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Beginner Guitar Tabs Made Easy

The guitar is a very versatile instrument. It can also be challenging at times to learn new songs on the guitar, because there are as many as six different places on the neck where the same note can be sounded. This makes traditional sheet music less useful for the guitar than for some other instruments. That’s why it’s important to learn guitar tab right away.

From easy beginner guitar tabs to the sophisticated tabs found in modern guitar magazines, tablature makes learning the guitar easier and faster than ever before.

What is guitar tab? It’s a graphic representation of the guitar neck that shows where each note is to be played, rather than showing the actual notes as in standard musical notation. It can range from very simple beginner guitar tab with only the basic parts of the song to very complex transcriptions, but the basic concepts are the same throughout. No matter your level of musical knowledge, once you learn guitar tab you will progress on the instrument much more quickly.

One issue to be aware of is the difference between most of the tab you’ll find online versus the tab you’ll see in magazines, tablature books, and other printed materials. Online tab is typically created with dashes to represent the strings and various letters and other symbols to indicate different techniques. Rhythms are typically not as precisely indicated in online tab, and in general printed tab is more exact and accurate than online tab. Still, online tab is an invaluable resource that makes it easy to learn guitar with help of our beginner guitar lessons.

Let’s take a look at the basics.

The Staff and Tuning

Traditional musical notation uses either four or five lines. Guitar tab uses six, to represent the six strings. Online, it often looks like this:

fig 1

E ———————

B ———————

G ———————

D ———————

A ———————

E ———————

The letters to the left show the tuning of each string. You’ll notice that this shows standard tuning, and that the high E is at the top and the low E is at the bottom. Some tab might leave out the tuning. If it does, you can assume the song is in standard tuning. You might also see tab with a different tuning indicated:

fig 2

D ——————–

B ——————–

G ——————–

D ——————–

G ——————–

D ——————–

This example shows an open-G tuning; to follow the tab properly you’ll need to tune your guitar as indicated.

Reading Notes and Chords

As mentioned earlier, notes and chords are indicated in tab by placing numbers, to indicate the fret to be played, on the appropriate line (string). Open notes are indicated with a ‘0′. So, an E major chord would look like this:

fig 3

E —-0—-

B —-0—-

G —-1—-

D —-2—-

A —-2—-

E —-0—-

This tab shows that you should fret the A and D strings at the second fret and the G string at the first fret, and the rest of the strings should be open. Stacking the numbers on top of each other indicates that the notes should be played at the same time, although in this case it doesn’t indicate how long the chord should be held. You’ll also sometimes see chord names listed below the tab:

fig 4

E —-0—-

B —-0—-

G —-1—-

D —-2—-

A —-2—-

E —-0—-

E Maj

Especially online, this practice varies widely, but you will usually see it in more professional tablature. As you learn guitar tabs and become more proficient, you’ll be able to recognize many chords even without the labels.

In all tab, from beginner guitar tabs to the most insanely complex tabs, single notes are indicated like this:

fig 5

E —————-

B —————-

G —————-

D —————-

A ——–0—2–

E 0—3———-

This tab shows the first four notes of the E pentatonic scale. To play this tab, pick the open low E string, then fret at the third fret and pick again. Move to the A string and pick the open string, then fret at the second fret and pick. Notice that you can’t tell exactly how long to play each note, or the exact rhythm of the notes. Printed tab, even easy beginner guitar tabs, is much more precise. The same phrase in a magazine would look like this:

fig 6

———————–

———————–

-T——————–

-A————|-|——

-B—–|-|—0-2——

——-0-3————-

Notice the line above each note: these are quarter notes, which means there are four of them per measure. Here are the most common notes you’ll see in tablature:

(image of E major scale, starting with whole note, two halfs, four quarters, eight eighths, and sixteenths)

Let’s look at these notes. The first note is called a whole note. It’s worth four beats, which means you hold the note for four full beats. The next two notes are half notes because they are worth half a measure (in 4/4), or two full beats. The quarter notes are next, and they are worth (you guessed it) a quarter of a measure, or one beat.

Eighth notes are next, worth half a beat each for eight in a measure. You count these as ‘1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.’ The numbers are the down beats and the ‘and’s are the up beats. The phrase finishes up with sixteenth notes, which are a quarter of a beat each. To count these, divide each beat up into four smaller pieces: ‘1 ee and a.’ The ‘ee’ and ‘a’ come between the ‘and’, which was the second half of the beat in the eighth notes. So, sixteenth notes are twice as fast as eighth notes.

