How To Read Guitar Tablature Quickly And Easily

If proper music notation is what you want — check out: http://datadragon.com/education/reading/

…as they provide a great tutorial. But if all you want to do is learn your favourite song quickly and easily — tabs are the way to go!

Here’s how they work….(you’ll pick this up in 2 seconds!)

Tablature is a way of indicating the positioning of notes and fingering on the guitar fretboard.

There are 6 tab lines representing 6 strings on the guitar. (The 1st string is the thinnest, and the 6th string is the thickest) They are as follows:

E—————————– String 1
B—————————– String 2
G—————————– String 3
D—————————– String 4
A—————————– String 5
E—————————– String 6

When a number is placed on one of the lines, it indicates the fret location of note for example,

E—————————– String 1
B——4———————- String 2
G—————————– String 3
D—————————– String 4
A—————————– String 5
E—————————– String 6

This means to play the 4th Fret on the 2nd string

E—————————– String 1
B—————————– String 2
G—————————– String 3
D—————————– String 4
A——0———————- String 5
E—————————– String 6

This indicates an open 5th string

E—1————————- String 1
B———–8—————– String 2
G——-7——————— String 3
D—————2————- String 4
A—————————– String 5
E————————12— String 6

This indicates:

1st Fret, 1st string then
7th Fret, 3rd string, then
8th Fret, 2nd string, then
2nd Fret, 4th string, then
12th Fret, 6th string.

Further Points To Remember…

Other letters / symbols used in tabs.

h – hammer on
p – pull off
b – bend string up
r – release bend
/ – slide up
\ – slide down
v – vibrato (sometimes written as ~)
t – right hand tap
x – play ‘note’ with heavy damping

When you see all numbers in a line one after another

E—3————————- String 1
B—3————————- String 2
G—4————————- String 3
D—5————————- String 4
A—5————————- String 5
E—3————————- String 6

…it means you play the entire chord using all strings

When you see tabs that have “h”

E——————————–String 1
B——————————–String 2
G——————————–String 3
D——————————–String 4
A———7h9———–10h12—-String 5
E—0–0———-0–0———–String 6

….it means to do a “Hammer On” from the 7th fret to the 9th fret and again for the 10th fret to the 12th fret

When you see other tabs that have “p”

E——————————–String 1
B——————————–String 2
G——————————–String 3
D——————————–String 4
A———9p7———–12p10—-String 5
E—0–0———-0–0———–String 6

….it means to do a “Pull Off” from the 9th fret to the 7th fret and again for the 12th fret to the 10th fret

When you see other tabs that have “b”

E——————————–String 1
B——————————–String 2
G——————————–String 3
D——————————–String 4
A———7b9———–10b12—-String 5
E——————————–String 6

…it means strike the string 5 on the 7th fret, then bend the note up so that it sounds the same as the note played on the 9th fret.

Here’s a quick tablature legend to keep on file…

Tablature Legend

h – hammer-on
p – pull-off
b – bend
pb – pre-bend
r – bend release (release immediately if no number after r)
/\ – slide into or out of (from/to “nowhere”)
s – legato slide
S – shift slide
– natural harmonic
[n] – artificial harmonic
n(n) – tapped harmonic
~ – vibrato
tr – trill
T – tap
TP – trem. picking
PM – palm muting
\n/ – tremolo bar dip; n = amount to dip
\n – tremolo bar down
n/ – tremolo bar up
/n\ – tremolo bar inverted dip
= – hold bend; also acts as connecting device for hammers/pulls
<> – volume swell (louder/softer)
x – on rhythm slash represents muted slash
o – on rhythm slash represents single note slash