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Home > Beginner Guitar Lessons > How to Read Guitar Tab
Learn How to Read Guitar TabYou can easily learn how to read guitar tab without any knowledge of music notation. After all, when guitarists are learning the chords and notes for a song, they need to know where to stick their fingers (...ahem!)
We'll start with a few beginner guitar tabs to get you familiar with the tab diagrams.
Oh, by the way, tab is short for tablature! The basics of how to read guitar tab
Now let's be a bit more practical. The number on the diagram below indicates which fret the string should be "pressed"
This "0" applies to all strings and when noted on the tab diagram, it simply means you do not need to fret that particular string. Next!...
Notice how no fret wires are drawn on the diagram - we don't need them because of those numbers!
Ok, so that was pretty easy stuff - let's take things a little further... We're going to look at part of a lead guitar scale (actually, the first 4 notes of the G Major Scale - not important right now!) In the same way as the diagrams before, look at the one below and play on your guitar this sequence of notes, fretting the appropriate string one after the other...
Play it slow to start with, speed isn't an issue here, we just want to nail these notes in the order they're shown. Here's how it should have sounded...
Did you get it? Ah, I knew you would.
Onwards and Upwards... Guitar tabs are used for lead guitar and representing chords. You've just followed a simple lead guitar tab, so now let's look at reading chords.
 The "X" means you should not play that string at all, the "0" means play the string, but don't fret it and the "2" means fret the string on fret number...yeh. Here's how it should have sounded...
Incidentally, that was the A Major chord in tab form!
Nice one, let's put this into real-world use (well, kinda) in the form you might see a tab of a song you want to play... When you look at a song tab, the chords and lead will be layed out in a sort of timeline of music (just like traditional notation). The diagram below shows this timeline seperated by a vertical line which represents the end of a "bar" of 4 beats and the start of another. This helps you keep track of the rhythm ("1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4 etc.")
The two dots tell you to repeat the tab from the beginning of the timeline (there isn't any chord change in this one to start off with). I've put the downstroke indicators below the diagram to help you keep that 1 2 3 4 count. Listen...
When reading tab, you'll need to lookout for chord changes with the fret numbers changing. If you know the song you're learning in your head (likely!) then you'll be able to anticipate the chord change in the rhythm.
Remember, view it like a timeline of musical events. And That's it For Now! Hopefully now you should have learned how to read guitar tab. Tab is very versatile and lead guitarists have many symbols to refer to for special characteristics of their playing (such as hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends etc.) If you develop into a lead guitarist, visit my lead guitar section where this tab lesson is expanded on. Keep practicing, and check out the other lesson rooms in the beginner guitar lessons hub...
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...And here's the incredibly exciting blank tab diagram. We ignore the
frets on the actual tab diagram because numbers are added on each
string to tell you which fret your fingers should sit.
I've
done this because it's important to use the correct fingers for comfort
and efficiency - your fingering in this example should make it so that
your actual hand barely moves (your fingers will though, obviously!)
