Tablatures is the most visual and straightforward method to read music for guitar players. It represents the fretboard and strings showing where to place your fingers to play the right notes.
It takes a little practice, but it’s considerably more accessible than scores since it doesn’t require you to know any music theory and should help you have fun much quicker. It doesn’t make the playing easier though! Just the reading.
Tablatures basics
Here’s what it looks like with a simple riff:
The six lines represent the six strings of the guitar; for a standard tuning:
- The top line is the high E (= the highest pitched string)
- the bottom line represents the low E (= the lowest-pitched string)
Each number tells you what fret number your finger should be positioned; 0 is the open string, and it goes up to… the number of frets you need.
Chords notation
You will often find a slightly different notation for chords, usually at the top of the tablature. Instead of horizontal, it’s vertical, and the numbers represent the fingers, with 1 being the index. Below two flavors of the E major chord played at different positions of the neck:
Advanced tablatures symbols
The system has a specific notation for most of the techniques you need to know as a guitar player.
Muted notes
muted notes are represented by an X
Slide
As the name indicates, you slide your finger from one note to another without releasing the string. It’s either a slide up (higher pitch) or down.
Hammer-on / Pull-off
Those are very cool techniques: with the hammer-on, you strike the fret strongly enough to play the note without picking it. A pull-off is the exact opposite; you release the fret with a slight pull that will play the next note.
Bends
It will always indicate how much bend you need, usually 1/2 or full. 1/2 is a semi-tone (= one fret), full is a full tone (= 2 frets). The cool thing with bending is that the frets do not limit you, and you can very well bend 1/4 note, a luxury our pianists’ friends don’t have! Very useful if you start playing a lot of blues but you will find bends everywhere, in all your favorite solos for example.
What did you learn?
You just learned how to read music (for guitars); that’s a huge deal!
Why is it important?
It opens a highway to learn new riffs, solos, intros, and full songs! Once you start experimenting by yourself, it also opens up the possibility for you to write riffs and to share with others.