Reading Online Guitar Tablature (also called TAB)

It is very easy to read online guitar tablature. TAB is used online and offline, it is used mainly by guitarists to write down their music in a way that can be easily read again by themselves or by others.

Just like a book it reads from left to right. Below is a screenshot of a simple line of TAB.

There are 6 lines, each line represents a string on the guitar. The bottom line is the thickest string on the guitar, the bottom E string, and the top line is the thinnest string on the guitar, the high E string.

The numbers on each line represent the fret that you place your finger on to play the note. A number 5 on the bottom line means place your finger on fret 5 on the bottom E string.

Using TAB there are also ways to show how the note must be played, various symbols are used for this.

h hammer on

p pull off

/ slide up

slide down

There are a lot of different symbols and due to many different writers using TAB each one sometimes uses their own interpretation of the symbols. All TAB writers put an explanation at the beginning of the song to show what their symbols mean.

Guitar Tablature (TAB) provides a very simple way to learn songs and allows you to write down your own tunes! Almost every guitar magazine, book and website uses Guitar TAB to show you how to play a song. Once you have mastered TAB there is no limit.

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