Learn How To Read Guitar Tabs And Open A World Of Songs
May 3rd, 2010
One of the most basic things you have to learn to play guitar is to know the neck of your guitar very well. Of course, knowing how to finger the notes on the guitar neck is only part of the magic. You also need to know how to read guitar tabs. Guitar tabs give the aspiring player an abbreviated notation for reading chord instructions. It indicates which strings to hold down and which ones to leave open. These tabs also show you which fret you should be using.
Of course, to play guitar from tabs you need to know which string is which on the page and on the guitar. The first string, or string number “1″, which is also the skinniest, is the E string. The second string, number two is B. Following that is the G string, or number three. The fourth string is known as D, or number 4. The very next string is the A string, or number 5. Finally, the thickest string is the E string, or number 6.
Th boxes on the neck of a guitar are called frets. They are numbered from far end of the guitar neck to those nearest the body. Though some guitars have more frets than others they are numbered from one to about ninteen from the outside in. In order to learn how to read guitar tabs, you must understand which string needs to be held down on which fret. For instance, say a notation indicates 1-2; in this case, you would depress string one on fret two.
Multiple strings must be pressed simultaneously in order to play chords on the guitar. If you know how to use guitar tabs, it is easy to learn how to play chords. If you are going to play the C chord, for example, the tab notation would indicate 2-1 4-2 5-3. 1-3 2-2 6-3 give us a G chord. Learning to play with guitar tabs becomes easier if you look at charts that display the different chords. If you see a 0 by a string, it indicate that the string should not be pressed down when played (you need to play it “open”).
There are a few other notations that will be necessary to know if you are to learn to read guitar tabs well. An “h” in the notation tells the player to hammer that note buy slapping down a finger on a new note after the first has sounded. A pull is pretty self explanatory asking the guitarist to take a finger off of a given string, the notation is a bit odd to a novice however, as it is the letter “g.” A “b” indicates that the string must be bent so that the note wavers as it’s played. To instruct the player to release a note and go on to the next and “r” is used in tab notation. If a ‘/’ is in the notation, you need to slide to the next note by moving your finger to the next not indicated on the tab.
If you learn how to read guitar tabs, you will be able to quickly and easily learn to play new songs. After you have learned how to read them, check out the numerous websites that offer guitar tabs for any tune you want to play.
Categories: Guitar
