Acoustic Guitar Tabs

If you are starting to learn guitar you're probably wondering whether using guitar tablature is as good as getting new songs from sheet music. Learning to play acoustic guitar is a great adventure which is sometimes spoilt by having to learn to read music. But for most acoustic guitar players, learning all the symbols and theory connected with musical notation is not necessary.

Tab for acoustic guitar has certain advantages over standard musical notation. Experts say that tablature was used to record musical compositions long before conventional notation.

Tablature shows a diagram of finger positions using numbers representing the guitar's frets along horizontal lines representing the strings. The note G played on the first (thinnest) string is shown by the number 3 written on the top line of the tablature. Sometimes the person writing the tablature will group the notes together to show that they are all the same value.

Hammer-ons, string bends, pull-offs and other techniques are represented by symbols. Every composer has his own idea of the best way to show how to play the music, and he usually includes a legend showing his symbols on each tab. With the aid of guitar tabs, you can learn new music quickly without going to the additional trouble of learning music notation.

Even though tempo, time signatures and note values are not included, sometimes it's easier for the guitarist to pick up music from tablature. If you can read tabs, your progress on the guitar is not slowed by things like the use of alternate tunings.

Guitar tab is easily written on a computer which makes it easier to email or post on the web. Maybe when you get some guitar playing experience under your belt you could try writing some music down for yourself. A great chance to see the difficulties facing composers for the guitar. Unfortunately debate over copyright issues has made posting guitar tab a little bit contentious, but you can still share tab privately by email.

A lot of guitar teachers proclaim the advantages of learning sheet music. Some even say you are not a real musician unless you can read real music. But if you have the desire to follow a career in music then the versatility given you by the ability to read music will be a definite advantage. But maybe you see music as a form of self expression. In that case you won't be too worried about the written language you use!

Back in the 1960s the Beatles were musical amateurs. They wanted to play rock ‘n roll, but the training that is available to us now was not available to them. Consequently they experimented a lot when they were writing their songs. So they did a lot of unmusicianly things like putting seven or eight chords in every song. Fortunately later generations preferred to learn the basics of blues and rock ‘n roll rather than imitate the Beatles’ songs were written.

The Beatles unique way of writing songs made it difficult for other people to produce cover versions. It’s understandable because the Beatles learnt to write songs mainly by exploring the possibilities of their guitars without much guidance. Another aspect of popular music that the Beatles pioneered was meaningless lyrics. Previously to the Beatles there was a kind of unwritten agreement that the words in songs had to make some kind of sense. The Beatles changed all that. This hasn’t proved a problem for future generations because we have no problem singing songs that have no meaning, we can just go ahead and do it.

Rather than dwell on the complexity of the Beatles songs, let’s find some songs that are easy to sing and easy to play on the acoustic guitar. Some easy Beatles songs are You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, Across the Universe, I’m A Loser, Eleanor Rigby and Please Please Me.

A few of the Beatles songs that have proved to be popular amongst acoustic guitar players are, Get Back, Norwegian Wood, With A Little Help From My Friends, Blackbird, Revolution, And I Love Her, Girl, Her Majesty, Here Comes The Sun, Hey Jude, I’m Looking Through You, I’ve Just Seen A Face, Julia, Long Long Long, Lovely Rita, Mother Nature’s Son, Rocky Raccoon, Till There Was You, Two Of Us, Yesterday, and I Will.

A lot of people wanting to learn to play the Beatles songs on acoustic guitar have trouble finding books of sheet music or tab that are both accurate and helpful. Hal Leonard’s Best of the Beatles For Acoustic Guitar goes some way towards fixing this problem by giving us accurate translations of the Beatles music with excerpts from the songs. The book not only gives us the acoustic guitar accompaniment to the songs but also George Harrison’s lead guitar, with both guitars played at normal speed and also slowed down. There is another book which might be helpful, it’s called The Beatles for Acoustic Guitar. It has guitar tab for thirty popular Beatles songs. If you are interested in these or any books of acoustic guitar arrangements of Beatles’ songs they are readily available from music stores or online from sites like ebay or amazon.

Learn To Play Beatles Songs On The Acoustic Guitar