QandAs: Home

How Do I Read Guitar Tabs?

Answer:
We are going to take a look at how to read a guitar

staff, in order to help you learn the play the guitar better. The tab staff for a guitar will have six horizontal lines, each representing one of the strings of the instrument.

The bottom line of the staff will represent the lowest “E” string, the next line from the bottom will represent the “A” string, etc. There are also numbers located in the middle of the lines. These numbers are there in order to indicate the fret that the tab is telling you to play. For example, if the tab is marked on the third string with a seven (7), it is indicating that you should play the third string on the seventh fret. If a zero (0) is used on the tab it is indicating that the open strong should be played. That is all that is needed to understand the basics of reading the tab.

When the tab displays a series of numbers stacked vertically, it is indicating to play all of the notes at the same time. Sometimes the tab will also indicate the chord name above the tab staff as well.