Lesson Three

Reading Tablature

   In this lesson, we'll learn how to read tablature.

   Tablature is extremely simple to learn and use. It involves basic knowledge of a guitar and of numbers.

This is a bar of tablature:

e----3-----------------3--
B----0--------------0-----
G----0-----------0--------
D----0--------0-----------
A----2-----2--------------
E----3--3-----------------

(a Gmaj chord)

The important things to know about tablature are:

·The numbers represent the number fret you place a finger starting with 0 - open   strings, then 1 - the fret closest to the nut, 2 - the second closest, and so on...
·An "x" means that you do not pick that string
·An "h" means that you "hammer" on a note (instead of picking you hammer your   finger onto the fret quickly)
·A "b" means that you should bend the note from the fret behind the b to the fret   in front of the b (this is not commonly used)
·A "\" or "/" means that you should slide up or down from the note behind to the   note in front
·The horizontal lines represent each string on the guitar, the smallest on top &   largest on bottom
·Numbers that are "stacked" are chords and should be fretted at the same time
·Individual numbers should be played in a sequence

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