How To Read Guitar Tabs - Easy Guide, Pictures And Diagrams

Last Updated on October 2, 2022 by Guitarist Authority

Learning how to read guitar tabs is an easy way to be able to learn your favorite songs, even if you cannot read sheet music or do not know music theory.

In this article, we’ll talk about the basics of how to read guitar tabs, talk about bass tabs, and throw in some extra tips along the way.

What Are Guitar Tabs?

Guitar tab stands for guitar tablature. Britannica defines tablature as: the “system of musical notation based on a player’s finger position”.

One of the brilliant things about guitar tabs is that you don’t need to know how to read sheet music to be able to learn new songs. Learning from guitar tabs is rewarding as you’ll feel as though you can actually figure songs out and progress.

Let’s say you want to play Stairway To Heaven. Well, you could learn this in sheet music form:

However, many guitar players don’t have the necessary music theory to be able to read and play what is written on the sheet music.

Guitar tabs are a way to show guitar players what notes to play so that even beginners can learn and play any song. Here is the same Stairway To Heaven intro that is above in sheet music, now written in guitar tab:

How Do I Read Guitar Tabs?

Reading guitar tabs is simple. The six lines indicate the six strings and the numbers indicate frets. There are symbols to know, but we’ll get to that later. First, we will go over the basics of the six strings on a guitar.

What Are the Guitar String Notes?

A six-string guitar in standard tuning has the following strings:

Remember that the sixth string is the thickest (low E) and the first string is the thinnest (high E). So, holding the guitar and looking down at the fretboard, the strings would count, away from you, 6 = E, 5 = A, 4 = D, 3 = G, 2 = B, 1 = E.

String 6, the low E, will give you the lowest tone on the guitar. Just as string 1, the high E, will give you the highest tone.

It’s essential to know which strings are which so you can understand which string(s) the tab is telling you to pick/strum.

How to Learn Guitar Tabs

An empty guitar tab looks like this:

As you can see, from top to bottom, the tab reads from the highest string to the lowest. This order means that a tab is written from the perspective of the guitar player.

To read a guitar tab, let’s have a look at Stairway To Heaven.

The tab above is the first two bars (the first two measures) of our recurring example, Stairway To Heaven.

Guitar tabs are read from left to right, with each vertical line of the tab representing a single unit of time. These units of time are called measures, or bars. They refer to the number of beats played decided by the time signature.

In our example, if we refer back to the sheet music, the time signature is 4/4 so there are four beats per bar/measure.

Each number refers to the exact fret to be played and is positioned on which string it should be played on.

If we look at the very first note, it’s a 7 located on the 4th line (from the top, the same way we count/label guitar strings). This note is telling you to play the 7th fret on the D string.

The second note is telling you to play the 5th fret on the G string.

In our example, the first four notes are played individually. If you look at the 5th notes in the measure to be played there are two, inline. You are to play these two simultaneously.

To count which fret is which, we begin at the top of the guitar (the head-stock: that is, the place with the tuning knobs). An open string, when played, is said to be fretted at “0”:

Frets are the raised lines on the fretboard that the string rests on when you push down on a string. They are mainly made of copper and nickel. They are just one of the many guitar parts that make of the neck, and guitar as a whole.

If you press your finger down on the space between the nut and the first fret, you are playing fret one. This process goes on, with each subsequent fret being labeled the subsequent number.

Thus, as the number on the tab increases, the note that you’re playing gets higher.

Guitar Tab Chords

Guitar tab can also display chords. The tab will show the notes inline that make up a select chord. The tab may also show which chord is being played above the staff. The example below is G Major.

Guitar Tab Symbols

On some guitar tabs, there are more there than just numbers. All sorts of letters might make their way onto a guitar tab. Let’s look at what some of these mean.

h: Hammer-on

A hammer-on is a classic technique on guitar. A hammer-on is when you play one note, and without picking the next note you hammer your available finger onto the desired note. Let’s look at an example:

In the above tab, the 5th fret on the G string is the first note being played. You would, most likely using your first finger, play this note and hold it. Using an available finger, most likely your third, but could also be your second. You would hammer this finger down on the 7th fret of the G string while the note you previously played is still ringing.

p: Pull-off

A pull-off is the reverse of a hammer-on. In a pull-off, you remove your finger from the fret it’s on, thereby changing the note of the vibrating string. This is best accomplished by using the finger you are removing to actually help pluck the string as you remove it

Using the example above. Place your first finger on the 5th fret of the G string. Hold this note and place your third finger on the 7th fret of the G string. Pluck the G string, and while still holding the note on the 5th fret, remove your finger from the 7th fret, this is a pull-off.

