How to read guitar tabs

When learning to play the guitar, one simple tool expands the number of songs you can play more than any other. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced guitar player, understanding how to read guitar tabs can greatly enhance your ability to learn and play songs. With the help of tabs, you can play any song on the guitar without learning sheet music. We’ll help you discover the basics of reading guitar music and gain the knowledge you need to start playing your favorite songs.

Basics of guitar tablature

Reading sheet music is one of the biggest challenges when learning to play guitar. No wonder many guitarists avoid sheet music altogether!

While it’s great to learn standard notation, most guitarists tend to use “tablature” (“tab” or “tabs” for short) because it’s easy and intuitive to read. Guitar tabs allow you to learn chords, complex melodies, double stops, solos, and so much more.

The basic tab notation shows you how to play almost any type of articulation or effect you can think of — such as hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, and bends.

What do guitar tabs look like?

Traditional guitar tabs look something like this:

The top part looks like regular sheet music, right? That’s because that’s what it is. Look below, and you’ll see the actual guitar tab. Seeing both types of notation is useful, as it helps you correlate fretted notes to those shown in sheet music.

The tab line itself is laid out intuitively. There are six lines that run horizontally (left to right) across the page. The lines on a guitar tab represent the six guitar strings: the line at the bottom is the low E-string (the thickest string, also known as the 6th string), and the line at the top is the high E-string (the thinnest string, or the 1st string). It’s like looking down at a guitar sitting on your lap, with the low E-string closest to you and the high E-string furthest away.

You’ll see numbers on each of the lines as well. These are the frets that each note is played on. In other words, the numbers represent the position on the guitar fretboard where you play each note. In the image above, the first two notes (played one after the other) are the 5th and 8th frets on the 6th string. An open string is marked with a zero (0).

When reading guitar tabs, you might encounter other symbols as well. We’ll turn our attention to those next!

How to read guitar tabs

Let’s take a more detailed look at how to read guitar tabs. Although there might be a lot to unpack here, this section will make it much easier to learn new songs. Whether you want to play guitar using chords, practice complex fingerpicking patterns, or shred away like a maniac, guitar tabs can help.

Guitar chords

Our first example showed how to play single-note lines. But what about guitar chords? When reading tablature, two (or more) numbers stacked on top of each other means that the strings should be played simultaneously. Look at the set of numbers below:

This is how the guitar tab represents a basic Am chord. A key point to remember here is that you shouldn’t play a string with no number on the line. In our example above, do not play the low E-string at all. Meanwhile, the A and high E-strings are played but not fretted.

In guitar chord charts, the strings that aren’t played at all are marked with an X. In a guitar tab, this would refer to muting. Here’s the same Am chord in a guitar chord chart:

Double stops

Double stops (two notes played at the same time) are depicted exactly in the same manner. You’ll typically see something like this:

Here we have two double stops played one after the other. In the first double stop on the left, you play the 1st fret on the B string as well as an open E string. When playing the second one, you play the 3rd fret on the B string and the 1st fret on the higher E string. Any strings without a number or symbol aren’t played at all.

Muting

One technique that’ll add more complexity to your playing is muting. Knowing how to mute the strings is an essential skill, especially if you want to play rock, punk, and metal songs with your guitar.

Muting is also one of the most important skills that rhythm guitarists should master. Although you can mute strings with both your fretting and picking hand, let’s focus on muting the strings with your picking hand.

A technique known as palm muting involves using — you guessed it — the palm of your hand to mute the strings. The strings can’t ring as they do when played open or fretted without muting. As a result, muting creates a short thumping sound. There are generally two ways to indicate muted notes in guitar tablature: either with an X symbol or with the letters “P.M.” above the tab.

To mute strings with your palm, simply play the string using a guitar pick or the fingers of your picking hand and press the palm of your hand against the strings. As you get the hang of it, apply more or less pressure on the strings to control the level of muting.

When muting with your fretting hand, apply a little pressure on the string to stop it from ringing. Muting with the fingers of your fretting hand requires some getting used to. If you apply too much pressure on the string, it will be pressed against the guitar fretboard, and you’ll hear the note you’re supposed to mute.

Up and down strokes

Sometimes it can be helpful to show when chords or individual notes are played by stroking up or down. In other words, this refers to whether you play a note or a chord with an upward or downward motion of your picking hand. Traditional guitar tablature indicates these with a symbol above the tab sheet.

A “V” above the tab signals an upstroke. Meanwhile, a downstroke is indicated with a table-like symbol. Tabs don’t often include the symbols for up and down strokes. In this case, use the picking or strumming pattern that feels most intuitive to you.

From chords and strumming to solos and melodies

Playing melodies and solos on the guitar offers a distinct advantage over other instruments, such as the piano. With the guitar, you can physically manipulate your fingers on the strings to create amazing effects you couldn’t coax out of a keyboard.

This is another reason why the guitar tab is such a flexible tool. It shows you exactly what to do in order to execute articulations that give your playing more expression and emotion. Let’s take a look at some of the common ones you’ll run into as you start learning and playing with guitar tablature.

Hammer-ons and pull-offs

With hammer-ons, you strike a note, let it ring, and then “hammer” another finger on your fretting hand up to a higher fret. This technique will increase your playing speed and also let your lines sound more “legato” (or smooth), as you aren’t playing each note with your picking hand. Pull-offs are the exact opposite: strike a note, then pull your finger off to a note you’ve already fretted a little lower on the neck. Like with a hammer-on, you only have to pick the string once when performing a pull-off.

