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Reading Tab. For the final installment of my Intro to Beginner Guitar series we’ll cover what is probably the most important tool you can have as a budding guitarist: TAB.

TAB is the shorthand for the term Tablature which is a common form of guitar notation. It’s popular for being simple to read and Internet friendly.

Like chord diagrams, tab is a more of a visual depiction of the where the notes are on an instrument than an actual form of musical notation. In reality, it holds almost no musical information beyond what something would look like on a guitar, and thus should not be seen as the end all of guitar learning, but rather a helpful shortcut to get you started in the right direction.

A TAB staff has six horizontal lines representing the six strings of the guitar. The lowest line represents the low E string while the second to lowest line represents the second to lowest string A, etc…

In the below diagrams you’ll see some examples of TAB in use with various TAB symbols, here’s what they mean:

• Numbers: Numbers represent the fret on which to put your finger.
  • So in the example below, (the first note) the number “0″ on the second to highest line represents an “open” B string. Immediately following this note is the number 2 on the same line; this number represents a note played by placing your finger on the second fret of the “B” string.

• The letter “H” in the above example represents a hammer from the first note to the second note. A hammer effect is created when one note is plucked on a given string, and then another note is played on the same string without being plucked, and then by striking (or hammering) the string with a different finger to create a slurred effect.

• The letter “P” in the above example is a shorthand for the Pull-Off technique. A pull of is just the reverse of a hammer.  Whereas a hammer is when a note is played by hammering on a note from a lower pitch to a higher pitch, a pull off is when a note is plucked, and then quickly released (or pulled off) to allow a note fretted below it to ring out.

 

• “S” in the above example stands for Slide. A technique produced by playing a note and then “sliding” (or moving while holding down on the string) to a different note on the same string to create a glissando effect.

 

• “B” and a line curving up represent the technique of Bending. A Bend on guitar is created by playing a note and then physically “bending” or pushing the string off its natural axis to raise the pitch. Often a second note will be put in parenthesis to indicate the pitch that the bend is being “bent” to (or to phrase it differently, the resulting pitch of the bend).

 

• Another equally common technique is that of the vibrato which is represented by a single squiggly line above a note. There are many different ways to produce a vibrato, but the simplest description is a rapid movement of the hand while sustaining a note with the end result being a wavy alteration of pitch.

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And that just about does it for this Beginner Guitar series. Expect to see a lot more content in the future dealing with the detail of the various techniques touched on in this series. Hopefully now, at very least, you can say you have a good idea of what a guitar is, how it functions, know some of the basics of reading guitar-specific notations, and maybe even can play a bit!

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more articles by Tyler Oakleaf

• Notes of Fretboard Diagram
• Like our lessons? Take a poster!
• The Big Picture
• Chord Soloing & Chordal Embelishment 1
• Good Things…
• “Making It” In Music
• Practice Progression