Contents

Foreword
Introduction
Tablature Layout
Tablature Layout
​Tablature Practice
Tablature Symbols
Symbol Summary
Closing Note
Practice
Blank Tabs
 Foreword
To my readers,
​Thank you for taking interest in this guide. I hope it accels your
knowledge and grants you even more passion in the world of music.
Tablature has helped me learn many different songs and is a lot
easier to me than learning notation.
​May your guitar always stay in tune and strings never break,
​Thomas W.
 Introduction
​ hen I started guitar, my dad had gotten me this starter kit that
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came with a guitar and a video by a famous guitarist to try and teach
you the basics.
​Did it help?
​No. Not so much.
​It taught me how to play simple chords like A, C, D, and G. But
that is all that it really covered. (Besides nomenclature and how to
strum….)
​I was looking for ways to learn at my pace and get on the level of
guitarists like Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Slash. So I took to
the internet and surfed through a bunch of instructors and couldn’t
really keep up with their lessons.
​I felt at a loss and set my guitar down, maybe I just wasn’t cut out
for it. Then a link showed me this glorious thing, “Guitar Tablature.” It
was just the thing I needed to get my foot past the door and burst
into a time where I could read the tabs and play whatever I wanted. It
was sight reading without needing to know the notation!
​Through a few of my lessons I realized, there really wasn’t that
great of an explanation on how to begin to read tablature and it left
some of my students pretty confused. I saw that there was a need I
could fulfill to better help other individuals who want to get into
learning more tablature.
​Now, here I am drafting my lesson plan from word of mouth
straight to the book that will help you get started in no time.
 Tablature Layout
​ henever you first see a set of tabs, it can look pretty
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intimidating. Almost like it is a special weird type of guitar code,
right?

E|-----------------5------------------
B|--------------4-----6---------------
G|-----------3-----------7------------
D|--------2-----------------8---------
A|-----1-----------------------9------
E|--0-----------------------------10--

​ ere, you can see that I’ve added the notes of the string
H
alongside a bunch of numbers.

​ he layout is simple, each letter belongs to a string. The number

T
that follows the line of the string is the fret on which you place your
finger!
​Pretty easy, right?
​Let’s take a look here at the top of the tablature. We see that, on
the high E string (sometimes annotated by a lowercase ‘e’), we
would play that string with our finger on the 5th fret.
 Tablature Layout
​ ow let’s take a look at how tabs look when you are playing
N
multiple strings at once!

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

​ his is a G chord that you would strum according to the tablature.

T
​Any time you see multiple numbers on top of the other, you strum
those together.
 ​Tablature Practice
“Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”
e|--------------0-0---------------------------------------------------------------------0-0---------------------
B|--------3-3-------3--1-1-0-0---------3-3-1-1-0-0----3-3-1-1-0-0---------3-------3-1-1-0-0---------
G|--0--0--------------------------2-2-0-----------------2-----------------2-0-0----------------------2-2-0--
D|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Happy Birthday to You”

e|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G|-------------------------------------------------------4--1-------------2--2--1-----------
D|----------------2--1-----------------4--2-------------------2--1----------------2--4--2--
A|--2--2--4--2----------2--2--4--2---------2--2-------------------4--------------------
E|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Tablature Symbols
Whenever you come across professionally done tablature or
reading notation, you will probably come across some funny looking
symbols. Let’s take a look at the symbols for “hammer-ons” and
“pull-offs”.
A “hammer-on” will have a “h” in between numbers on tablature.
e|--------0h4--------------------------------------------
B|----------------0h1-----------------------------------
G|-----------------------------1h3---------------------
D|-------------------------------------------------------
A|-------------------------------------------------------
E|-------------------------------------------------------

A “pull-off” will be represented with the letter “p”. Sometimes

combined with “h”

e|--------4p0--------------------------------------------
B|----------------1p0-----------------------------------
G|-----------------------------3p1---------------------
D|-------------------------------------------------------
A|------------------------------------------------2h4p2-
E|-------------------------------------------------------

*Side note: They can also be shown with a connecting line

between notes and the representing letter of the action above the
tablature.
Another common symbol you’ll see is slides in the tablature. This
is represented by using a forward or back slash, (/ or \), depending
on the direction of the slide.
e|---1 / 4 ------ 4 \ 1------------------------------
 B|---------------------------3 / 7 ------------------
G|-----------------------------------5 \ 3-----------
D|---------------------------------------------------
A|---------------------------------------------------
E|---------------------------------------------------

Next up on the list is bends and releases. Very straightforward

and super easy to remember since they’re labeled, ‘b’ for bend and
‘r’ for release. Whenever you bend the string, it is typically bent to
sound like the note it is written next to.

e|---------------------------------------------
B|--------------2b4r2-----------------------
G|------------------------2-------------------
D|------------------------------5b7r5-------
A|--------------------------------------------
E|--------------------------------------------

This one is typically not written into the tablature itself but rather
on top of it. It’s called Palm Muting and is written out as P.M. with
dashes after to signify how long to mute the strings for.

