How To Understand And Read Guitar Tabs

Learning how to read guitar tab is one of the first steps for any beginner player.

Hands down there’s no quicker way to learn a song then from guitar tabs. Since most of us learn guitar so that we can play our favorite songs it makes sense that beginners are often eager to pick up this skill.

I’m going to share with you how to use and read guitar tabs with 3 tips: First, how to read and understand guitar tab, next some examples and finally tips to break a song down so you can learn quickly.

Understanding Tab

Compared to reading music, which might feel like learning a second language to some, understanding guitar tabs is simple.

Here is how basic guitar tablature looks:

e——–

B——–

G——–

D——–

A——–

E——–

Each one of the lines on tab matches up with one of the 6 strings on your guitar. The first or top line is the same as the bottom or first high e string on your guitar and the bottom line is the same as your low E or 6th string on your guitar.

Reading Tab

Guitar Tabs are just numbers placed on each line like the example below. Here’s a very simple tab for the E chord.

e—0—-

B—0—-

G—1—-

D—2—-

A—2—-

E—0—-

The number correspond to the fret you press down on that particular string. For this tab you would be playing: 2nd fret A string, 2nd Fret D string and first fret of the G string. The other 3 strings (E, B and e) are strummed open which is what the 0 means on the tab.

From looking at this tab you can tell it’s a chord because the numbers are perfectly stacked on each other in a vertical line. If you say something like this:

e———–

B———7-

G———–

D———–

A—–5—–

E-3———

You would be picking individual strings. In this case it would be the 3rd fret of the low E, followed by the 5th fret of the A string and finally the 7th fret on the B string.

There are other symbols you may run into when reading guitar tabs these are the basics.

Tips for Learning Songs from Guitar Tab

This might seem straight forward but I have met many beginner guitar players who don’t think of this basic technique.

When you’re beginning to learn a song you should break that song down into sections.

If a given guitar tab has the chorus, verse and bridge of a particular song tabbed out then start with the verse first. Learning a song in parts, first slowly, then adding speed next and finally piecing all the parts together makes it far more manageable then trying to just play through the entire song first time.

If you’re a complete beginner and as of yet haven’t learned your basic guitar chords I’d suggest getting a good guitar lesson dvd or learn guitar dvd to help you along the way. Some of these programs can rival private lessons for quality as long as you find a good teacher who has taken the time to create a great product. Ensuring you buy a good dvd will ensure there are no gaps in your learning later on.