Learn to read guitar tabs

Guitar tabs are dead easy to read even if you know nothing about music. There’s no better way to learn something than to get stuck straight in.

Let’s start with the most basic of finger exercises for the guitar, the chromatic run and see how that relates to guitar tab.

E||----------------------------------|
B||----------------------------------|
G||--------------------------1-2-3-4-|
D||------------------1-2-3-4---------|
A||----------1-2-3-4-----------------|
E||--1-2-3-4-------------------------|
----------1-2-3-4-||
--1-2-3-4---------||
------------------||
------------------||
------------------||
------------------||

That’s easy enough, here’s an a minor pentatonic scale starting on the fifth fret

     E  E  E  E  E  E  E  E     E  E  E  E   
E||--------------------------|--------5--8--||
B||--------------------------|--5--8--------||
G||--------------------5--7--|--------------||
D||--------------5--7--------|--------------||
A||--------5--7--------------|--------------||
E||--5--8--------------------|--------------||

Notice in this example there is a series of ‘E’s’ above each note. This lets us know the timing, or note duration. In this case the E stands for eighth note. Unfortunately not all tabs include this info. When that’s the case there’s not a lot you can do, you will need to hear the song to figure out the timing of the notes.

Following tab is as straightforward as knowing knowing what all the symbols mean. The below list gives you the key to these symbols used by Guitar-Pro software. More tabs and licks will follow soon.

• Duration Legend
  —————
  W – whole
  H – half
  Q – quarter
  E – 8th
  S – 16th
  T – 32nd
  X – 64th
  . – note dotted
  |-n-|  – n-tuplets
• Tablature Legend
  —————-
  L – tied note
  x – dead note
  g – grace note
  (n) – ghost note
  > – accentuded note
  NH – natural harmonic
  AH – artificial harmonic
  TH – tapped harmonic
  SH – semi harmonic
  PH – pitch harmonic
  h – hammer on
  p – pull off
  b – bend
  br – bendRelease
  pb – preBend
  pbr – preBendRelease
  brb – bendReleaseBend
  \n/ – tremolo bar dip
  \n – tremolo bar dive
  -/n – tremolo bar Release up
  /n\ – tremolo bar inverted dip
  /n – tremolo bar return
  -\n – tremolo bar Release down
  S – shift slide
  s – legato slide
  / -  slide into from below or out of upwards
  \ -  slide into from above or out of downwards
  ~ – vibrato
  W – wide vibrato
  tr – trill
  TP – tremolo picking
  T – tapping
  S – slap
  P – pop
  < – fade in
  ^ – brush up
  v – brush down