Guitar tab is the reason you can learn a part off the internet without being able to read music. It is a picture of the strings with numbers on them, and it takes about ten minutes to learn. This page goes through it from the first line to the last symbol, with short examples written out so you can try each one as you read. Every example here is made up for the purpose: generic phrases, not extracts from songs.
The six lines and the numbers
A tab is six horizontal lines, one per string. Read it from left to right, like text. Here is an empty one, with the letters down the side naming the strings of standard tuning.
e|-------------------------| B|-------------------------| G|-------------------------| D|-------------------------| A|-------------------------| E|-------------------------|
The surprise is at the top. The top line is the thinnest string, the high E, and the bottom line is the thickest, the low E. That is upside down compared with written music, where high notes sit high on the page. A tab is not drawn by pitch, it is drawn the way the guitar looks when you are holding it and looking down at it: the thin string is the one nearest your eye.
Now the numbers. A number is the fret to press on that line's string. A 0 means play the string with no finger on it at all. Nothing on a line means that string is silent.
e|-------------------------| B|-------------------------| G|-------------------------| D|-------------------------| A|---0---2---3---2---0-----| E|-------------------------|
That is five notes, all on the fifth string, the A: open, second fret, third fret, second fret, open. Pick them one after the other. Note that the numbers are frets, never fingers and never note names, which is the single most common misreading.
Once notes move between strings, the shape on the page starts to look like the shape under your hand.
e|-------------------0-----| B|---------------1---------| G|-----------0-------------| D|-------2-----------------| A|---3---------------------| E|-------------------------|
Five notes climbing across five strings. Reading it slowly out loud helps more than it sounds: fifth string third fret, fourth string second fret, third string open, second string first fret, first string open.
Chords in a tab
When numbers sit in the same vertical column, they are played at the same time. That is a chord, and it is the only thing you need to know to read one.
e|---0---------3-----------| B|---0---------3-----------| G|---0---------0-----------| D|---2---------0-----------| A|---2---------2-----------| E|---0---------3-----------|
Two chords, strummed once each. The first is six strings with two fingers at the second fret, which is E minor. The second is the four finger G. If those shapes are new, the basic guitar chords page writes out all eight of the open ones, finger by finger.
A tab of a strummed song often looks strange at first, because it repeats the same six numbers over and over while the rhythm does all the work. That is a case where a chord chart, which just names the chords above the words, is easier to use than a tab. Use the tool that matches the job: a tab for a riff or a fingerpicked part, chord names for strumming.
Partial chords and double stops
Two or three numbers in a column, rather than six, means exactly that: two or three strings sounding together. Players call them double stops, and they are everywhere in riffs. Nothing changes about how you read them.
Tab symbols: h, p, /, \, b, r, x, ~, PM
Letters and marks between the numbers tell you how to play the note, not which note to play. These nine cover almost everything you will meet.
| Symbol | Name | Written | What you do |
|---|---|---|---|
| h | Hammer-on | 5h7 | Pick the 5th fret, then bring another finger down hard onto the 7th without picking again. One pick, two notes. |
| p | Pull-off | 7p5 | The reverse. Both fingers are already down, and the higher one pulls sideways off the string so the lower note rings. |
| / | Slide up | 5/7 | Pick the 5th fret and slide the same finger up to the 7th, keeping the pressure on. The pitch travels rather than jumps. |
| \ | Slide down | 7\5 | The same thing in the other direction, toward the nut. |
| b | Bend | 7b9 | Pick the 7th fret and push the string across the fretboard until it sounds like the 9th. The number after the b is the pitch you are aiming for, not a fret to press. |
| r | Release | 7b9r7 | Let a bend come back down to where it started, without picking again. |
| x | Dead note | x | Touch the string without pressing it to a fret, and strike it. You get a percussive click with no pitch. It is a rhythm, not a note. |
| ~ | Vibrato | 9~ | Hold the note and rock the finger so the pitch wavers slightly. The longer the squiggle, the longer you keep it going. |
| PM | Palm mute | PM------ | Rest the edge of your picking hand on the strings near the bridge. The notes go short and thick. The dashes show how long it lasts. |
Here are five of them in one phrase, which is roughly how they turn up in real parts.
e|-------------------------------| B|-------------------------------| G|-----------------7b9r7---------| D|-------------5/7---------9~----| A|---5h7p5-----------------------| E|-------------------------------|
Read it as: fifth string, 5th fret, hammer to the 7th, pull back to the 5th. Then fourth string, 5th fret, slide up to the 7th. Then third string, bend the 7th up to the sound of the 9th and release it back. Then fourth string, 9th fret, held with vibrato.
And the two that affect the sound rather than the pitch, the dead note and the palm mute, which almost always appear together in a riff.
