Guitar Tablature Overview

Tablature is a form of music notation that is specific to guitar. Tablature is often referred to as "tab" and can
also be used with other stringed instruments like the bass, mandolin, banjo, etc. Tab lines represents the strings
of the guitar. The numbers on each line/string tell the player which fret to play on that string. Tablature is quite
easy to read once you get used to it and can get you playing songs and riffs much faster than music written on
standard notation.

Basic Tablature Staff

Each tab staff consists of 6 lines. Each line represents one of the strings on your guitar. This is kind of like a
chord diagram but your guitar is laid out horizontally rather than vertically. The bottom or lowest line of the tab
staff is your 6th string or low E of the guitar. The highest line on the tab staff or line at the top is your 1st string
or high E of the guitar.

Numbers on the Tablature Staff

Now that you know that the horizontal lines of the tab staff are your guitar strings, the next thing you need to
know are what the numbers on those lines represent. These numbers simply refer to the fret on that string. If
there is a 0 on the string line, that simply means you play that string open and un-fretted. Tablature really is just
a grid of your fretboard laid out horizontally. Don't get the lines of the tablature staff confused with the lines of
a standard music staff. They represent two completely different things.
Tab Pros

Tablature is unique to stringed instruments like the guitar. As such, this form of music notation can quickly get
you playing music by simply finding the indicated note on the indicated string and picking it. This makes tab
quick and easy to learn.

Sometimes, there's more than one way to play a song on the guitar. Tablature can tell you exactly the right
place to play on the fretboard. With standard music notation you have to decide where the best place to play the
notes are.

Tab Cons

The biggest and most detrimental drawback to tablature is the lack of rhythms on the notation. Tab shows you
what and where to play something, but it doesn't tell you how long to play it for. Standard music notation does
tell you this information and that's one reason it is more difficult to learn than tablature. To correctly play
rhythms from tab you need to know how the song goes and utilize your ear to often play things right.

Playing chords written on tab can also be challenging. Many notes/numbers stacked on top of each other tell
you the chord to play but it can be difficult to pick that up in realtime. Granted this same problem also exists on
standard music notation as well. One way tab can overcome this is to annotate the chord name or diagram
above the tab staff. More on this in a later tab music notation lesson.

The Best of Both Worlds

You'll often see a standard music staff combined with a tab staff. This combines the best of both worlds by
giving you the ease of use of reading tab with the rhythmic values outlines on the standard staff. This sample is
the Peter Gunn theme by Henry Mancini. You can see that all of the notes are played on the low E string and
the music staff shows the rhythmic values are all straight 8th notes. You've most likely heard this little theme
before though so you could probably pick this up even if the standard staff info wasn't available. As a guitarist,
you should become familiar with both styles of music notation and be able to play one or the other.
Chord in Tab Notation

A chord may simply be written in tab notation. Chords written this way are displayed by the fret number and
string and each note is stacked on top of each other. This tells you exactly which notes to play but reading the
chord quickly can be challenging unless you are familiar with the chord shape written on the tab.

Chord by Name

A quicker way of reading chords is to simply write the name above the tab staff. This makes reading the chord
easy in realtime but you lack some clarity as to which chord you should play. In this example, should I play the
A open string chord or the A barre string chord on the 5th fret. You will need to use your ear to determine the
best match.

Chord by Name and Diagram

Sometimes tab will show the chord diagram next to the chord name. This takes the ambiguity out of which
chord form to play but you need to be familiar with chord diagrams if you want to continue to read the music in
realtime.
Chords with Strum Markings

All of the previous example told you what chord to play but it didn't really tell you how to play it. Chords
written in tab notation can indicate strumming but it's kind of hard to tell how many times to strum or pick the
chord when it's written over and over and over as tab notation. Strumming can also be notated by hash marks or
up and down arrows specifying the direction of your strum. This example shows 4 hash marks which tells you
to strum the chord 4 times for that measure. Hash marks can also be subdivided into smaller rhythmic marks
like eighth notes or sixteenth notes.
Articulation

Articulation is a way to express a note or set of notes in a non-standard way. One of the great things about the
guitar is the ability to play lots of different articulations. Below is a table to help match a particular articulation
technique with how it is represented in tablature.

