In this beginner guitar lesson, you will learn how to read guitar tab. Guitar tab, or tablature, or as some people say, guitar tabs, are a simple system for writing music for guitar.
Guitar tab is a series of lines that represent the guitar strings, and the there are numbers that represent which fret to press. The bottom line on tab represents the big E string on your guitar.
There are a collection of symbols in tab that represent different guitar techniques such as muting, bending, sliding, hammer ons, pull offs, tapping, and harmonics.
When the numbers are in a series you play the notes one at a time, and when the numbers are stacked you play them all togther:
Guitar Tab Symbols for Bending Strings
Bends in guitar tab are represented by arrows. They will sometimes have a note at the top to show how much you are supposed to bend a string. 1/2 means to bend the note up one tone, and 1 1/2 means to bend the note up 3 tones. If there is nothing at the top then it is a whole step bend which is 2 tones. Some bends require you to pre-bend a note before you pick. Pre bends in guitar tab have an arrow going straight up before another arrow coming back down.
Guitar Tab Symbols for Muting Strings
If you see XXXX in your guitar tab it means to mute the strings with your fretting hand, and if you see PM or Palm Mute at the top then it means to palm mute the strings with the palm of your picking hand.
Guitar Tab Symbols for Slide, Hammer On and Pull Off
The hammer on and pull off symbol in guitar tab looks like a note tie from sheet music, and the slide symbol is an angled line. Hammering on is where you fret a note with one finger and the “hammer on” another finger. Pulling off in guitar is when you fret a note, pick it, and then pull off to sound another note with a different finger.
The Tapping Symbol in Guitar Tab
In guitar tabs the symbol for tapping is normally a “T” above the note, and in oldschool text tab it was like “——-T5——” to tap on the 5th fret. Tapping in guitar is when you use a finger from the picking hand to tap a note.
Harmonics in guitar tab will normally say “harmonic”, ‘NH” for natural harmonic, or “PH” for pinch harmonics.
The vibrato symbol in guitar tab is a squiggly line next to a note or above the lines
Here are the example blues licks and open chords from the video
