Guitar tabs
is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches.
Tab writing is widely used in string instruments. And it could not be any different, after all its reading is quite simple and practical, as we will see below.
We will show the guitar tab here. The tabs for other string instruments follow the same principle. The form of writing by tab consists of 6 lines representing the 6 open strings of the guitar. The
order of the strings in the tab, from top to bottom, is as follows:
The thickest and lowest string (low E) is at the
bottom, while the thinnest and highest string (high E) is at the top. The other strings follow the same logic that the instrument presents.
On top of each string, a number is placed that represents the guitar fret that must be pressed. Please see below:
In this example above, you should press the third
fret of the A string with your left hand and play that string with your right hand. When other numbers appear in sequence, you must play one note after another. Observe:
In that case, you should play the 5th fret of the D
string, then the 7th fret of the D string, then the 5th fret of the G string, and so on. Note: the number zero represents the loose string (without pressing any frets), for example, the B string should be played loose:
When the numbers appear on top of each other, it means that they must be played at the same time (chords). See the example below:
In this case, you should press all of these frets on their respective strings and play them at the same time. Notice that this is how we represent chords. If a line appears empty at that moment, it should
not be played. For a practical guitar course for beginner players click here.
Check out the guitar solos article where you can find tabs for 47 different guitar solos.