional music
  • You can write single notes and chords together (like traditional music)
  • It is music written written in ‘short hand’ for a string instrument
  • Easier to write on a computer. This is why guitar tabs are so common online.

What Guitar Tab Lacks

• • The rhythm isn’t given on most tabs and not always clear if it is. It assumes you can hear the music.
  • Generally there is no time signature or key signature.
  • Many of the notations in tab are different to traditional music.
  • It doesn’t teach you the notes as you don’t need to know them to follow it. Although this is useful in the beginning, it can be very limiting.

Tab is a great way to learn a song on a guitar quickly, especially in the beginning as the learning curve isn’t as steep as traditional music notation.

However, it does have it’s downfalls.

The main one being that it doesn’t show you the rhythm and it assumes that you will be able to listen to the music. Even if you can listen to the song, this can be annoying when you can’t work the rhythm out! How many strums are there? How long does each strum last for? It’s hard to hear it with all the other instruments playing!

Drawback: Learning to read guitar tab can make you lazy!

Wait – before you say “but, Adam – aren’t you just saying it makes people lazy because you think manuscript is useful? I don’t care about reading music I just wanna play!”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for shortcuts when they are useful. And yes, I use tab far more than manuscript.

The reason why tab is so good is it breaks down the music to the minimum information you need. But as you don’t need to know what the notes are on the fretboard to use tab, it’s easy to get stuck ‘playing by numbers’.

Knowing the notes of the fretboard will actually make many aspects of playing the guitar a lot easier than just relying on tab.

Just a few examples of why it is useful to know the notes on the guitar are:

• Your barre chords will be easier to find.
• Remembering chord progressions can become much easier, helping you to memorise songs.
• Some patterns are easier to understand when you look at the notes being played rather than just the fret numbers.
• The names of the chords are easily understood – and you’ll be able to see why you can have multiple chords with the same name (hint: they use the same notes to build them).

Should I use guitar tab over learning how to read traditional music?

Yes.. No.. Maybe..

Traditional manuscript gives the player far more information on the page. The notes. The rhythms. The way in which to play it.

Guitar tab on the other hand is much more like ‘playing by numbers’.

But for a song that you can listen to on repeat, do you really need all of the information given to you by traditional manuscript?

In many cases this cut down version of writing music can give you just the bits you need in a form thats quick to read. While manuscript can be useful it isn’t always necessary, especially when the music is chord based rather than single notes. Chords written in manuscript can be very confusing and can sometimes over complicate matters.

Furthermore, guitar tabs are easily accessible and no matter what, you will end up reading it at some point as guitar player.

You are likely to use guitar tab more often than manuscript. This makes it more or less an essential to understand as a guitarist.

Once you are able to put some songs together,  it can be useful to learn how to read manuscript to help you tidy your playing up. Take the parts you find useful from both and use them.

Now that you know how to read guitar tab, another thing that may interest you is how to practice with limited time. Learning to practice efficiently will help to jump start your guitar playing from the very beginning.