As mentioned, we can exaggerate the pull-off by sliding our third finger off the 7th fret towards the B string, as if we were plucking the G string with our third finger.

b: Bend

If a bend is indicated in your tab, you should push the string or pull the string perpendicular to the guitar while it’s fretted to increase the pitch of the note. Bends can be shown different ways on guitar tabs,

These are the symbols you need to know for bends.

5b could mean to just bend the note one semitone, or it could just be unspecified and you’ll have to listen to the song to figure out how much of a bend to apply.

5b7 would mean to apply a full bend to the note on the 5th fret. The final sound would match the note played on the 7th fret.

5^ is similar to 5b. The difference would be if whomever wrote the tab was using one ^ for half bend and ^^ for full bends. You’ll have to check the

5^7 would be the same as 5b7, bend the note on the 5th fret up to the pitch of the 7th fret.

Finally, 5 with a curved arrow. The arrow is telling us to bend the 5th fret, and in this case, as seen above the arrow point, we are to bend it full. A full bend would be the same as 5b7 and 5^7. You may also see this arrow with, 1/2, 1 1/2, etc… above it as well.

r: Release

This would be used after a bend. For example:

The example is showing to bend from the note at 5th fret, up to the note at the 7th fret and then back down to the note at the 5th fret.

/: Slide up

A slide is exactly what it sounds like. You simply slide from one fret to another, keeping your finger in contact with the string at all times.. In the example shown, you are playing the 5th fret on the A string and sliding up to the 7th fret. This is commonly shown as 5/7 or exaggerated like in the example below:

\: Slide down

Sliding down is just like sliding up, only thing to note is the symbol is a backslash instead of a forward slash like with the slide up example.

PM —-: Palm muting

If PM is written on your tab, you should play the indicated strings with palm muting. Palm muting is slightly covering the strings at the bridge to deaden the sound of the note(s) or chord you are playing. The technique takes some getting used to as you don’t want to completely mute the strings.

~~~: Vibrato

According to the Cambridge dictionary, vibrato is a repeated slight shaking of a note during its performance to give that note a fuller sound.

For guitar players, we can create vibrato on a fretted string by moving our fingers up back and forth (that is, closer to us and further away from us) on the fretboard in a rapid motion while holding the note. Vibrato can be shown like below, or you can sometimes find tabs where the vibrato symbols are above the tab staff.

Vibrato is a significant part of classical guitar, you can view a great example by guitarist Nicholas Petrou here.

x: Muted hit

A muted hit indicates the string should be struck while being completely muted. The sound, in this case, will be percussive rather than melodic. In other words, strumming a muted string will create noise without the harmonic elements characteristic of typical strumming in guitar.

( ): Parentheses

Parentheses can either be used to let you know to let the note ring, or to play it as a ghost note (play it very lightly).

Downstroke and Upstroke

These are the directions in which you pick/strum that particular note or chord.

How Do I Read Bass Guitar Tabs?

If you understand guitar tabs, you’ll also be able to read bass tabs. Bass guitars are an octave lower than regular guitars and most, but not all, only have four strings: E, A, D, G.

Each line on a bass guitar tab corresponds to one the four strings, just like six string tabs.

Tips for Reading Guitar Tabs

Like any skill, reading guitar tabs takes practice. A little bit of work every day, and you’ll see in a short amount of time that you’ll be able to read guitar tabs with no issues.

If you have ambitions to one day read sheet music, I would recommend studying guitar tabs first. Find a guitar tab that includes the sheet music above the tab. This way you’ll get familiar with what notes are on the music staff.

Easy Guitar Tabs

Here are some examples of easy guitar tabs for beginners to start learning some skills:

Where to Find Free Guitar Tabs

There are many places to get free guitar tabs. Here are some of the best:

Final Thoughts

Today we’ve covered a lot, and you should be ready to pick up your guitar and play some tabs.

Now, one thing to note is that the kind of tablature we’ve covered in this article doesn’t indicate to the player the time signature or how long to hold every note. For these kinds of tabs, knowledge of the song is essential to play the tab correctly.

Most (but not all) guitar tabs will include: