This is for beginners who wants to learn how to read Guitar tabs and how to apply it properly with their guitars. This lesson is very simple and easy to understand, just hold your guitar properly and bare with me.

^{excerpts from ultimate-guitar by BHD}

There are two different ways of writing down or reading songs. There is the professional way, with all the fancy note symbols and there is the basic, more common way. I will be teaching you how to read the basic type. These are called Tablatures.

The basic structure for a tablature (or tab) looks like this:

If you are a bit confused of the letters shown above, ignore it for a while. You noticed there are six lines there, each one of these lines represent a string on your guitar. Gotcha?

Shown below is the description of the lines in your guitar to make it easy for you understand. The top line represents the bottom (thinest) string on your guitar.

Does that make sense? Now for the frets. This is the really awkward part. I will try and explain.

A fret is the area between the two (usually metal) bars on your guitar. If you were told to play the first fret on the top string then you would push down on fret 1 on the top string with your finger and pluck the string. I'm really hoping that made sense.

The first fret is the furthest away from you. There are usually 21, 22, 23 or 24 frets on a guitar. If you look, they all get thinner as they get closer to you. There are also marks telling you what fret is what. There is a dot on the third fret, the fifth fret, the seventh fret, the ninth fret, the twelve fret, the fifteenth fret, the seventeenth fret, the ninteenth fret, and the twenty first fret and maybe more. This is to help you get around your guitar quicker. Now to put frets into a tablature:

What does 0 means? Don't panic! A zero simply means you pluck that string without putting your finger on a fret. This is fret zero. Here try this piece:

Now you know how to play basic tabs! Now the advanced bit:

What does the EADGBE stand for? You may have noticed that between nearly all the tabs I have written here there is:

E

A

D

G

B

E

On the left of it. Why is this? Each letter represents a note. If you have ever played on a keyboard or a piano before you will notice that each note is written as a letter. C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. All the EADGBE is is different notes. The thickest string on your guitar is a low E, the thinest is a high E, in between them is A, D, G and B. You don't have to remember this but if you do then you're one more step closer to being a professional. I remember it like this:

Edna

Ate

Dina

Gina

that will work very fine and so easy.

Now let us talk about bends, slides, hammer ons and pull offs. Sooner or later you're going to stumble on a tab with one of these three in it. I guarantee. It will help alot if you know what they mean.

hope you learn a lot.

tabs courtesy of : martialartzmaster@hotmail.com AIM: darksouls88.