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Reading Guitar Tab
Reading guitar tab is a great skill to have in your arsenal, in this lesson I will explain what tab is, how to read it, and the two core components that it shows.
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Tony’s done a good job of introducing basic tab notation. Tabs can also include notations on which fingers to use on each fret, advanced fret had techniques such as hammer-ons pull-offs, slides etc. Some tabs display the chords formed by the finger positions shown. In addition, for finger picking they can be annotated show which finger on the picking hand should be used. The finger picking notations are commonly included with Bluegrass banjo tabs.
Tony probably covers things like this in later lessons, but I mentioned it here because I’ve annotated some of the practice tabs with the fretting finger notation to keep me from using my ring finger when I should be training my lazy pinky to get off the bench and pull its own weight. No callus on that little guy yet, so he’ll be hurting for a while.
Thanks for the explanation It made reading tabs so much easier
almost skipped this because i’m not new to guitar, but loved to learn how to tune with that simple trick if your low e is in tune
Finally understand Tab…..thanks Tony!
Tablature is a easy way to learn any song, it breaks down the musical notes,
in a practical way
Very crafty of Tony to incorporate reading tab and relative tuning…….
ahaaaaahaaaaa 2 for one special really. I love the humor. I laugh a lot with these lessons Tony. Makes it very enjoyable. Whoooo hooooo!
Relative tuning is a “secret way?” It’s really just all we had before the invention of electronic tuners! Get one string in tune and move up or down the strings from there and you were in tune. Of course, if you were always only tuning to yourself, when you went to play with others it made for interesting moments. Anyway, my point is if you don’t make sure people know relative tuning, then when the battery dies, what will they do? (All in good fun, of course)
I have a similar question. Tablature is oriented top down(or bottom up if you prefer). But I noticed that chord boxes in guitar sheet music are oriented from left to right. Has the Dungeon Master been ordered to torture us in this way? It doesn’t strike me as being logic.
Marijin,
This could be the dungeon master at play 🙂 Not sure why the chord diagrams are the way they are it just seems as though that is the generally accepted practice for notation 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Why is the order of the strings on the Tab in reverse order from the strings on the guitar?
Michael,
I’m not sure exactly why the tab is laid out that way, but I have a guess 🙂 The way you encounter the strings on the tablature sheet is exactly how you encounter them when holding the guitar (low E being the closest to you as a player). That’s my two cents anyway 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
I think it’s because it matches the sheet music. If you look at regular sheet music the high notes are on top and gets lower as you go down. So if you look at a tab and the look at the matching sheet music, they would be in sync.