Guitar Tabulator is the easier alternative to reading sheet music. Tab is mainly used by folk guitarist but can be used in any genre. The great thing about tab is the simplicity about it, the bad, is that it doesn't show exactly how to play the song, so you must listen to the song to get it just right.

To begin with you should know how to tune your guitar to standard tuning (EADGBe), some basic strum patterns and you should know about your fret board, tab usually has the tuning on the side, as shown below.

E- <

A- <

D- <

G- <

A- <

e- <

(The letters represent the tuning of this tab)

Now you need to know about the numbers involved.

E-

A-

D-1- <

G-

A-

e-

As you can see there is a (1) on the D string showing on this tab, this represents that you should place your finger (of your choice) on fret one of the D string. Now play that on it' own, good!

E-

A-1-

D-2-

G-2-

A-

e-

When you see this, (Am Chord) you should strum all strings together, (V=down strum ^ =up strum) try this v^v^v^ whilst holding the Am chord (A minor). Once you've got that down (which won't take long) you can move on to more adventurous tabs like "Hotel California by the Eagles" (Which is pretty hard to play so get practicing).

Buying tabs from shops is good because you know that it will be completely correct, however if you on a budget (like nearly everyone) then get yourself on the Internet (be warned! that most tabs found on the net are user created and could not be correct, so pick your tabs carefuly).

E-

A-1-

D-2-

G-2-

A-x-

e-x-

The (X) indicates that the string is not played at this moment (but check with user created tabs, because this may vary). So when seeing this, don't play it.

E-@-

A-@-

D-@-

G-@-

A-@-

e-@-

Sometimes you will see this @ (again this may vary with user created tabs that are on-line). This indicates that you are to play a dead note, dead notes are very simple to do, simply cover the first fret and apply no pressure what so ever and strum. You should get a "dud" sound that has no tone to it.

The "/" and "\" represent a slide, for example.

E-

A-

D-

G-

A-

e-1\3-

This means that you slide up, from fret one to fret three.

E-

A-

D-

G-

A-

e-3/1-

This means that you slide down from fret three to one.

You can find some great examples online with websites like, http://www.ultimate-guitar.com / and http://www.911tabs.com/ you can find and learn some of the greatest songs on earth! so enjoy!

May I also recommend http://www.guitar-pro.com/en/i ndex.php (Guitar Pro is a tab editing software, which has the ability to play the tab back to you so you can get it perfect)

Happy playing!

Learn more about this author, Judd Rouillon.
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