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How To Play Tabs Guitar

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How To Play Tabs Guitar

What is Tablature?

Tablature is a method of writing music for the guitar that gives you two basic pieces of information: what string to play and what fret to play. Unlike written music; tablature (or 'tab', as it is commonly called) doesn't require knowing any key signatures or notations. It has a language all it's own just for the guitar. It is very popular as a way for guitar players to exchange information, especially on the web.

How to Read Tablature

Tab starts with a diagram of the strings on a guitar.

From there we add the notes we are playing by writing the fret locations on the line corresponding to the string we are going to play them on.
Example:

Tab is read from left to right, so you start by playing the low 'E' string open, then fret it on the 7th fret, open again, 5th fret, open again, etc. Here's where we find the first drawback to using tab. We don't know at what tempo this is to be played or how much time should there should be between notes. Tablature works best with songs we are already familiar with or that we have a recording of.

You may recognize this as the hook to Tom Petty's "Running Down A Dream".

Notes that are played simultaneously are written on top of each other. Example:

This is the intro to Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl"

Sometimes in tablature you will see a full chord written out like this:

C Major

Tablature found on the internet often contains different symbols than tab that you may find in a book. This is due to the limits of keyboard symbols that are available. Here is an example of internet tab:

Intro
\--------------------------------------------------/
\--------------------------------------------------/
\--------------------------------------------------/
\--------------------------------------------------/
\--------------------------------------------5~6~7-/
\-0--0--0--0--0--0--5~6~7--0--0--0--0--0--0--------/

Intro to The Door's "Roadhouse Blues"

As you can see there are no string indications and this symbol (~) is used to indicate what is known as a 'hammer on'. ( More on that later). Here is another example of internet tab:

Introduction/Chorus: 
e:--------------------------------- 
B:--------------------------------- 
G:--------------------------------- 
D:---7-x4---9--10-x4--5-x4--12-x4-- 
A:---7------9--10-----5-----12----- 
E:---5------7---8-----3-----10-----

In this example the author used this 'x4' to indicate how many times the chords are played.

Time Indicators in Tab

Unlike written music there are no set ways to indicate the length of notes in tablature. You really need to have a recording to play with. Sometimes the author will use dividing lines to indicate measures or space notes to give a sense of length. Some writers will count the number of beats in each measure underneath the tab, like this bass tab excerpt:

intro 
G:|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| 
D:|-7---------------|-----------------|-7---------------|-----------------| 
A:|-----------8---7-|-------------7-7-|-----------8---7-|-----------------| 
E:|-----------------|-------7---------|-----------------|---------0---4---| 
    1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &   1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &   1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &   1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

Here's part of a tab of Jimi Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower:

|----------|------------12------|----*--*--*--*--------*-----------------|
|----------|----(4)---13--------|---14-14-14-14-------14-(14)-12---------|
|---REST---|---------/----------|-------------------------------11-/-13--|
|--x4 bars-|--------------------|----------------------------------------|
|----------|--------------------|----------------------------------------|
|----------|--------------------|----------------------------------------|


                                                ~~~~~~~~
---------------------------------|---*---------*-----------------------|
---------------------------------|--11---11---11--------11-(11)--9-----|
-11---11---11---11-\------9--11--|---------------------------------11--|
---------------------/11---------|-------------------------------------|
---------------------------------|-------------------------------------|
---------------------------------|-------------------------------------|


                                   There   must be  some kind  a way 
----____-----*------------*------|------------------------------------|-
----11/9----12------------12\----|--------------____------------------|-
---------9-------------------\---|--------------11/9------------------|-
------------------------------\--|-------------------9----------------|-
---------------------------------|----11-----------------9--9---7--7--|-
---------------------------------|--9---------------------------------|-


out-ta here____                       said the jo-ker to the thief______
----------------------------------|--------___------------------------|-
---------------------_____--------|--------7-5------------------------|-
---------------___---4-6-4--------|------------4-------------2--------|-
----------___--4/6--------4---6---|--------------------------2--------|-
----------2-4---------------------|--4--------------------------------|-
----------------------------------|-----------------------------------|-

