Guitar tablature decoded in honour of the Guitar Month
Throughout April guitarists across the world have come together to celebrate International Guitar Month. Guitar Month is dedicated to celebrating musicians’ passion and honouring the iconic instrument and its significance in the music industry. From seasoned professionals to aspiring musicians, guitarists across the globe can agree that mastering guitar playing is not easy and takes tons of practice. However, there is an alternative to the standard sheet music, which makes learning to play the guitar much easier.
Tab (short for tablature) was developed in Europe in the 1300’s initially for notating music for the organ. Since its inception, its use was developed for stringed instruments and is widely known to guitar players today as a simple method to learn music. A major benefit is that unlike sheet music, very little additional knowledge is required to understand the basics of tab music. Tabs are ‘shorthand’ charts, indicating where a finger should be placed to produce the desired note.
“Whether you’re just starting to learn guitar or can’t quite figure out how to get your favourite riff down, tabs are and have been an easy way to learn guitar for many years” says James Whitten, Marketing Manager at musicGuard.
To celebrate International Guitar Month, leading music insurer musicGuard created a guitar tab reading guide to help musicians master the guitar playing.
How is tab music written?
Tab music is written on 6 lines, with each line representing the 6 strings of a guitar. Tab is also often written for bass guitar too, with 4 lines to represent each string. The tab is read from left to right and normally starts with a letter before each line denoting the tuning of that string, or numbers 1-6 to mark the 1st (highest) to 6th (lowest) string.
Low and high E
In standard tuning, the low E is denoted with a capital letter whereas the high E is denoted with a lowercase letter. Typically, the highest line represents the highest string and descends from there, as if to mimic how a guitar strings look to a player as they look down at their guitar in the playing position. Sometimes however, this order is reversed. Usually, tab writers will explain the convention being used to avoid confusion.
Fret numbers
Across each line, numbers appear to represent the fret number which needs to be pressed on to generate the correct note. For example, a number 5 on the second line from the top will usually mean that the B string should be plucked while it is fretted at the 5th fret. If a zero appears, this means that the string should be played open, or unfretted.
“There are a number of websites online that offer an incredible amount of guitar tabs across a variety of genres so you’re sure to find something that takes your fancy” adds Whitten.
Read more about guitar tab reading on:
https://www.musicguard.co.uk/reading-guitar-tab
ENDS