Getting To Know Guitar Tabs

guitar tabs
In the simplest terms, a guitar tab is a word that is used to describe a musical notation, which may contain either numbers or letters and explains to the musician where to place his/her fingers on the instrument. Guitar tabs consist of multiple lines and is often called a ‘staff notation.’ These lines, which are present in guitar tabs, each represent one of the guitar strings.

New musicians often find guitar tabs to be especially baffling in that the strings are written backwards. The highest string is found at the top of the guitar tabs, which is often difficult to learn since most people would expect that guitar tabs would be written from top to bottom instead of the other way around. In actuality, guitar tabs are written from the highest to lowest and the numbers on each line represent the guitar fret. In order to understand guitar tabs, all new guitarists need to learn string placement and how to correctly read frets.

Generally written in standard format, guitar tabs may slightly vary depending on the sheet music publisher. Even still, guitar tabs are easier to read than learning staff notation. Because of it’s visual representation, new musicians are often more comfortable reading guitar tabs than any other kind of music.

When learning the guitar, musicians will become familiar with the instrument and how it works. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, including private instruction, informational reference books and videos. In some cases, classroom lessons may even be used to help better equip the musician to learn guitar and how to read guitar tabs. As the musician becomes familiar with the terms used to describe a guitar, including the neck, fret, string, chord, etc., he/she will also begin to easily read guitar tabs.

In the beginning, guitar tabs can be intimidating. Multiple lines and letters, numbers or other symbols may seem quite confusing. With practice and time, a guitar tab will be as easy to understand as the links found your favorite website. Few musicians can play by ear without first learning a song via sheet music, which is why reading guitar tabs is the first step that a guitarist must take before learning how to play.

If you need further information on finding a guitar instructor, check the local yellow page listing or stop by your local high school or college and ask the music director for a recommendation.

Easy Guitar Tabs

Guitar tabs are an easy solution for you if you have no idea of how to read sheet music but are constantly bugged by the notion that you want to be a guitarist. Guitar tabs are easy to learn and allow you to begin playing songs right away, even if you are not familiar with them. Once you have bought your first guitar, it is time to begin looking for easy guitar tab versions of some songs to find out what it feels like to be a guitar player. Which songs you need tabs for depends on how you see yourself as a musician. Do you want to play your favorite songs chiefly for your own amusement or do you want to aim your repertoire at a potential audience? Let us look at your audience for a minute. The most popular songs in the world are all from years gone by. If you sit a bunch of people aged between ten and fifty down and play songs at them you will find some universal favorites, and they will all be old songs. If you want to please a random audience, your ultimate goal should be to have about one hundred popular songs ranging from the 1940's to the present, but you could probably narrow the range to just include songs going back to the sixties.

So what are the easiest songs to learn from tabs? What can a beginner guitarist learn quickly without too much trouble? Well, I did a little searching on the internet concerning that question, and I found that "Horse With No Name" contains only two chords, and dead simple ones at that! You could be playing that song in a convincing fashion today! "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" makes use of the chords G D C and Am - all easy chords. Building on chords you have acquired learning these songs, you can go onto "House Of The Rising Sun" which uses Am C D F E and E7. Once you have learnt that, it's only natural to go onto another beautiful song, "California Dreamin'" which has the same chords. If you do not like the idea of beginning your guitar playing with these songs, do an internet search in the country music and blues genres. Actually a working knowledge of twelve bar blues is very useful for a guitar player just starting out.

Now for a short list of songs that are both easy to play and have proven to be popular with audiences of all ages. You can find tab arrangements for these songs by typing the titles into a search engine.
"Angie" by The Rolling Stones
"Blowin' In The Wind" by Bob Dylan
"Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison
"A Day In The Life", "Here, There And Everywhere" and "Hey Jude" by The Beatles
"I Walk The Line" by Johnny Cash
"Tears In Heaven" by Eric Clapton
"Gloria" by Van Morrison
"Hotel California" by The Eagles
"Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who
"Scarborough Fair" by any number of performers, and
"White Room" by Cream

Once you have some guitar songs under your belt, you could learn more popular favorites that do not fit into the "Easy Guitar Tabs" category. Wilson Pickett's "Dock Of The Bay" and "American Pie" by Don Mclean come to mind. But do not let the tastes of the masses be your only guide. If, for example, you decide you would like to do a folk guitar arrangement of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" then you could use tabs for the original electric guitar version as a basis for your new work. With a bunch of easy guitar tabs at your disposal, the only limits to your musical achievements are your imagination and your audience's supply of tomatoes.