In the first double stop, on the left in the above example, you play the first fret on the B string as well as an open E string. Here are two double stops, played in order. What you’ll typically see here is something like this: When strumming the Am chord, you leave out the lowest E string.ĭouble stops (two notes only, played at the same time) are depicted exactly in the same manner. That’s because it isn’t part of the chord. In our Am example, there is no number on the bottom line representing the 6th string. A key point to remember here is that if there is no number on a line, then the corresponding string is not played. This is how the guitar tab represents a basic Am chord. When reading tablature, two (or more) numbers stacked on top of each other means they are to be played at the same time.
#How to read guitar tabs how to
Our first example showed how to play single-note lines. By pressing down the palm of your picking hand, the string will then produce a short thumping sound. When muting a string, you’ll use your picking hand to stop the string from playing. If the tab includes the letter x (‘x’), this means that the string is muted. When reading guitar tabs, you might encounter other symbols as well. Open strings would be written with a zero (‘0’). In our image above, the first two notes (played one after the other) are the 6th string/5th fret, and then the 6th string/8th fret. In other words, the numbers represent the position on the guitar neck where you’ll be playing each note. These are the frets that a note is supposed to be played on. You’ll see numbers on each of the lines as well. It’s like looking down at a guitar laying in your lap, with the big E string closest to you, and the little E string furthest away. The lines on a guitar tab represent the six strings on your guitar: the line on the bottom is the 6th string (the thickest), and the line at the top is the 1st string (the thinnest). There are six lines that run horizontally (left to right) across the page. The tab line itself is laid out intuitively. Having both types of notation at the same time is useful, as it will help you to correlate fretted notes to those shown in sheet music. it is! The second line is the actual guitar tab.The first line at the top looks like regular sheet music, right? That’s because-bingo
A quick review of how it’s laid out will show you how easy it is to understand.