You've decided to learn to play the guitar and are very excited about this new endeavor. You've picked out a few tabs to begin practicing with, but you've realized that you don't have any idea how to read guitar tabs! Fortunately, it's not hard to read guitar tabs; they are made with the novice in mind and once you learn how, you'll have no trouble whatsoever using tabs. They are far easier to begin using than sheet music.
You will need to understand the layout of the tabs when you are learning how to read guitar tabs, but once you do, you will find them to be very simple to interpret and play from. These are the best form of musical notation for beginners, being designed with the guitar in mind and will have you playing the guitar before you even have time to learn to read sheet music.
When learning how to read guitar tabs, you will also notice that the tab has six lines, whereas a piece of sheet music only has five. Again, when reading guitar tabs, you will notice that it shows you the placement of your fingers. Therefore, because the guitar has six strings, the tab will have six lines, with each line designated as a guitar string. Therefore, it is most important that you learn the strings on a guitar before you begin reading guitar tabs.
The six strings on your guitar are as follows: E,B,G,D,A and E. The first is E (or high E), the last also E (low E). When learning to read guitar tabs, you will need to know how these strings are transposed onto the tab. These lines are from high to low (unless you are looking at your tab upside down!). The lines go from highest string to lowest from top to bottom, with high E being the top line.
The strings on your guitar correspond to the following notes: E, B, G, D, A and E. The first E is the high E string and the sixth string is the low E. When you are learning how to read guitar tabs, you need to know how the tabs translate to your guitar strings. The lines on these tabs are directly related, with the top line being your high E string and so on down.
You may suspect that there is a relation between those vertical lines in your guitar tabs and those metal lines on your guitar - the space in between these lines are called frets and they are where your fingers go while playing. The guitar tabs show you which frets to place your fingers on to create various notes and chords. The numbers on your tabs tell you which frets to put your fingers on while playing.
While you are learning how to read guitar tabs, you will also notice a number of symbols on the tab as well. There are many symbols such as X, B, R, H, P, PM, T, or /. Each of these symbols have a specific meaning on a guitar tab. While reading guitar tabs, an X will indicate that the string itself will not even be played during that chord or note. The B symbol will indicate that you will bend the note, while the P symbol will mean that you will pull off the note.
You'll see many other symbols while learning to read guitar tabs, such as X, B, R, H, P, PM, T and /. These symbol each have a different meaning. X means to not play that string, while B denotes that you should bend that note, P is a pull off. The meaning of those other symbols is as follows - H is for a hammer-on, R for release, T means to tap the note, PM indicates a palm mute and a / tells you to slide. As you are learning how to read guitar tabs, you will come to know all of these symbols and to incorporate them into your guitar playing.
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