Guitar tab is presented as six lines, one for each string. The number that appears on the lines tells you the fret you should play in. When there is a vertical stack of these numbers, it will be a chord.In other words, play all the notes simultaneously. A horizontal line is a melody, where the notes are played in sequence, one at a time.

Both types are illustrated below

Tip: all the chords above will work with the C major scale that is on the tab.

The top line is string 1, or E. It is the thinnest string. The bottom line is string 6, or low E. So fret 1 on the bottom line will be an F note, fret 2 will be F sharp, fret 3 will be G. Later on I will list the fret numbers for each note.

Here is an example. It's all on the top line of the tab, string 1:

0 0 7 7 9 9 7

5 5 4 4 2 2 0

7 7 5 5 4 4 2

7 7 5 5 4 4 2

0 0 7 7 9 9 7

5 5 4 4 2 2 0

A twinkly starry little tune in the key of E. If you have a guitar-playing friend you could get them to play some accompaniment chords - in this case, E, A, B7 in various combinations. This is because these are chords from the E harmonised scale - see my other hubs for an explanation. This will work for any simple tunes.

The tab system is not new, going back to lute music in the renaissance - but it is only recently that it has been widely used. It is really useful, especially for writing out riffs. In by-passing all the hard stuff of reading music notation it can give you fast results, and make learning guitar much more enjoyable. Once you can read tab, you can work out some of the basics of reading standard notation quite easily.

An important aspect is memorising the tab as you go, maybe a couple of bars at a time.

There are a few directions given on tabs: s means slide between notes, h means hammer-on,where the note is played just with the left hand, p means pull-off, where you make the note sound by snapping your finger off the string. p.m. or palm-mute is common in metal styles,where the strings are muted a little by resting your right hand near the bridge. BU means Bend up, where the string pitch is raised by bending the string. A note encased in a diamond shaped box is a natural harmonic - produced by lightly touching the string at fret 12 for example. It gives you that high bell-like sound,a nice effect.

Stating the obvious: tab will not tell you the rhythm to play - you have to get this from listening to the music, or checking out normal notation. generally there are four beats to the bar in most pop,rock,blues,jazz.

Good news! Strings 1 and 6 are E - so it's buy one, get one free.

Important tip for learning the sequence of notes: they follow the alphabet from A to G. There is no sharp or flat note between E,F and B,C. All the other notes have them.

Fret 0 = E     1= F     2= F#

3 = G (bottom note of a G chord)

4=  G#

5=  A (dot on your neck)

6=  A#

7=  B

8=  C

9-C#

10-D

11-D#

12-E

After fret 12 everything starts again , so 13 is F again,etc.

String 5 - same sequence of notes, but beginning with A instead.

String 4 - same sequence, starting with D

String 3 - starts with G

String 2 - starts with B

So fret 1 on string 2 =C, top note of a C chord. Fret 3 on string 5 = C, but one octave lower, the bottom note of a C chord.This will help you navigate the fretboard.

It's a good plan to look this stuff up at the excellent looknohands.com site. In the note naming above, I have kept it simple. Each sharp note also has a flat name, for instance F# is the same as G flat(written with small b symbol)This is called enharmonic equivalence, or "the same bleedin' notes" as jazzers would say.

My new hub Guitar Scales and fretboard has a lot of tips on finding the notes on guitar.

There are many good guitar magazines which provide reliable and easily understandable tabs. I recommend Acoustic Guitar, Guitar Techniques, Guitar Player - all really great publications. Guitar techniques has a good guide to tab notation, in greater depth than I have gone into here. As there is also a CD with this magazine, you can get a long way by listening and following the score, even without playing anything.

The best way to use tab is to learn short sections and then memorise everything, or just use it for riffs. The last thing I would do is to try and learn a solo by Satriani all the way through from the tab - it's kind of missing the point about improvised solos.

One of the best ways to improve your knowledge and use of tab is to create your own. You can buy notebooks with blank tab templates - a good low-tech way to start. Software packages are available, and you can download trial versions for free. At the moment I am evaluating GuitarPro5 and Sibelius G7. They are both good programmes, with great potential for improving your playing. Sibelius looks more comprehensive, but also harder to learn. Guitarpro5 is cheaper,and in many ways looks more user-friendly with well-designed chord grids and a lot of very useful features. On the downside, there is no manual so you kind of figure it out yourself - the score and tabs look great on both packages.