This is a basic tutorial on reading
tabs made by me for 3 string instruments. For a guitarist, tabs are a
simple way to learn songs without having to read musical notes, and
tabs can also show many of the same things as musical notation such
as timing and special effects like hammer-ons and vibrato, but rather
than generically telling you what note to play, it tells you which
string and fret. After learning the basics, most guitarists find tabs
more intuitive than musical notation, and many go no further than
learning to read tabs. OK, on to the tutorial!
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This is a basic example of how I write
out tabs. There is a lot of information in this little bit, and I
hope that this tutorial will help you to understand it.
You will see that under the song title,
I tell you the tuning. While 6 string guitars have a standard tuning:
E A D G B E (yes, there are exceptions), CBG's are tuned in a number
of different ways, so I always specify what type of tuning in Roman
numerals, though rarely in which key. This example is of a popular
tuning for slide guitar, the open power chord, and is featured in
Keni Lee Burgess' video CD#4 "How To Play 3 String Cigar Box
Guitar- 1930 Depression Era Bottleneck Slide Guitar". I
typically tune to the key of G, which would be G-D-G, in A it would
be A-E-A and so forth; what is important is the string pitch
relationship and not the exact note name.
Once you have determined the tuning,
look at the tab grid. The lines represent the 3 strings of your
guitar. From top to bottom on the grid ar strings 1, 2 and 3. On
your guitar it is opposite: string 1 is the one towards the floor
(usually the highest pitched), string 2 is in the middle, and string
3 is at the top towards the sky. This is illustrated below:
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Next, look at the numbers on the tab
grid. These are the fret number where you need to press down the
string with your finger or slide. The first measure (measures will be
described with time signature) would be read like this: 3rd string
open, first string open, 3rd string open, 2nd string open. The second
measure would be: 3rd string open, 2nd string open, 1st string
pressed at the 4th fret, and then strumming the 3rd string open,
senond string open and 1st string pressed at the 4th fret.
Next, let's look at the right hand
fingerings. These tell you which string to pluck with, and in this
particular fingerstyle playing I use 3: T for thumb, I for index and
M for middle. I don't always include fingerings in song tabs, but I
often do in exercises.
The time signature tells you how many
beats per measure in the top number, and the bottom number tells
which note is a beat. This example is 4/4, also called common time,
and means there are 4 beats to a measure and each beat is represented
by a quarter note. Try tapping your foot to a regular beat:
"one-two-three-four"; these would be your quarter notes and
at four, you've arrived at the length of a measure. Now try:
"one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and"; these are eighth
notes, your foot taps on the number and the upbeat is represented by
the and's. "four-and" marks the end of the measure.
Tab can also show much more, just like
musical notation, but these are the basics to reading the tabs that I
write out. Once you understand these basics, you should be able to
learn new songs using this common system, as well as writing out your
own tabs.
