Introduction to TABS

[VoteNo4Pants]

Alright. Tablature, or tabs, is a commonly used method of learning and memorizing music as the counterpart and/or alternative to standard notation in that it takes the guesswork out of where your fingers should be, or what kind of technique you should use for the given situatiuon.

The lines represent the strings on a guitar, from bottom to top, as shown below. If you are completely oblivious to musical theory, the standard tuning of a guitar, as well as the tuning I will use in my example, from the top (Thickest string) to bottom (Thinnest string), is EADGBE. Too much for you? Eat A Darn Good Breakfast Everyday, or as I like to put it: Every Good Acid Dealer Gets Busted Eventually. Now, remember that the arrangement is upside down, so you'll have to get used to that. It won't take longer than a minute. Oh, the reason it's placed upside down is because it's putting the pitch of the note higher up, if that makes sense.

e|---------------------------------|
B|---------------------------------|
G|---------------------------------|
D|---------------------------------|
A|---------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------|

Alright, now that we know this, we're going to get into the numbers. The numbers represent where your fingers should be on the fretboard. For example, if you see something like this:

e|---------------------------------|
B|---------------------------------|
G|---------------------------------|
D|---2-----------------------------|
A|---------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------|

That would mean that you place a finger on the second fret (The one right before the dot) of the D string, which is the third string from the TOP OF THE GUITAR. Easy, right? It will very soon. Let's work on this, expand it. We're going to use the A Minor Pentatonic Box as our example. It's simple to use, it works in nearly every situation, and any good teacher will show it to you. We're not going to get into tempo thus far, so don't worry about it, just learn how to read tabs. That's your goal here.

e|------------------------------------------5---8|
B|----------------------------------5---8--------|
G|--------------------------5---7----------------|
D|------------------5---7------------------------|
A|----------5---7--------------------------------|
E|--5---8----------------------------------------|

Knowing what you know, your action here is to move your fingers to the various places on the fretboard.


OH NOES!! TH3R 4R3 NUM0BRZ UND3RN347H NUMB0RZ!! Fear not. When there are numbers directly underneath each other, it is meant to signify a chord.

e|---0------------------------------|
B|---2------------------------------|
G|---2------------------------------|
D|---2------------------------------|
A|---0------------------------------|
E|----------------------------------|

That is an Open A Chord. You know how to play it. That's what it looks like in tab. Some tablature books arrange their chord tab with a slant, but you can tell. (I surmise that this is to show the reader how to strum a chord...)

The thing that most links Notation and Tablature is your METRONOME (Oh noes!). The difference being that notation displays the speed that you should play every note at, and Tablature has the Rhythm speed in the top corner, changing it as needed. Bars are still bars, so you can figure it out from there, although with tabs you'll have to know the song very well.

Alright. Now you know how to read tabs. Here's a glossary of commonly used techniques as explained in Tab.

/ = Slide
h = Hammer on
p = Pull off
b or ^ = Bend. If the symbol is before the note, it means bend before you pick.
T = Tap
x = Muted string
PM = Palm Mute
v = Vibrato
<#> = Harmonic. The fret you are supposed to play the harmonic on will take the place of #

There's your crash course on tablature. I can't think of any other information you will need at this point. Please feel free to ask questions or comment on any mistakes I might have made. Twadd...Just...Keep yer trap shut.

[Twaddlefish]

Good job, Dave. +k. See, I can give praise and not be rude.



























































































Anus.

[Jerusalem]

Pfft, my post in music theory was better...

[Engel]

It's been done man...

http://www.tabcrawler.com/articles.php?action=readarticle&articleid=9

but good job.  See if they will post it in articles as ver. 2

[rAndolf sHitler]

I enjoyed this thread so much..... I bought the company!



Ok, I didn't really buy it, but I stickied it......   

[BMM]

I enjoyed this thread so much..... I bought the company!



Ok, I didn't really buy it, but I stickied it......  

Good call and QFT! Excellent job AOD! +K for the post! *BMM 2000th post*

[VoteNo4Pants]

It's been done man...

http://www.tabcrawler.com/articles.php?action=readarticle&articleid=9

but good job.  See if they will post it in articles as ver. 2

I was aware of the article, but most people hop into the forums first, and a lot of new users are requesting how to read tab, so I figured I'd stupid-proof the place a little and throw a lesson into the forum, since they pop up more. Even more so now that it's stickied. I'm honoured, Hitler. This is actually the first article or lesson I've done, so I'm quite excited to see that it was well recieved.

[rAndolf sHitler]

It's been done man...

http://www.tabcrawler.com/articles.php?action=readarticle&articleid=9

but good job.  See if they will post it in articles as ver. 2

I was aware of the article, but most people hop into the forums first, and a lot of new users are requesting how to read tab, so I figured I'd stupid-proof the place a little and throw a lesson into the forum, since they pop up more. Even more so now that it's stickied. I'm honoured, Hitler. This is actually the first article or lesson I've done, so I'm quite excited to see that it was well recieved.

You did a great job!  Well worthy of stickiness!

Down the road, if you wanted to expand on it, I know rookies like me would appreciate some further description and/or hints/tips for the glossary items, (slides, hammer-ons, etc...).

..... but feel free to take a well earned break first!   

[VoteNo4Pants]

It's been done man...

http://www.tabcrawler.com/articles.php?action=readarticle&articleid=9

but good job.  See if they will post it in articles as ver. 2

I was aware of the article, but most people hop into the forums first, and a lot of new users are requesting how to read tab, so I figured I'd stupid-proof the place a little and throw a lesson into the forum, since they pop up more. Even more so now that it's stickied. I'm honoured, Hitler. This is actually the first article or lesson I've done, so I'm quite excited to see that it was well recieved.

You did a great job!  Well worthy of stickiness!

Down the road, if you wanted to expand on it, I know rookies like me would appreciate some further description and/or hints/tips for the glossary items, (slides, hammer-ons, etc...).

..... but feel free to take a well earned break first!   

Hey! This is for TABS!! Not technique. I'm assuming people have a basic understanding of how to do such things. I can always make separate threads for such things. Don't count on anything involving pinch harmonics or sweeping, since I suck at both.

[BMM]

It's been done man...

http://www.tabcrawler.com/articles.php?action=readarticle&articleid=9

but good job.  See if they will post it in articles as ver. 2

I was aware of the article, but most people hop into the forums first, and a lot of new users are requesting how to read tab, so I figured I'd stupid-proof the place a little and throw a lesson into the forum, since they pop up more. Even more so now that it's stickied. I'm honoured, Hitler. This is actually the first article or lesson I've done, so I'm quite excited to see that it was well recieved.

You did a great job!  Well worthy of stickiness!

Down the road, if you wanted to expand on it, I know rookies like me would appreciate some further description and/or hints/tips for the glossary items, (slides, hammer-ons, etc...).

..... but feel free to take a well earned break first!   

Hey! This is for TABS!! Not technique. I'm assuming people have a basic understanding of how to do such things. I can always make separate threads for such things. Don't count on anything involving pinch harmonics or sweeping, since I suck at both.

The problem is if someone can't figure out how to read tab, how are they to know the basics? Just a thought. You need to apply yourself a little harder!

[VoteNo4Pants]

All right! I'm going to make some more articles tonight if it's dead. I'm most likely going to outline the ones I gave in this thread, and eventually do complex techniques, like pinches, two handed tapping, string skipping, (If I ever get it down myself) Sweep Picking, legato phrasing, and other such goodies.