Playing guitar is much easier than playing piano. You need not be worried about sight reading. Even though you do not know where the middle C is on a staff, you can still produce great guitar music. It is because most guitarists use guitar tablature (tabs) to learn guitar and play songs.

Tabs are easy to read and write. You do not need very good knowledge in music. A tab usually consists of six lines, numbers, letters and symbols. For bass guitar tabs, you will find only four lines.

You can use your computer to write your music. Just type a few numbers and symbols using a Word file or Wordpad, then you can upload the file and share your music with other people worldwide.

Let me talk about the tabs in more detail. The six lines on a tab indicate the six strings of your guitar. The bottom line represents the fattest string (the 6^th string) and the top line represents the slimmest string (the 1^st string).

So reading from down to up, it should be E A D G B E. Sometimes there are letters written at the left hand side. In that case you need not guess by yourself.

It is important that you read the letters before you play your guitar. The reason is some tabs are not written in standard tuning. If the tab is written in Open D Minor tuning (D A D F A D), then you may need to tune your guitar again.

You will also see numbers placed on the lines. They indicate the frets that you need to play. The numbers can be ranged from zero to 24. For example a "1" written on the E line reveals the first fret, F sound. A "0" means an open string. You can just pluck the string without placing any fingers.

If your see the numbers written like the below picture's, you will need to position your fingers and strum the strings in the meantime. You may sometimes meet an "x" on the line. It means that the string should not be played. Always read the tabs from the left. You seldom play a song from right to left.

Symbols on the tabs are helpful to let you know which techniques you should use when playing guitar. There is a list from http://www.howtotuneaguitar.org/ for your reference.

• h - hammer on
• p - pull off
• b - bend string up
• r - release bend
• / - slide up
• \ - slide down
• v - vibrato (sometimes written as ~)
• t - right hand tap
• s - legato slide
• S - shift slide
• - natural harmonic
• [n] - artificial harmonic
• n(n) - tapped harmonic
• tr - trill
• T - tap
• TP - trem. picking
• PM - palm muting
• \n/ - tremolo bar dip; n = amount to dip
• \n - tremolo bar down
• n/ - tremolo bar up
• /n\ - tremolo bar inverted dip
• = - hold bend; also acts as connecting device for hammers/pulls
• <> - volume swell (louder/softer)
• x - on rhythm slash represents muted slash
• - on rhythm slash represents single note slash

They are also easy to read. It is a normal situation that you find many symbols on a tab. Just follow the symbols and learn the guitar techniques if you do not know.

Guitar tabs are not perfect. They also have limitations. They do not indicate the length of the notes. If you have never listened to the song before, you may never play the song correctly with the tab.

Moreover you will not know which fingers you should use to press the frets from the tab. So if you are a guitar beginner, you will find this very difficult.

That is some general information about guitar tabs. Try to find some tabs of your favorite songs and play them. You will get more familiar with the tabs through more practice.