An introduction on how to read guitar sheet music (guitar tablature):

Most musicians use standard notation to write music. Guitarists are a rare bunch in that they use their own language to write guitar music. This language, known as guitar tablature, or tab, is convenient and easily readable. Despite being easy to read and write, tablature is not without its faults. Tablature typically won’t tell you how fast or slowly to play notes, which means you will have to listen to songs to figure timing out. Still, this is a language that every guitarist must know. If you are one of the few guitarists who don’t know the language, it's time to learn. In this lesson, you’ll learn all the basics of guitar tablature, plus your first song: “Smoke On The Water”.

The Basics of Tablature:

So you see something like this:

The Chromatic Scale:
E: |--------------------------------------------------------------------------0-1-2-3-4--|
B: |------------------------------------------------------------0-1-2-3-4----------------|
G: |----------------------------------------------0-1-2-3--------------------------------|
D: |------------------------------0-1-2-3-4---------------------------------------------|
A: |-----------------0-1-2-3-4----------------------------------------------------------|
E: |---0-1-2-3-4------------------------------------------------------------------------|

And you're not sure how to read it. We’ll show you how.

Let's start with the lines. Each line up there represents a string. The bottom line, marked "E" represents the low E 6th string (string closest to your head). "A" represents the A string (5th string), which is the second closest to you. The “D”, “G”, “B”, and “E” lines are the D, G, B, and E strings, respectively.

Now, let's move on to the numbers. Each number represents a fret. Each number in tablature tells you on what fret to play. In the tab above, you are being told to play the 6th string open (as indicated by the 0), which means to not put any fingers on the fretboard, then to place your finger on the 1st fret of the guitar and play that note. The 2, 3, and 4 numbers following that indicate to play notes on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th frets.

You may be asking yourself, "how do I know what note to play when?" Well, that's easy. You read guitar tablature from left to right, meaning you play the notes in order from the left side of the tab to the right. In this case, you'll play the notes on the low E string first, then the notes on the A string, then those on the D string etc.

An example of the G Major chord written in tab:

E: |--------3--|
B: |--------0--|
G: |--------0--|
D: |--------0--|
A: |--------2--|
E: |--------3--|

When you see numbers on top of each other, like in the example above, that means to play those notes all at once. In this case, you’ll strum all 6 strings at the same time with one finger on the 3rd fret of the 6th string, one on the 2nd fret of the 5th string, and another on the 3rd fret of the 1st string.


Intermediate/Advanced Guitar Tablature:

So you understand the basics, but get stumped when you see a tab like the one below:

E: |----------------------------------------12p11---11s12---12b13--------------|
B: |------------------------------9h10------------------------------------------------|
G: |----------------6h7---------------------------------------------------------------|
D: |-----------------------5h8--------------------------------------------------------|
A: |---3h5----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E: |----------1h2---------------------------------------------------------------------|

What exactly do the “h”, “p”, “s”, and “b” represent? Well, they represent what is known as hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, and bends, respectively. These are guitar techniques that are applied in all styles of music. If you don't already know what they are, here's a brief description.

Hammer-on: A technique where you play one note, and without striking the string again, sound another, higher note on the same string by "hammering" down your next finger to a higher fret.

Pull-off: A technique where you play one note, and without striking it again, sound a lower note on the same string by "pulling" off on the fretboard onto a lower fret.

Slide: A technique where you play one note, and without striking the string again, sound another, higher or lower note, by sliding your finger from one fret to another without removing the finger from the string.

Bend: A technique where you play one note, and without striking it again, you bend the string so that it sounds a higher or lower note.

In the example above, you will first hammer-on from the 3rd to 5th fret, and then hammer-on from the 1st to 2nd fret. After doing more hammer-ons, as indicated by the tab, you will then do a pull-off from the 12th fret to the 11th fret of the high e string, followed by a slide from 11th to 12th frets on high e and then a bend from the 12th to 13th frets on the same string. It seems complicated, but it’s actually easy once you get used to it.

Finally, occasionally in tab you’ll see an x, like in the example below:

E: |----3------------------|
B: |----x------------------|
G: |----2------------------|
D: |-----------------------|
A: |-----------------------|
E: |-----------------------|

All you do in this case is to strum the 3 strings, but to palm mute the B string.

Finally, here’s a tab of the classic “Smoke On The Water” intro.

A First Song: Smoke On The Water

E: |------------------------------------------------|
B: |------------------------------------------------|
G: |---0--3--5--0--3--6--5--0--3--5--3--0---|
D: |---0--3--5--0--3--6--5--0--3--5--3--0---|
A: |-------------------------------------------------|
E: |-------------------------------------------------|

As you can see, it’s a really easy intro to play, but still a lot of fun to learn.

If you're a more visual type - here's a video of a person playing the song:

Well, that wraps up our introduction to guitar tablature. This is a language that, while being a little tough at first to master, is so useful that the time spent studying it is worth it. Now you can progress to learning guitar chords, scales, and other guitar fundamentals.