How to read guitar tabs
Reading guitar tabs is pretty simple if you follow some basic guidelines. Guitar tabs are read from left to right. When reading guitar tabs, the top strings of the tabs are the strings furthest from you. The strings at the bottom are closest to you. The chords are translated off of the guitar directly if the neck is on the left side and the strings are facing you. This can help you determine where the notes are. The tabs have numbers on the strings that lists locations on the neck for each string. But what are the numbers for? The numbers on the tabs help you determine where on the string to hold your finger down. Example if the number 3 appears on the A string, it means that you would hold down on the third fret on the guitar neck on the A string.
I have been saying frets a lot, but I don’t think I ever explained what they are. The frets are the spaces marked with either dots or metal bars or both. It depends on the guitar. The frets are counted from the head to the body of the guitar. The first fret is the space below the head on the stringed side of the neck. The last fret is the first space available on the neck from the body, furthest away from the head. The frets are your way of counting where on the guitar to put your finger for the particular part of the string on the neck. After you tune your guitar, the next thing you want to do is find a guitar tab of your favorite song for practice. Yes, practice. Practice makes perfect.