                                     There's too much con - fu- sion__ 
----------_____------_____-------|-----------_____--------------------|-
----------2-4-2------4-6-4-------|-----------5-7-5--------------------|-
--2-------------4/6--------6-----|-------6----------------------------|-
---------------------------------|--4---------------------------------|-
---------------------------------|------------------------------------|-
---------------------------------|------------------------------------|-

                                        I can't    get no re - lief__   
---------------------------------|------------------------------------|-
---------------------------------|-------------5----------------------|-
------_____-2--------------------|------------------------4-----------|-
------2-4-2-2----___-------------|--------------------4---------------|-
--2--------------4-2-------------|--4--------------2------------0-----|-
---------------------------------|------------------------------------|-

The author here has his own method of indicating bends, slides etc. At the end of the tab he has put a legend to explain:

Key :

*   = Full Bend note (number above the * is amount of bend i.e 1 or 1.5 or.5)
Note: if a note appears in brackets after a bend then that signifies a 
release of that note.

~~~ = Vibrato
/   = Slide up to note
\   = slide down to note
( ) = release note
____= pull off/hammer on 
x = muffled percussive tone

This can be confusing; as here is another legend or key from a different tab:

tablature explanation:
h=hammer on
p=pull-off
/=slide up(or fast pick)
\=slide down
^=bend full
b=bend half
^r or br=bend and release

Some of you might not know what a pull off or a hammer on is. This is covered along with slides and bends in the intermediate section "Soloing Tips". The tab that I'll be writing with there will be similar to these types of internet tabs to get you used to them.

Need more on tabs? Check this out: How To Read Guitar Tabs

**WARNING** TABS ARE NOT RELIABLE!!

Internet tabs are usually written by novice guitar players with a williness to share, and therefore are filled with mistakes. Most tabs will give you a great starting point and some are 100% accurate, but you will find a lot of tabs that have mistakes in them. Fortunately the Internet Tablature Community is very open to having their tabs corrected and if you go to Tabcrawler.com you will usually find more than one tab to a song as players have added to or corrected other's tabs. The idea is to help each other learn. And that's what tabs are best used for anyway.

Here is a list of sites where you can find tabs. (I can't guarantee how up to date it is.)

TabCrawler.com - Large archive guitar, bass, and drum tabs.

Music X Tabs - Your ultimate source for tabs, with over 23,000 guitar, bass and drum tabs. Updated daily.

TheTabSource.com - Search over 24,000 guitar, bass, and drum tabs in seconds.

Tabology.com - a vast archive of free guitar tablature, acoustic and electric tabs, updated regularly

MySongBook - The biggest archive of Guitar Pro tablature on the web. Not just simple text tablature. These tabs have sound, and can be viewed and printed with a high resolution quality.

Top 100 Tab Sites

Fast Tabs - tablature search engine. You can search for over 131,500 guitar and bass tabs!

TabWorld.net - Guitar tab search engine

Pure Tabs - rock, blues, alternative, and heavy metal guitar tabs

MyGuitarTabs.com - Guitar, Bass Guitar, Drum Tablature and Lyrics

Guitar TABalorium - tabs for your favorite new songs with links to corresponding mp3 files.

TabHeaven - 100's of guitar tab links for rock, pop, metal and alternative music, Updated often, with the guitar lessons.

Real Guitar Tabs -Acoustic and electric guitar tabs

Tabs Lyrics Chords - Rich-Text editor for Free Form, text based guitar tablature. Transposes, generates chords, scales and more.

Greg's Midi & Tab - Tabs and Midi backing tracks for guitarists to jam with.

Absolute Tabs - Large tablature archive. Guitar tabs, bass tabs, and drum tabs. Free guitar lessons/tutorials.

Riff Raff - Index to 1000s of free guitar, bass and drum tablatures.

Perso Flamenco & Classic - Free scores for flamenco and classic guitar, with audio files.

Rawktabs.com - Guitar tabs of NEW songs, alternative, rock, metal, pop. Including chords, MP3 and MIDI.

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