PM----------- PM----------- e|-----------------------------------------| B|-----------------------------------------| G|-----------------------------------------| D|-----------------------------------------| A|---2---2---x---2-------2---2---x---2-----| E|---0---0---x---0-------0---0---x---0-----|
The PM line above the tab shows where the palm is resting on the strings, and the dashes show how long it stays there. The x in the middle is a string struck while muted by the fretting hand: a click, with no pitch, that fills a beat.
Rhythm: what a tab does not tell you
This is the honest limit of the format, and it is worth saying plainly rather than discovering it on your own. A plain text tab tells you which note, on which string, in what order. It does not tell you how long any of them last.
Some tabs add note values above the lines, with letters or stems, and some rely on the spacing between numbers to suggest the timing. Neither is dependable, because the spacing survives badly when a tab is copied from one site to another and the note values are often simply left out.
What to do about it
- Have the recording playing. The tab is for your fingers, the recording is for your ears. Used together they are complete. Used alone, a tab gives you the right notes in the wrong shape.
- Count the bars. Most tabs break the lines at bar lines, the vertical | marks. Four beats between bar lines is the usual case, and once you can feel where the bar starts, the rhythm often becomes obvious.
- Sing the phrase before you play it. If you can sing it, you know its rhythm, and your hands will follow a rhythm they already know far more easily than one they are reading.
- Slow the recording down. Half speed turns a blur into a sequence. The notes are the same ones, and at half speed you can hear which of them are long.
- Put a click under it. Our online metronome will subdivide the beat into eighths or sixteenths, which is the quickest way to find out which of the tab's numbers fall between the beats rather than on them. Set it slower than the recording, play the phrase against it, and the rhythm the tab left out becomes a thing you can write in the margin.
Tab vs sheet music vs chord diagram
Three ways of writing guitar music, and they are not rivals: each leaves out what the others keep.
| Format | Tells you | Leaves out | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guitar tab | Which string, which fret, in what order | The rhythm, and the note names | Learning a part by ear and eye, fast |
| Sheet music | The pitch and the exact rhythm of every note | Which string and which fret to use | Reading with other musicians, any instrument |
| Chord diagram | One shape, drawn on a picture of the neck | Everything about time and order | Learning a shape, and strumming songs |
The guitar has a specific problem that explains why tab exists at all: the same note can be played in several places on the neck. Middle C sits on the second string at the first fret, on the third string at the fifth fret, and on the fourth string at the tenth. Sheet music tells you the note and leaves the choice to you. A tab makes the choice for you, which is exactly what you want when you are copying someone's part.
Serious tabs often print both, a stave on top and a tab underneath. That combination has no weakness: the stave carries the rhythm, the tab carries the position.
Reading a bass tab
Bass tablature works exactly like guitar tablature, with one visible difference and no hidden ones: four lines instead of six, for G, D, A and E read from the top down.
G|-------------------------| D|-------------------------| A|-----------5---5---------| E|---3---3---------3---1---|
Numbers are frets, a 0 is an open string, and every symbol in the table above means the same thing on a bass as it does on a guitar. A five string bass adds a line at the bottom for the low B, and a six string adds one at the top for a high C.
One habit is worth borrowing from bass players whatever you play: they count. Because a bass part is often a handful of notes with a lot of space between them, the timing is the part, and reading the notes without the counting gives you nothing useful.
Write your own
Writing a tab down is how you stop losing the thing you worked out last week. It also makes you listen harder, because you cannot write a note until you are sure which string it was on.
By hand, draw six lines, put the string letters down the left, and keep the columns even by using the same number of dashes between each note. By computer, any plain text editor works, as long as it uses a fixed width font so the columns line up. Save it as plain text rather than as a word processor document, because the moment the font changes, the alignment is lost.
Both of those jobs now have a tool here. Typing one out is what our guitar tab maker is for: you click a string, type a fret, and it writes the staff above the tab and plays the result back so you can hear whether you heard right. For the pencil version, print a sheet of blank tab paper with the number of strings and bars you want, which beats drawing six lines by hand and beats a fixed PDF that is always six strings.
If what you are writing down is a strummed song rather than a riff, the numbers are not the useful part: the chord shapes are. A sheet of blank chord diagrams holds a shape in one small picture, and a page of them is a far shorter record of a song than a tab of the same thing.
Frequently asked questions
How do you read guitar tabs for beginners?
Why is the top line the thin string?
Does a tab show rhythm?
What does a number in brackets mean?
Can I read bass tab the same way?
Who made this
Guitar Social Club is the work of Yohann Abbou, a guitar teacher in Paris. He teaches adults, which shapes everything here: people with jobs, limited practice time and a clear idea of the songs they want to play. The examples on this page are written rather than borrowed, because a student learning the symbols should be able to try each one without hunting for the song it came from. The rest of our free guitar tools work the same way. There is more on who he is and why this site exists in about Guitar Social Club.