A Beginner Course on the Guitar – How to Read Guitar Tab

It is absolutely important for your beginner course on the guitar to teach you how to read tab. One of the major reasons is because without being able to read a tab, you won’t be able to easily remember a chord if for example you happen to forget how the chord looks like. So here are a few tips that will show you how to read guitar tab.

Step 1: You will need to first understand what a tab staff is
The first thing you will need to do to be able to read a tab is to first understand what a guitar tab staff is. Without understanding this there is no way you will be able to determine the string to play and most importantly on which fret to place your fingers on so that you can produce an excellent sound.

So what is a guitar tab staff?

In simple words a guitar tab staff is a staff represented by six horizontal lines.

Starting from the bottom the first horizontal line indicates the thickest string on the guitar. This is known as the lowest E string. The next line represents the next string which is known as the A string. This is the followed by the D string, G string, B string and lastly the highest E string. Also on the tab staff is included the word “tab” in capital letters written in between the lines.

So from the description given you should be able to draw up a basic tab all by yourself. All you need to do is to draw six horizontal lines and then label them according to the way it has been described. Once you do that then you have succeeded in drawing a basic tab that you can use to read guitar music.

Step 2: What does the numbers and the symbol on the staff mean?
On a tab what you will usually find are some numbers and a particular symbol. What do they mean and how do you read them? Well let us find out.

The numbers you see on a tab staff directly written on any of the horizontal lines tells you that you should play the string you find the number written on but on a particular fret. For example let us say that you have a tab staff with number 2 written on the 3rd string. This means that you should play the 3rd string by placing your finger on the 2nd fret.

Then the other thing you will also commonly find on a tab staff is the symbol “o.” What this symbol means is that you should play any string that it is written on without placing your fingers on any of the strings. For example if you see the symbol “o” on the 6th line of a tab staff (if we start to number from bottom to top), it means that the 6th string which is the highest E string should be played without placing your finger on any fret on a guitar.

So in a nutshell the symbol “o” on the tab staff means an open string.

There are other steps involved in learning how to read tab – these are just the basics. Your beginner course on the guitar should be able to show you the rest.