Stop 5 of 6
Reading tab and chord boxes
The guitarist's two maps: tablature and chord diagrams.
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Stop 5 of 6
The guitarist's two maps: tablature and chord diagrams.
Before you play a song you need to read its map. Guitarists mostly use two: , which tells you which string and which fret to play note by note, and the , which draws where each finger goes to play several notes at once. Both take a couple of minutes to learn and will stay with you for the rest of the journey.
Both maps start from the same idea: they draw the guitar the way you see it when you look down at it, with the neck to your left. First, remember how strings are numbered:
String 1, Open: E4 · 1 · Scale tone
Listen to the six open strings, from the sixth to the first. Notice that each one sounds higher than the one before:
Tablature has six horizontal lines, one per string. The top line is string 1 (the thin one) and the bottom line is string 6 (the thick one). Numbers sit on the lines: each number is the you press on that string. A 0 means playing the string open, without pressing anything.
Read it from left to right, like text. Press Listen and follow the note that lights up:
When two or more numbers sit in the same column, you play them at the same time. That's how chords and are written in tab:
Tab is very quick to read, but it has one important limit: on its own it doesn't always show the rhythm, that is, how long each note lasts. Many tabs online only give the numbers and expect you to know the song by ear. That's why, in this journey, tab almost always comes with audio, and often with standard notation above it, which does show exact durations:
Later in the journey you'll learn techniques that tab marks with letters or symbols above the numbers. No need to memorise them now; come back to this table when you meet them:
| Symbol | Name | What it means |
|---|---|---|
h | The second note sounds by "hammering" a fretting-hand finger, without picking | |
p | The second note sounds by "pulling" the string as you lift the finger | |
/ or sl. | You slide your finger along the string from one fret to another | |
b / full / ½ | You push the string to raise the note a half or whole step | |
~ | vibrato | You make the note waver |
x | dead note | You mute the string: a percussive hit with no pitch |
P.M. | You mute the strings with the edge of your picking hand |
Here are some in real tab. Hear the difference between a picked note and a slurred one:
When you open a tab you don't know, don't try to play the whole thing in one go. Read it the way you read a map before setting out: first the terrain, then the route, and the details last. Here's your first "complete" tab, with bars and a technique symbol, like the ones you'll find out there:
The vertical lines crossing all six strings are barlines. They split the music into , blocks of equal length. In most songs each bar lasts four beats, which you can count out loud: "1, 2, 3, 4". There are three bars here, and the last one ends with a long note lasting two beats.
Bars are your best friend for practice: you can learn a tab one bar at a time and, if you get lost, go back to the start of the bar instead of the start of the piece.
> is an : play that note louder than the rest. In the example above they fall on beats 2 and 4: hear the push they give the passage, and compare by playing it yourself without them.~ after the number is : the long note "shimmers". You'll work on it properly later; if it doesn't come yet, play the long note without it.Follow the five steps with the tab above. Play each bar on its own until it's clean, then join them. To accent a note, give the pick a little more travel; don't squeeze harder with your fretting hand.
Goal: Play the three bars through twice at 60 BPM without stopping, holding the final note for its full two beats; first without accents, then with the written accents on beats 2 and 4.
A chord diagram draws a piece of the neck vertically, as if the guitar were hanging on the wall in front of you:
Tap each diagram to hear it strummed, or press Arpeggiate to hear its notes one by one. The square marks the most important note of the chord, its : you'll understand it fully in the chords stage.
If the shape starts away from the nut, the diagram drops the thick nut line and writes the number of the first fret shown beside it. A bar across several strings means a : one finger (almost always the index) presses several strings at once.
Don't worry if this chord looks impossible: it gets a whole stage of its own, The Barre Pass. For now it's enough to be able to read it.
Read this tab and play it using one finger per fret: fret 1 with finger 1, fret 3 with finger 3. Press Listen first, then play along with the audio and, finally, with just the metronome.
If a note sounds dull or buzzes, move your finger closer to the fret and press with the tip.
Goal: Play all eight notes without stopping at 60 BPM.
Goal: All six strings of E minor ringing clearly, one by one and then together.
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