Reading Guitar Tab (Guitar Tablature)

Guitar tab (or tablature) is the most common form of guitar notation. It can be used on its own or as a supplement to standard notation. The advantage of guitar tab is that it shows where to play the notes on the guitar.

Guitar tab is very simple. There are 6 horizontal lines representing the guitar strings. The lowest line represents the 6th (E) string (the thickest wound string).

Numbers represent frets, so a number on a line is an instruction to play a note at that fret on that string. A zero means play the string open.

Guitar tab reads left to right, so notes are played one after the other from the left. If notes are stacked vertically they should be played together as a chord.