Guitar Tab Your Way to Being a Rockstar

Stringed instruments of all kinds have been trendy for centuries. Over the past century, several instruments have been all the rage. The roaring 20s had the ukelele; cowboy and country artists had their acoustic guitars; bluegrass musicians have always had their banjos and mandolins. Over the past fifty years, however, rock has been where it’s at, and the electric guitar is the tool of choice. Thousands of people attempt to learn guitar every year. And since guitar tablature is relatively easy to figure out, people are often able to teach themselves the rudiments.

Guitar tablature is not like traditional musical notation. Guitar tabs show you specifically where to place your fingers on the actual frets, therefore, you do not have to “read music” to be able to pick up a guitar and learn to play. Once you learn that there are six lines indicating the six lines of a standard guitar ( or four for a bass) and that the top line is the highest note, or string, you can begin to noodle your way through a few basic chords pretty easily. The number below the staff tells the root note of the chord. It takes a while to learn a lot of chords, but if you are determined, you will soon learn enough to play some tunes. Of course, you will have tender fingertips for a while, but it will become easier in time.

Once you have the fundamentals, you are ready to take a shot at some of your favorite songs. There are lots of sources to look for guitar tabs for rock songs. Music stores have songbooks by rock artists, but you can also find a wealth of stuff on websites. There are sites with tabs for hundreds of songs submitted by both professionals and site users. You can find nearly any artist—new or old.

You can find a lot more than just guitar tabs. There are also lessons and short films of professionals online that show you precisely how to execute licks, and you can find cool pictures and articles, too. If you have a voracious appetite for all things guitar related, you can find just about anything you wish online.