Tablature Special Notation

When there is a lower numbered fret connected to a higher

Hammer On numbered fret on the same string by a curved line. That is a
hammer on.

When there is a higher numbered fret connected to a lower

Pull Off numbered fret on the same string by a curved line. That is a pull
off.

When there is a straight line that connects two frets on the

Slide same string. That is a slide and it can indicate a slide up or down
based off of the notes.
 A bend is indicated by a fretted note with a line that bends up
Bend away from the tab staff. This example shows a full bend (full)
and a half bend (1/2).

Tab defines a prebend when the bend line starts high and ends
Prebend
low at the final note. This example shows a full prebend.

You can combine several articulation symbols to create more

Combining
complex phrases. This example combines a full bend up then
Articulation
back down followed by a hammer off.

A string mute is simply an X marked on the string. As you pick

String Mute the string de-fret enough so no pitch sounds but rather a
percussive muted sound.
 Palm mutes are notes that have a staccato like dot over them
Palm Mute above the staff. Palm mutes are often annotated with a P.M. as
well.

Any note followed by a squiggly line means you should apply

Vibrato
vibrato.

A set of lines above the note just above the staff indicate the
Tremelo
note should be played as a tremelo
 A note with an open dot above it just above the staff indicates a
Natural
natural harmonic. Natural harmonics are often notated with a
Harmonic
N.H.
Measures

Even though we can't show rhythmic values on standard tab we can try and group phrases and riffs into
measures. Music measures, measure time and break an overall song into small timed chunks. You can think of
this like a cookie recipe that calls for 4 cups of flour. Each cup is a unit of measurement and it takes 4 cups to
make the overall cookie dough. In music we might need 4 measures to make up the whole song. This allows us
to separate the music into measures that are appropriate for the songs time signature. If we are playing in 4/4
time, we have 4 quarter notes per measure.

In standard music notation and tablature a measure is identified by two vertical bar lines on the staff. The
distance between the 2 bar lines is a measure.

Repeating Measures

Writing tab can be tedious and so if a phrase or riff repeats we can use a measure repeat symbol so we don't
have to write the part over and over. The measure repeat symbol looks like the division symbol in math and is
placed inside a measure on the staff. This symbol tells the player that they should repeat what they just played
in the previous measure.

To play the sample below, you would play the low E string open in the first measure. You would then play the
low E open again because the second measure is telling you to repeat what you played in the first measure.
Repeating Sections

Ever heard a song where they play the verse followed by the chorus and then do that again? There's no need to
rewrite the verse and chorus again. Simply use a standard music notation repeat. This symbol looks like a
double bar line with a couple of dots in front of it.

This tells you to do one of two things. Either repeat all the way back to the beginning of the song or repeat back
until you find a forward repeat symbol and continue on from there. The forward repeat symbol looks like the
backward repeat symbol except the dots are on the right side.

Repeats With a Twist

Sometimes a song repeats but the end of the repeated section differs or changes. You could simply just rewrite
the part again and add in the different end of the section or you could use an "ending". An ending is a special
repeat that tells you to repeat back but on the second time around you should jump to the second ending. En
ending is noted by a horizontal line above the staff. The ending is typically placed over a measure or two but it
could go for as long as needed to make the repeated section of the song work. You can end up with 1st, 2nd,
3rd, etc. endings depending on the song. Make sure that on the repeat you don't play the music under the 1st
ending but you jump directly to the 2nd ending.
The End

When you get to the end of the song, there is a symbol that specifies you're finished. This symbol looks like the
repeat symbol without the dots. When you reach this point of the song you can congratulate yourself on a job
well done.