subject: Why Do Even Easy Guitar Tabs Look So Complicated? [print this page] Many beginning guitarists, when they are faced with their first guitar tab, do not actually know what to make of it. A confusing combination of lines and numbers seems like a highly complex code to which they do not have the key. In reality, tabs are rather simple to read once you know the basics. Easy guitar tabs make it possible for guitarists to share their music with other guitarists. By reading tabs, almost anyone can learn how to replicate the songs of their favorite music artists. If you want to learn how to read tabs, then the following information may be just exactly what you need.
Easy acoustic guitar tabs and electric guitar tabs often seem complicated to the beginning guitarist but they are actually set up in a very practical and logical manner. Composed of a staff of six horizontal lines, guitar tabs show you exactly which notes to play and how to form those notes. Each line of the staff represents one string on the guitar. The bottom line represents the lowest E string and the top line represents the higher E string. Then the lines in between represent the strings A, D, G, and B in ascending order.
The second element of easy guitar tabs is the numbers which are used to show guitarists which notes to play. Numbers printed on the lines of the staff indicate which fret should be used. The number indicates the fret itself and the line on which it is printed shows which string on which to use the fret. A "0" printed on any line indicates that an open string should be played and if several numbers are printed in a column then all notes should be played at once to form a chord.
Now that you know the basics of easy guitar tabs you may wonder why they seemed to be so complicated. Tabs make it possible for even beginner guitarists to begin to play almost any guitar song. Unfortunately, guitar tabs do not have a universal form of indicating rhythm so in order to learn how long to hold each note you may need to listen to a recording of the song first. After a few tries you will get the hang of it and in no time you will be able to play any easy acoustic guitar tab or electric guitar tab that you come across very easily.
