How to read guitar tabs

Hey everyone! So today, I’m going to show you guys how to read guitar tabs. 

Let’s start. 

The grid. 

So if you really look at a guitars fretboard, it’s arranged in a grid pattern. 

The frets are numbered 1 – 18. Maybe some times 1- 20 or 1- 24. 

And the strings are numbered 1 – 6 or E, A, D, G, B, E.

Where Low E = 6, A = 5, D = 4, G = 3, B = 2, and high E = 1. 

Now when I say Low E and High E, when you hold the guitar, high E is the one that is closest to the ground and low E is the one that is closest to your face. 

So you read guitar tabs by figuring out the address in each tab. 

So a typical guitar tab might look like some like this

E——————————————————

B——————————————————

G——————————————————

D——————————————————

A——————————————————

E——————————————————

Or

1——————————————————-

2——————————————————-

3——————————————————-

4——————————————————-

5——————————————————–

6——————————————————–

Remember that in order to make the song sound like how you want it to sound, it needs to be in Tune, more on that in another video. 

So Now let’s add some more numbers

Say for example if you have a few number scattered all across the tabs, like below

Then what that is saying is the fret that you’re supposed to land on for that string. 

It kind of gives it an address for the note that it needs to be played on.

So say for example.

E——-0–0—0—1–1-3–3-3-1- (The zero in this line means no frets are pressed down and the 1 means the first fret is pressed down.

B———————————-

G———————————–

D———————————–

A———————————–

E————————————

Or

1——–0–0—0——————————

2——————1—1—1——————

3——————————-3—3—-3—-

4———————————————–

5———————————————–

6————————————————

        The different numbers on the left represent the string that the note is played on and the numbers on the line represent the fret that they are played on. 

If you ever see a bunch of notes stacked on top of each other then that’s a chord like this

1——0

2——1

3——0

4——2

5——3

6——x (x right here means that you don’t play the string or it could mean that you mute the string.)

That’s a C Chord right above it by the way. 

If you ever see a chord with a letter above it, that’s the chord that is being played. 

Example

           G

E——3

B——3

G——0

D——0

A——2
E——3

And there are literally hundreds of other symbols that you could read on a guitar tab. But I will leave that up to you for homework.

Your homework for tonight would be to research 10 other things that a guitar tab could have and explain it. 

Broadcast

I sure hope that I have been an inspiration and a hope to you all. Please remember to pray, read your bible, go to church, and love God above all else. Like, comment, share, subscribe, and I will see you all next time.

If you want to go to heaven, then believe in Jesus and you will go to heaven. (John 3:16)

Thank you all for listening in on this blog post. 

German Gonzalez, signing out!