Reading Tablatures

 

Tablatures is a way of expressing music on paper. A page of tablatures tells you what

notes to play to make the song happen. Standard music notation is another way of

communicating songs on paper. Classical musicians usually have to know this kind of

notation. We will just discuss the basics and describe tablature in this section.

 

 

        (Play one by one)      (Play at the same time)

                                       

str.1---0---------------------+------0------------------------

str.2----------1--------------+------1-----------------------

str.3-------------------0-----+------0-----------------------

str.4-------------------------+--------------------------------

str.5-------------------------+--------------------------------

str.6-------------------------+--------------------------------

 

[Tablature One]

 

Look at Tablature One. Each of the long lines going from left to right represents a

guitar string. The top line is the high E string (the thinnest string), the next line down is

the B string, and so on. The numbers represent frets that you play, not the fingers you

use.

 

The first group of notes is played one at a time. The second group of notes shows the notes

stacked on top of each other, which means you play them at the same time. This group of notes

played together is called a chord. The first group of notes is called an arpeggio. Think of

Arpeggios as a busted up chord.

 

The numbers tell you which frets to press. A "0" means you play the string open, or unfretted.

 

Some tablature, or "tab" for short, also tell you which finger to use. Keep an eye out for finger

indicators in some of the tablatures. Knowing which finger to use is important to prevent confusion.

 

You will notice that the diagram is upside down in relation to the guitar neck. The top string in the

diagram is actually the bottom string on your guitar. Once you understand this, tab is a piece of cake.

Now you know how to play a single note or a chord using tab. You may also see symbols next to the

notes or chords. These symbols indicate how to play them. Here are the letters/symbols most often used :

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


For example, here is a blues riff using pull offs:

E||--3p-0--------------|------------3p-0----|-----------------------||
B||------------3p-0----|----------------------|--3p-0---------------||
G||----------------------|--2p-0--------------|------------2p-0-----||
D||----------------------|----------------------|-----------------------||
A||----------------------|----------------------|-----------------------||
E||----------------------|----------------------|-----------------------||

You can see the the 3rd fret on the bottom E string is fretted, and then a pull-off to the open E String, etc.