This is how hammer-ons and pull-offs are represented in guitar tabs:

Slides

With slides, you start on one note and slide your hand either up or down the neck, keeping enough pressure on the string to have the note ring out as your hand moves.

Again, just like in the example with hammer-ons and pull-offs, you only pick the string once. In addition to sliding guitar notes across a single string, you can perform slides simultaneously on two or more strings.

You’ll notice that the slide sounds different because your finger travels across each fret between the start and end of a slide. Make sure to listen to the song to figure out how fast you should play the slide.

Bends

A bend is a guitar-playing technique where you strike a note and bend the string up across the neck while holding down the string. This increases string tension and raises the pitch of the note. Be careful here, though — if you bend too much, you might break the string.

As you can see in the example above, how much you bend the string matters. Figuring out just how much you should bend the string will take some time. Once you have enough practice, you’ll be bending those strings with ease — even more than one string at a time. Just keep in mind that your fingers might get a little sore.

Tapping

Tapping is one of those guitar-playing techniques that every guitarist wants to master from day one, whether they admit it or not. And we admit, pulling off an intense tapping solo on the guitar is an impressive feat. Tapping involves using both of your hands on the fretboard.

Before advancing to tapping, make sure to learn the hammer-on technique. This is because with tapping, your fretting hand performs a hammer-on while your picking hand taps strings higher up the guitar fretboard. In guitar tabs, the letter T is used to indicate tapping.

Summary of guitar tab symbols

• Horizontal lines: These represent each guitar string, with the lowest string on the bottom and the highest string on top.
• Numbers: indicate the fret to be played on a particular string
• 0 (Zero): denotes an open string without fretting
• X: represents a muted note, where the string is muted and doesn’t ring, and it produces a short, thumping sound
• P.M. (Palm Mute): This indicates palm muting, where the strings are muted with the palm of your picking/strumming hand. The P.M. symbol is located above the tab lines.
• ᭴: This represents a downstroke, indicating a downward motion with the picking hand. Downstrokes can be indicated with a table symbol as well.
• V: represents an upstroke, indicating an upward motion with the picking hand
• h: This is a hammer-on, where a note is played by hammering a finger onto a fret. Tabs indicate a hammer-on with a curved line that connects the notes.
• p: This symbol is a pull-off, where a finger is pulled off a fret to let a lower note ring out. Tabs indicate a pull-off with a curved line that connects the notes.
• / or \: a slide, where a finger slides up or down the neck from one note to another
• b: a bend, where a string is bent to raise the pitch
• r: release bend, where a bent string returns to its original pitch
• T: tapping, where the string is tapped with the finger of the picking hand
• ~: vibrato, a slight oscillation of the pitch to create a wavering, vibrating sound
• < >: Harmonics create a soft bell-like sound. So-called natural harmonics are played by touching the string slightly at specific points (e.g. the 5th, 7th, or 12th fret) and then picking.
• ( ): A ghost note is a note that is played very softly, almost inaudibly. The string to fret is indicated between parentheses.

What’s the difference between guitar tabs and sheet music?

Both guitar tabs and sheet music are ways to represent music in written form. Because guitar tabs use numbers and symbols to provide a visual representation of chords and individual notes, they are easier to learn and play. Tabs don’t include some of the more complex musical notation that sheet music does, such as information about rhythm or timing. This makes tabs great for playing guitar and bass at all skill levels.

Guitar tabs also make it easier to learn a song’s chord progression than sheet music. Overall, tablature is a more intuitive and beginner-friendly way of reading guitar music. On the other hand, the complexity and additional details in sheet music allow it to be used with a variety of instruments.

Guitar tablature cheat sheet for beginners:

• The lines on guitar tablature represent the six strings of a guitar from bottom to top, with the lowest E-string on the bottom and the highest E-string at the top.
• Individual notes are presented as numbers. Each number corresponds to a fret on the fretboard of your guitar, while a zero (0) stands for an open string. The letter X represents a muted note.
• With guitar tabs, you only play the strings marked with a number or symbol. No other strings should be played.
  Chords are depicted with multiple numbers on top of each other. Remember not to play strings without numbers on the corresponding line.
• When playing hammer-ons, you play a note and “hammer” a higher note on the same string with your finger. With pull-offs, you fret two notes on the same string and release the other finger after picking the string. Pick only the first note when playing a hammer-on or a hammer-off.
• To play a slide, play a note and simply slide your finger either up or down the string to another fret. With bends, you bend the string across the neck of your guitar in order to change the pitch of a note.

With these instructions, you’ll be ready to read guitar tabs and start playing your favorite songs without having to know standard notation.

Master guitar tabs with Yousician

Learning how to read guitar tabs is fast and easy with Yousician, and it is one of the best things you can do to help kickstart your playing. Reading guitar tabs is an incredibly efficient way to learn how to do just about anything on the guitar. You’ll also find tabs integrated into the Yousician app.

Yousician’s interactive guitar tabs are one of the easiest and most fun ways to learn how to play. Just like with regular guitar tabs, you’ll see six horizontal lines representing the six strings of the guitar. Then, as the different colored numbers approach from the right side of the screen, play each note in time as the Yousician app listens and gives feedback on your playing.

With Yousician, you can also learn songs using standard notation by changing notation styles in the app’s settings. Give the Yousician app a try with our seven-day free trial.