There are 3 ways to read guitar music: Musical Notation, Guitar Tab, and Chord Charts. Yes, there are Lead Sheets and I’m sure other things, but again these posts are for beginners. 

Today we’ll go over the easiest to understand: guitar tabs. 

You can look up any song in the world and find tabs for it. It’s because tabs are so easy to understand and read that it’s widespread in the guitar stratosphere. 

To start, there's six lines laid horizontally. The lowest line is the E string (the one closest to your face). The top line is the high E string (the one closest to your leg). 

Confusing? Yes, but stay with me. 

Fill in the inner strings now that you know that the lowest line is the 6th string and the top line is the 1st string.  

The numbers tell you what frets to play. What line they’re placed on tells you what string to play. For example, this would be played on the 1st fret on the 1st string (the one closest to your leg). 

If you have two numbers stacked on top of each other, you will play those at the same time. There will never be two numbers played on the same string at the same time. You will only play one number per string at one time. That means you can only play a maximum of six strings at once.

Minimum:

Maximum: 

This is something you will see:

You won’t see anything like this:

Try this, Hot Cross Buns. It’s only played on the high E string (closest to your leg).

If you can play that, then we will add some strings to the mix. If you haven’t done this already, start using more than one finger to play. For right now, the fingers you use to play will be the same as the frets you play. That means if you have to play a note on fret 1, then use finger 1 to play it. If you have to play a note on fret 3, use finger 3. Use the picture below to help, then start playing.

For this song below, it should sound like the Rolling Stones’ Miss You:

If this seems easy to play, find some tabs for yourself. Search any song name followed by the word “tab” in your browser and you’ll find tabs for the songs you like. The most common websites to look up tabs are www.ultimateguitar.com and www.songsterr.com. Play what you want then let’s start on some chords!