Reading The Guitar Tabulatute (Tabs) : Lines and Numbers

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Chapter - 3c

Reading The Guitar Tabulature / Tablature (Tabs):

Guitar music sheets are available on the net mostly as tabs. This is because this system is easy to write in on a QWERTY keyboard. Here's how to read it.


The Lines:
The tab lines correspond to the guitar string as follows:

E|---------------------------- 6th String
B|---------------------------- 5th string
G|---------------------------- 4th string
D|---------------------------- 3rd String
A|---------------------------- 2nd String
E|---------------------------- 1st String

The 1st (thinnest) string on top, to the 6th (thickest) string, at the bottom.

Note: Many people also use the reverse order; so read the EBGDAE order before you start playing.

As can be seen, at the beginning of every line, the open string note of the string indicated is written, followed by a divider, "|" - found in between the backspace and +/= keys of standard 101 / 102 keys keyboard. Often - not always, the 1st string E note is written as "e"(small E) to denote the strings thinness or the notes fineness as compared to the 6th string open E note.

The lines are drawn with the standard hyphen "-"

At times, the number of lines drawn may be less than six to save space, as all of these lines may not be required. Examples of this are common, like:

e|--------------------------------
B|--------------------------------
G|--------------------------------

(P.S.: the 1st line is the 1st string; notice that the E is written in a small letters)



Numbers:
E|---------------------------------
A|---------------------------------
D|---------------------------------
G|---------2-----------------------
B|-------4-------------------------
E|-1--3-------0-------------------

The numbers on the lines indicate the fret number on the string corresponding to the line on which that number is on.

The numbers are read from left to right. No matter which line these are on, the one more left is read and played first. Not one line at a time!

Left to right no matter what....

So, in the above example, we will play this sequence:
1(1) - 1(3) - 2(4) -3(2) - 1(open)
.......x(y) meaning "string number(fret number)"

N.B.: x(0) means string number x, "fret number zero", i.e. open string.

Numbers occurring in a cluster as one column - these are chords. Hold and play all these notes together.



Timing:
There is no indication of timing here. Just play the song you are playing from your album/CD/PC and match notes to the timings in the song. Trust me, its easy.

This is where Tab fails to Staff - no time component expressed. But, when a person looks for a tab online, generally, he / she has already heard the song. So, its not a major concern.


Continue......