P.M.---------------------------------------------|
e|------------------------------------------------------
B|----------------------------1------------------------
G|------------------------0-------0--------------------
D|--------------------2---------------2----------------
A|------0---2----3-----------------------3------------
E|---------------------------------------------3--------

The end of the mute is signified by the ‘|’ symbol.

This ‘~’ tells us to use vibrato when playing a note. This is written
after a note that is usually let to ring out and adds character to the
sound.
e|-----------------------------2~~~~~~ -4---2----------------------------
B|----2~~~~~~~-4~~~~~~-----------------------4---2---4~~~~~~~--
G|----------------------------------------------------------------------------
D|---------------------------------------------------------------------------
A|---------------------------------------------------------------------------
E|---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another common thing to see is ‘x’. This tells you to play the
string fully muted. This is done by placing your fingers lightly over the
string(s) and strumming the respective string.

e|----x-----------------------------------x------------------
B|----x------------------------------x----------x------------
G|----x-------------------------x--------------------x------
D|----x-------------------x-----------------------------x---
A|-----x-----------x----------------------------------------x-
E|-----x-------------------------------------------------------x

*These are added to simulate a percussion effect into a song.

One of my favorite things to incorporate and play in tablature is
the natural harmonic effects. These are written into the tabs by using
‘<>’. Harmonics create such a smooth ringing tone and are a joy to
listen to.
e|----<12>---------------------------------------------------------
B|----<12>--------------------------------------------------------
G|----<12>---------------------------------------------------------
D|----<12>------------------------<7>-----------------------------
A|----<12>----------------<7>----------<7>-----------------------
E|-----<12>--------<7>--------------------------<7>--------------

‘( )’ are used to write in a held, sustained, note or ghost note.

These can also be written in with a connecting line below the notes.
 e|----------------------------------------------------------------
B|----------------------------------------------------------------
G|-----------------------------------------------------------------
D|-------------------------------1---(1)---2----(2)-----3~~~~--
A|-0----(0)-----(0)------(0)--------------------------------------
E|------------------------------------------------------------------

*Think of each sustained note as 1 count for each note.

Last on this list is tapping. In tablature, tapping is written using

the letter ‘t’ and it has a sequence of hammer-ons and pull-offs
following it.

e|----t14h17h18-----t14h17h18----t14h17h18-----------------------------------------
B|---------------------------------------------------------t14p12p9---t14p12p9------------
G|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Symbol Summary
‘t’: Tapping
‘~’: Vibrato
‘h’: hammer-on
‘p’: pull-off
‘( )’: Ghost note / Sustained note
‘< >’: Natural Harmonics
‘x’: muted strings
‘P.M.-----’: Palm Mute
‘/ \’: Slide up / down
 Closing Note
Hopefully through this short guide you can feel a bit more
confident learning to read Tabs. It took me a while to figure it out for
myself so if it doesn’t “click” automatically, don’t worry. Practice
doesn’t always make perfect but it sure does make a lot of things
easier than before. After this note, I will add Tabs of my own so you
can get more familiar with reading and playing by sight. They will be
easy to read and fairly generic but feel free to freestyle. I will also
add a few blank tabs so you can play around with writing your own
and be creative!
Thank you for reading this and good luck on your guitar journey
in the future!
Respectfully,
Thomas W.
 Practice

“Cowboy Picking Progression”

e|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B|-------1----1-------1---1-------1---1-------1---1--------1---1--------1--1-----1---1---------1--1------
G|-------2----2-------2---2-------2---2-------2---2--------2---2--------2--2-----2---2---------2--2------
D|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A|--3---------------------------3-------------------------0------------------------0-------------------------
E|----------------3--------------------------3--------------------------0-----------------------0-------------

E|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Repeat from top

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

“A little tune in Am”

e|------------------------------------------------| Repeat 2x
B|-----------1---------------0h1--------------|
G|--------2----2----------2-------2------------|
D|-----2----------2----2-------------2--------|
A|--0----------------0------------------0------|
E|-----------------------------------------------|
E|------------------------------------------------------------------| Start again from the top and loop
B|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
G|---------0---------------0---------------0-------------0---------|
 D|------0----0----------0---0----------0----0--------0---0-------|
A|---2----------2----2---------2----3----------3--3---------3----|
E|-3---------------3---------------2--------------2----------------|

“Peaceful ‘C’”
E|-----------0-----3--5-----(5)-----3 \ 1p0---------------------------0--(0)---3---0------------------------|
B|------1 / 3-(3)--------------0---------------------------------1 / 3------------------------------3 \ 1~~~~|
G|----0--------------------0-------------------------0----(0)----------------------------------0---------------|
D|-------------------------------------------------2-----------------------------------------0-------------------|
A|-3-------------------------------------------3-----------------------------------------------------------------|
E|--------------------1------------------------------------------------------------------3------------------------|

*For any other Tabs that you may be interested in, a suggest
starting at ultimate-guitar.com and searching for songs there. If you
want to go more classical route, look for fingerstyle arrangements.
 Blank Tabs
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