On the left, next to each of the lines, there’s a letter that indicates the tuning of the string. In other words, tabs show you the strings the same way they look when you look down at them when you’re playing. The left side of the tab represents the headstock of your guitar with the bridge on the right. The line at the top is your high E string, the thinnest one of the six, while the bottom line represents the thickest string, the low E.

Tab notations consist of six horizontal lines that each represent one of the strings on a right-handed guitar. Naturally, some of the playing techniques you’ll see and hopefully learn, lend themselves better to one or the other. Secondly, while bass guitar and drum tabs do exist, this blog will focus exclusively on guitar tabs that can be played on both the electric and the acoustic guitar. This means that if you want to play a song using tabs, you either already need to be familiar with the rhythm or melody of it, or practice it by playing along to the original found on Youtube. Like I said, guitar tabs show you which strings to play and where to place your fingers, but what they don’t include, is the length of the notes. To learn everything you need to know about guitar tabs, simply sit back and enjoy this blog! It’s worth knowing how these work because they’re used all over the internet and in various guitar learning methods and songbooks. Tabs, short for tablature, show you exactly which string to play and which fret to press down on it at a single glance. Reading guitar tabs isn’t only easier than reading traditional notations, it’s also lot more intuitive.

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