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Guitar Tablature is a very convenient and popular way of notating music. Knowing how to read it is essential.
The six lines on a tab represent the six strings on the guitar. On the bottom we have the low E string (the thickest string) and on the top we have the high E (the thinnest string).
In case you didn't know the names of the strings already, take the time to learn them now!
You can easily remember them with this mnemonic:
Ernie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Ernie.
Ernie never was all that bright.
A tab is read from left to right, just like a book.
When you come across a number, that tells you it's time to play a note. In the case of the image below, first up we have a 3 over the line representing the low E string.
That's telling us to press down the 3rd fret on the low E string, and then pluck the string.
Hear that? Great, now move on to the 5th fret on the A string, and then work your way through the remaining two notes.
(If you see a zero, that means you can play the string without pressing down any frets. Makes sense, right?)
Below, we have the same notes as before. Only this time, they're all stacked up on top of each other. Since they're all occupying the same space, that means they're all going to be played at the same time.
That's what a chord is, multiple notes played at once.
If you have trouble working out how to play this, don't worry. Chord shapes will be covered later on.
This was a very brief overview of tablature to get you playing as quickly as possible. If you're looking for a more in-depth explanation of some of the notation you will find in tabs:
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