What are guitar tablatures

A guitar tablature is a simplified form of music notation for playing guitar music. It physically resembles the arrangement of the guitar neck, unlike standard sheet music notation, that consist of note staffs. Since tablatures are more intuitive (represent the physical arrangement of the strings) than standard staff notation, they can be easier for novices to read. This tutorial will teach you how to read and play guitar tabs.

Tablatures consist of six horizontal lines (for a standard, six string, guitar), each representing one of the guitar strings. The bottom line on the tablature represents the top, low-pitched E, string on the guitar; the top line, represents the high E string.

Time progresses on tablatures from left to right. Notes on the left are played first followed by the notes to their right. Unlike standard notation, tablatures don’t always show rhythmic information, or how long to play each note. That’s why you have to hear a song before learning to play it by this most common form of tablatures.

How to read guitar tabs

The numbers written on the tablature represent the fret number to be pressed while picking the string. A digit ‘0’ represents an open string (no fret should be pressed while picking) and an ‘x’, a muted string. When numbers are stacked together vertically they are played simultaneously.

Now practice playing the C Major scale on the guitar by using the following tab:

C Major scale on a guitar tablature

The same C Major scale can be represented with a standard music notation staff:

Major C scale standard notation

And this is how it is played on the guitar:

Tabs can also instruct you to play several notes at the same time. The following example shows a Major C chord:

Major C chord in tab form

Additional guitar tab symbols and their meaning are presented here: