Acoustic Guitar Tabs – What Are They?

In order for you to play the acoustic guitar properly, you need to understand a little bit more about guitar music. Firstly, the musical notations used for when playing the guitar or any other stringed instrument are different from those used for other musical instruments. Where as other musicians use staffs, notes, note values, ledger lines and key and time signatures in order to play music. A guitar player will only use musical notations referred to as tabs. The main advantage to be had from using acoustic guitar tabs is that you can learn to play this instrument without actually having to learn to read music as well.

When you actually look at any acoustic guitar tabs, you will be viewing a diagram that shows you the strings on the instrument. The lines on the diagram that you see in front of you represent the strings with the first string (top of the instrument) being the uppermost line and the sixth string (bottom on the guitar) being the bottom most line. As well as the lines on the diagram, you will see numbers and these represent the various frets on the guitar neck and which you will need to play. However if a zero (0) appears on the line then this means that the string needs to be left open whilst an X tells you that the string needs to be muffled.

However, if you are not sure by what we mean when we say fret, this is a located between two of the metal bars that are found on the fingerboard (neck) of the guitar. In most cases, a good quality acoustic guitar will have between 21 and 24 frets on the neck of it. It is the dots on the diagram that clearly indicates to you the position in which your finger(s) should be placed on the neck of the guitar.

However when looking at these tabs you notice that all of the numbers appear on the same line one after another and the same goes for which fret you need to be by. Then all you have to do is place your fingers in the location required and then just pluck that one string and no others. This tab clearly shows that you must only play this note and this one note only.

If however a number appears on each of the lines and they are stacked one on top of the other, the tab is telling you that you need to play all of these notes at the same time. You do this by strumming all six strings together at once.

As you learn to read tabs, you will also come across things such as Hammer-ons, Pull-offs, Bends and Slides. The Hammer-ons are clearly indicated on the tab diagram by the letter “h”. So for example, you may see the 7h9 notation on a line. As for Pull-offs these are noted by the letter “p” in the same way as the Hammer-ons, whilst Bends are indicated by the letter “b” and Slides are noted by a “/” (slash).

Once you have learnt the basics of reading tabs, carry out a search online for easy acoustic guitar tabs. Then select a very basic song that you know well and start to play around with it. However, it is important to note that reading and then playing acoustic guitar tabs does take some getting used to. But you will be surprised at just how quickly you can pick them up once you know how to read them.

Also being able to hear the song that you are trying to learn makes it much easier for you to learn it as well. Even if you do think that you remember how it goes, by listening to it whilst you are learning will help you with rhythm and detail of the song as well.

By using acoustic guitar tabs in order to learn how to play the guitar will be much more fun and before too long you will be able to play several different songs quite easily. These you can the play for your own pleasure or for the pleasure of friends and family.