Reading Guitar Tabs

Reading guitar tabs may seem hard for the beginner, but this is not the case at all. In fact, learning to read guitar tabs is quite easy. It is a worth while to invest the small effort that is needed: Once you overcome the first difficulty, a whole new horizon of playing songs with your guitar is opened.

Guitar tabs are composed of 6 lines, representing the guitar strings, and numbers on these lines, representing the frets on the strings. The string lines are ordered from the highest pitch string on the guitar – the “E”, which is actually found on the lower part of the guitar. The second line represents the second lowest string, which is the second highest pitched – the “B”. Line #3 is the “G, #4 is the “D”, line # 5 is the “A”, and line no. 6 represents the lowest pitched “E”, which is the string found on the top of the guitar.

You will sometimes find the numbers 1-6 written to the left of the lines to make it easier to navigate. Other times you will find the letters representing the guitar string notes – the “E” “B” “G” “D” “A” “E”.

The numbers found on each line represent what fret you should be pressing. “0” means the string should be free – you should be playing the string without touching any fret at all. “1” means you should be pressing with your finger the first fret, counting the frets from the headstock of the guitar. The headstock of the guitar is the part of the guitar that has the pieces used in tuning it. So, if the number “4” appears on the 3rd string, the “G”, it means you should be playing the guitar while you are pressing the 4th fret on the 3rd string.

When playing chords on the guitar, you press several strings at the same time. Here is an example of the guitar tab representing the Emajor chord:

E--------0-------
B--------0-------
G--------1-------
D--------2-------
A--------2-------
E--------0--------

When playing the Emajor guitar tab, you would be playing with the two lowest (two highest pitched) strings free, pressing the first fret on the third string, the second fret in the fourth and fifth string, and the sixth string – the one closer to your neck – is also free.

When playing notes, not chords, each note is played separately, so the tabs would look something like this:

E---1------5----------------------
B-----6-4----6------------------
G----------------9--------1-----
D-------------------1-----------
A----------------------8--------
E-----------------------------4-

Meaning: You should first play the lowest E string pressing your finger on the first fret. Than play the second string, while pressing the 6th fret. Than play again the second string pressing the 4th fret. And so on.

That's it! As you can see, reading guitar tabs is really not that difficult.