Tab or Tablature is the most commonly used way to read music for guitar. You can learn the system in no time.
Is basically the combination of two numbers:

1- The string number,which sometimes does not even appear in the printed sheet.

2- The fret number (the numbers that you see all across the page).

Sometimes it also includes chords,
for example: F,Dm, Fm7.

the higher line represents the 1st string (a regular guitar has 6 strings)

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A fret is the area of the guitar  “neck”  where you place your left hand finger (s).

One of the most general complaints among my students is the fact that they can not understand anything about the tablatures they download.

You browse the web for your favorite songs, you find tabs and you print them but, you find some strange symbols like:

p (between numbers) This means Pull off.

Place your fingers on the specified fret numbers, hit the first note and release the finger corresponding to the LAST number (note) WITHOUT using your pick or your right hand. In other words, the sound of the last note must be obtained by the movement of your left hand with no help from your right hand.

Example: ———3-p-2———-.

/ (between numbers) This refers to a SLIDE.

Place one finger in the first note and SLIDE, using the same finger to the last specified note.

Example:—-2 / 5——

You hit the string only ONCE with your pick or your finger from the right hand, to play the FIRST note. The sound of the other note comes from the slide movement of the left hand finger.

h (between numbers) The opposite of pull off, which means HAMMER.

You hit the first note only ONCE. The sound of the second note will be produced by hitting hard the second note with ANOTHER finger.

Example: ——2-h-4——–.

Use one finger to play the first note, hit hard the second note with another finger.

There are 2 major problems in tablature:

Tabs do not specify rhythm (duration of notes).

Tabs were invented before computer keyboards.

The first difficulty should be no problem because you probably knew the song BEFORE trying to find Tabs for it. So, you know how it goes. But the second problem is the tricky part.

There are specific symbols to establish how notes should be played BUT, unless you have software designed for tablature, those symbols do not exist on a computer keyboard.

Those symbols are mostly little curved lines, little curved arrows and weird long curved lines. You can see all of that if you buy, for example, a guitar or bass magazine.

But people started to use the Web to post hundreds of Tabs (millions today) simply by using the available characters on their keyboards. So, instead of entering the symbol for a BEND, they used the letter b. Instead of the tab symbol for a SLIDE, they use the letter s , or the diagonal line / on your keyboard.

After many years of practicing this method, the most widely used keyboard characters became standard for Internet surfers and today, when you print tabs you will probably find those strange letter indications between numbers (the numbers are the notes).

But do not think that Tab symbols became extinct. There is computer software specifically designed for Tabs. I had the fortune of finding one piece of free Tab software that contains all the symbols and actually plays the song with a very similar guitar sound as you type in the notes. It is amazing, but a few days ago I tried to visit their site to look for updates and the page did not exist anymore.

I will start looking for other choices on my own but I recommend you to surf a little for Tab software and you will probably find thousands of places. If you have a chance to visit guitarsimple (my website), you will find a link to download a FREE tablature software, somewhere in the body of my home page.

ONE PIECE OF ADVICE THOUGH. Not all Tablature posting sites are made by professional musicians. Some sites are posted by beginners and (or) kids with no real skills and those Tabs may not be even close to how the real song sounds like. So try to find professionally designed music web sites.

I include Tab reading lessons between my regular “guitarsimple”  lessons to help my web students gradually understand the mechanics of this issue.

Regards
Alvaro Avila (guitar teacher)

Guitar Lessons Online

http://www.guitarsimple.com

http://www.esp.guitarsimple.com in Spanish.

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