How to Get the Most Out of Guitar Tab

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How to Get the Most Out of Guitar Tab

This knowledge guide first covers how to read tab, and then offers tips on how to maximize your guitar playing using tab.

Introduction

There are three basic challenges facing the guitarist when reading music notation of any kind:

- What to play - the musical notes (pitches) to be played
- Where to play - where on the fretboard are these notes best played
- How to play - which fingers to use to play the desired notes at the indicated positions.

This knowledge guide will describe notation systems and how they do or do not cover the what, where and how of guitar playing.

Why Use Tablature

Tablature is a very powerful system for conveying guitar performance information.  It is often criticized by the traditional musical community who believe that standard music should be used exclusively.  Most of these critics come from a world where one note equals only one key (such as on a piano), where there is no question about where the indicated note is to be played.  However on the guitar a key challenge is that the same exact note can appear on several strings at different frets.  Thus a system of guitar notation was needed that conveyed not only what to play but where to play it.  Standard notation sometimes does include fingering information, however few guitarists find this to be as effective as tab.  In addition there are many "guitaristic" techniques, such as bends, scrapes and hammer-ons, that are most easily communicated through tab notation.

That said, guitarists who can only read tab are limiting themselves.  When working with musicians playing other instruments, standard music notation will be the norm.  They won't understand or communicate with tab.  If given a chart to play, the guitarist who only knows tab will be lost.  Too often this is the case with guitar players, leading to the old joke:

How do you get a guitar player to stop playing?
Put music in front of him.  
(Don't let this happen to you).
 
The best guitarists can and do read both standard music notation and tablature, because both are extremely valuable.  In this guide on how to get the most from guitar tab, we begin with a quick review on the basics of standard notation.

Standard Music Notation

Standard music notation is written on a five-line staff, with notes designated from A through G. The following shows three octaves (from one E to the next higher E is one octave) starting from the open sixth string E on the guitar through the first string 12th fret (double dot) high E.


Musical notes are also named for their durations, relative to the whole note.  A whole note has a duration of four beats.  A half note is half of that, and lasts for two beats.  A quarter note lasts for one beat, an eight note lasts for half of one beat, and a sixteenth note lasts for one quarter of a beat.


At the very beginning of each of the musical lines above is a G clef which is the clef used for six-string guitars.  A different clef, called a C clef, is used for bass guitar.  Note heads placed on the same place (for example in the space between the bottom two lines of the staff) have different values on different clefs.  Vertical lines across the staff indicate small sections called measures (or bars). 

Next to the G clef is a fraction (4/4 in the examples above) called the time signature.  The top number indicates the number of beats in each measure.  The bottom number indicates which note corresponds to one beat: a 2 indicates that half note gets one beat, a 4 indicates that a quarter note equals one beat, an 8 indicates that an eighth note equals one beat and so on.  The time signature you'll see most often is 4/4, indicating that there are four beats per measure and that the quarter note gets one beat.  

Guitar Tablature Notation

In tablature, the staff consists of six horizontal lines representing the six strings of the guitar.  The first string (high E) is on the top and the sixth string (low E) is on the bottom.  Numbers are written on the lines, indicating which fret to play on each string.  Numbers stacked above each other (in vertical alignment) indicate notes to be played at the same time (a chord).

 

Here's an example of commercially published tablature:



Published tablature, as shown in the above example,  will include both standard notation and tab.  The standard notation is used to get the rhythmic information and note durations.  The tablature shows exactly where to play the notes on the fingerboard. 
Most of the free tablature available on the internet provides only the tablature and does not convey the rhythmic information, or conveys it in only a rough manner.  Here's an example:



The basic concepts are the same however the rhythmic information is missing.  This tab is meant to be used with the original music recording to get the rhythmic information.

Fingerings

In a simple song played in the first position (from the first fret, first finger at fret one, second finger at fret 2, and so on) the tab numbers are the same as the finger numbers - play the first fret notes with the first finger, etc.   However most guitar music will require the player to move beyond the first position, raising the question of how to finger the indicated notes.  Some tablature will include fingering information, as in this example:



This example includes fingering information on the standard notation staff.  Numbers placed next to the notes indicate the left hand fingering (0 = open string not fretted, 1 = first finger, 2 = second finger, 3 = third or ring finger, 4 = fourth finger or pinky).  Numbers within a circle represent which string is to be used, corresponding to high E string (1) to low E string (6).

Special Guitar Notations

The art of guitar uses many techniques to achieve the distinctive sounds of the guitar and specific styles.  The following are common guitar techniques and how they are displayed on standard and tablature notation.

Half-Step Bend - Strike the note and bend up 1/2 step



Whole-Step Bend - Strike the note and bend up one step



Grace-Note Bend - Strike the note and immediately bend up as indicated



Slight Bend (Microtone Bend) - Strike the note and bend up 1/4 step


Bend and Release - Strike the note and bend up as indicated, then release the bend back to the original note.  Only the first note is struck.


Pre-Bend - Bend the note as indicated, then strike it.


Pre-Bend and Release - Bend the note as indicated.  Strike it and release the bend back to the original note.


Unison Bend - Strike the two notes simultaneously and bend the lower note up to the pitch of the higher.


Vibrato - The string is vibrated by rapidly bending and releasing the note with the fretting hand.


Wide Vibrato - The pitch is varied to a greater degree by vibrating with the fretting hand.


Hammer On - Strike the first (lower) note with one finger, then sound the higher note (on the same string) with another finger by fretting it without picking.


Pull-Off - Place both fingers on the notes to be sounded.  Strike the first note and without picking, pull the finger off to sound the second (lower) note.


Legato Slide - Strike the first note and then slide the same fret-hand finger up or down to the second note.  The second note is not struck.


Shift Slide - Same as legato slide, except the second note is struck.


Trill - Very rapidly alternate between the notes indicated by continuously hammering on and pulling off.


Tapping - Hammer ("tap") the fret indicated with the pick-hand index or middle finger and pull-off to the note fretted by the fret hand.


Natural Harmonic - Strike the note while the fret-hand lightly touches the string directly over the fret indicated.

Pinch Harmonic - The note is fretted normally and a harmonic is produced by adding the edge of the thumb or the tip of the index finger of the pick hand to the normal pick attack.

Harp Harmonic - The note is fretted normally and a harmonic is produced by gently resting the pick hand's index finger directly above the indicated fret (in parentheses) while the pick hand's thumb or pick assists by plucking the appropriate string.

Pick Scrape - The edge of the pick is rubbed down (or up) the string, producing a scratchy sound.

Muffled Strings - A percussive sound is produced by laying the fret hand across the string(s) without depressing, and striking them with the pick hand.

Palm Muting - The note is partially muted by the pick hand lightly touching the string(s) just before the bridge.

Rake - Drag the pick across the strings indicated with a single motion.

Tremolo Picking - The note is picked as rapidly and continuously as possible.

Arpeggiate - Play the notes of the chord indicated by quickly rolling them from bottom to top.

Vibrato Bar Dive and Return - The pitch of the note or chord is dropped a specified number of steps (in rhythm) then returned to the original pitch.

Vibrator Bar Scoop - Depress the bar just before striking the note, then quickly release the bar.

Vibrator Bar Dip - Strike the note and then immediately drop a specified number of steps, then release back to the original pitch.