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Saturday, September 5, 2009

Beginner Guide For Learning Guitar Tabs

By Cindy Claire

Guitar tab, or guitar tablature, is music written for the guitar. Its style is different from the familiar notes on a lined staff, although they do look similar if you do not examine closely.

Guitar tabs show you exactly which strings and frets to press to produce a particular song, and you will be able to find tabs for almost every song or music you can name of in a local music store or online. Although it takes some time to master guitar tabs, but it is a skill any serious guitar player should not skip.

To start to learn guitar tabs, you need first to familiarize yourself with the placement of the strings on the deck. The order is E, B, G, D, A, E, with the low E string being the thickest and the high E string the thinnest.

The six horizontal lines in a guitar tab are in fact representing the six strings on your guitar. You will also find a number sign on each line, and that shows you the fret where you should place your finger.

There are various tablature notations you also get to learn. The basic ones are hammer (h), pull (p), slide up (/), and slide down (). As you move on, you also need to practice more advanced ones like vibrato, tapping and muting.

The numbers placed horizontally one above another are notes you need to play simultaneously. Otherwise, if the numbers are placed in the same line, you should play them one by one. The tablature will also show you the cord name for specific finger configuration.

In most cases, you will not find the rhythm noted in the tablature, but you can always get it right after repeated practice.

Learning guitar tabs can get quite boring and this is a major reason why most beginner players either give up or guess their way to advancing their skills.

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