Using guitar tabs is the easiest and most convenient way to learn how to play one's favorite songs on guitar. Guitar tabulature is not as precise as standard music notation, but it is the most common way that guitar music is written.
Finding Guitar Tabs Online
Because of the simplicity and popularity of guitar tablature, it is very easy to find guitar tabs to many songs by searching the Internet. However, guitarists should also keep in mind that the guitar tablature found on the Internet is typically written by amateurs.
Luckily, these days many guitar tab websites (such as Ultimate Guitar) allow users to rank the accuracy of the guitar tabs that have been submitted. With that in mind, guitarists should only use guitar tabs which have been ranked as being very accurate.
Understanding Guitar Tablature
Guitar tabs have six lines that represent the six strings of a guitar. These are E, A, D, G, B, and e. The 'E' written in capital letters is the lowest-pitched, thickest string on the guitar. 'e' is the highest-pitched, skinniest string on the guitar. Guitar tab can also be written with the numbers 1-6 to represent the six strings of the guitar.
Guitar tab might be best thought of as taking a mirror image of a guitar and then flipping it upside down. Put another way, imagine that someone is playing a guitar while hanging upside down from the ceiling. Guitar tab is like taking a photograph of what a guitarist is playing in that particular position and transcribing it as lines and numbers.
Introducing Guitar Tabs
Below is a 'naked' guitar tab:
e---------------------------------------------------
B---------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------------
A---------------------------------------------------
E---------------------------------------------------
The most basic information that can be put onto this naked tab is numbers. These numbers represent frets. So, if the number '3' is used, the player is supposed to press their finger onto the 3rd fret. If the player is required to put their finger onto the 3rd fret of the 'e' string, the tab will look like this:
e-3-------------------------------------------------
B---------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------------
A---------------------------------------------------
E---------------------------------------------------
However, guitarists should remember that playing guitar is done with two hands. While the left hand is pressing down a string, the right hand has to either pick or strum the string(s). In the above example, the guitarist should pick only the 'e' string, since this is the only number shown. If the song requires the player to strum the guitar, the tab will be written similar to this:
e-3-------------------------------------------------
B-0-------------------------------------------------
G-0-------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------------
A---------------------------------------------------
E---------------------------------------------------
The above is a simple version of the G chord. The '0's represent 'open strings'. An open string is a string that is played without putting fingers down on any frets. Because the numbers in the tab above are in a vertical line, this means that they are strummed at the same time. If notes are to be played one after another, they might look like this:
e-4-2-0-2-4-4-4--------------------------------
B---------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------------
A---------------------------------------------------
E---------------------------------------------------
Playing the above tab should produce the beginning of the melody of "Mary Had a Little Lamb".
The information in this article provides beginner guitarists with a understanding of the nature of guitar tablature. Guitar tabs are easy to use, but there are also quite a number of unique symbols used in guitar tab to represent instructions beyond finger positions. An introduction to these symbols can be found in a related article on Guitar Tab Symbols.
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