This can be confusing at first, but as you continue to learn guitar tabs you’ll become more comfortable with this system. It’s also very important to use your ear: read the tablature to a song you like as you listen to the song, paying particular attention to the note rhythms and how those are notated. And as you learn guitar tab songs, make sure to listen to the song often; as you progress, also try playing along with the song — it’s a valuable learning experience and a lot of fun, as well.

Also, be aware that a lot of the tab you’ll find online might not have very precise rhythmic notation. For example, if you see this:

fig 7

E -15-12-14-12————————————————–

B —————–15-13-12-13———————————-

G ———————————-14-12-14-12—————–

D ————————————————–15-14-13-12-

A ——————————————————————-

E ——————————————————————-

it might be very difficult to determine the exact timing of the notes. You might guess that they’re supposed to be sixteenth notes, but you can’t tell for sure. The solution? Listen to the song in question over and over until you can at least approximate the rhythm and determine roughly what values each note carries. Again, this is an area where published tab has a large advantage over online tab, although even the roughest of online tab will help make it easy to learn guitar parts if you work at it a bit.

Expressive Guitar Playing and Tab

One of the guitar’s greatest strengths is the expressiveness you can achieve with the instrument. Techniques such as string bending, hammer-ons, and pull-offs extend the emotional power of the instrument and give you a powerful arsenal of tools. And, luckily, guitar tab has conventions for showing when these tools are used. You might not run into them very often in beginner guitar tabs, but you’ll definitely encounter them sooner or later, and they’re excellent techniques to practice from the beginning.

String bending involves fretting a given note and then bending the string, causing the pitch to rise to a higher note. For example, you might fret a D note on the G string at the seventh fret:

fig 8

E —————

B —————

G ——7——-

D —————

A —————

E —————

You would then bend the note up to E, two steps above the D. This is indicated in tab with a ‘b’ symbol:

fig 9

E —————–

B —————–

G —–7b9——-

D —————–

A —————–

E —————–

Note that this doesn’t mean you should fret the note at the ninth fret; your finger stays on the seventh fret. It’s only the pitch that rises.

Hammer-ons and pull-offs allow you to play legato (smooth, flowing) passages where you don’t pick every note. To execute a hammer-on, fret a note and pick it. Then, without picking again, sharply fret a higher note on the same string with another finger, ‘hammering’ the string with that finger. This can take time to learn to execute properly, but it’s an absolutely essential skill for every guitarist regardless of musical style. Practice until the second note is the same volume as the first. The tab looks like this:

fig 10

E —————–

B —————–

G —–7h9——-

D —————–

A —————–

E —————–

Once again we’re moving from D to E, but this time with a hammer-on. You should have your index finger on the seventh fret and use the third finger for the ninth fret. Alternate between the bend and the hammer-on and pay attention to how different they sound. You can then also pull off your third finger, pulling down toward the floor a little bit to make sure the D note sounds:

fig 11

E —————–

B —————–

G ——9p7——

D —————–

A —————–

E —————–

Again, strive to make the second note sound as loud as the first note. Also be careful not to hit the surrounding strings as you pull your finger away.

A final technique you’ll often come across, even in beginner guitar tab, is tapping. Tapping refers to the practice of fretting a note with a finger (usually either the pointer or index finger) of the picking hand. Fret a note with your left hand, pick it, and then hammer down on the same string at a higher fret with your pick hand. This is an advanced technique that can take a lot of time to learn, but you should at least know what the tab looks like:

fig 12

E ——————

B —5–t9———

G ——————

D ——————

A ——————

E ——————

In online tab the tapped note is indicated with a ‘t’, while tab in magazines usually circles the tapped note. You’ll often see long lines that combine bends, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and tapping:

fig 13

E ———————————————————————————————

B ———————————————————————————————

G –2-h4-b5-4-2-4-5-4-5-h7-p-5-h7-t9-7-t10-7-t12-7-t14-12-10-12-17-14—

D ———————————————————————————————

A ———————————————————————————————

E ———————————————————————————————

As mentioned before, this type of passage can be difficult to decode in online tab, particularly in terms of the rhythm. If it were an actual song, you would need to rely on your ears to determine the proper phrasing. As you learn guitar tab and practice, practice, practice, you’ll get better at reading this type of passage and at playing it properly.

In addition to our lessons, there are a number of resources available to help you learn guitar tab including a number of excellent guitar magazines. Be sure to check them out as well, especially since they usually feature tabs of popular songs. There are also thousands of books with tabs of popular bands and artists.

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