The Guitar Blog

I’ve gotten a few emails asking me to explain the SSB songs in further detail — particularly the tablature parts — that I decided to write an introduction to reading tablature here.

According to Wikipedia, Tablature (or tabulature) is a form of musical notation, which tells players where to place their fingers on a particular instrument rather than which pitches to play. That is, in contrast to musical notation, which is more a visual representation of the aurally perceived pitch/note, tablature merely tells you where to place your fingers in the fretboard, indicating where and when a finger should be depressed to generate a note, so pitch is denoted implicitly rather than explicitly.

Tabs, as they are colloquially known, are an easy way to learn how to play songs because there is pretty much no learning curve. You play it as you see it, and don’t have to worry about rhythm, tempo, feel and such just yet. Of course, that can be a drawback later on when you need more information from the piece, but for those just starting out or in a hurry, tabs are gold.

Here’s an example, based on my latest SSB, Tatsulok by Bamboo:

      ~sweep~          p.  p.       b/r    p. h. p.    ph.
e |-------------------------------------------------------
B |------7-10----8--7--9-7-9-7----------------------------
G |-----9-----------------------9--9(11)9--7--9--7-----7--
D |----9------9-------------------------------------9-----
A |---9---------------------------------------------------
E |-------------------------------------------------------

Guitar tab consists of a series of horizontal lines forming a staff (or stave,) similar to standard notation. Each line represents one of the instrument’s strings therefore standard guitar tab has a six-line staff and bass guitar tab has four lines. The top line of the tablature represents the highest pitched string of the guitar. By writing tablature with the lowest pitched notes on the bottom line and the highest pitched notes on the top line of the tablature follows the same basic structure and layout of Western Standard Notation.

The following examples are labeled with letters on the left denoting the string names, with a lower-case “e” for the high E string. Tab lines may be numbered 1-6 instead, representing standard string numbering, where “1″ is the high E string, “2″ is the B string etc.

The numbers are written on the lines represent the fret used to obtain the desired pitch. For example, the number 3 written on the top line of the staff indicates that the player should press down at the third fret on the high E (first string). Number 0 denotes the nut - that is, an open string.

~ Wikipedia

Basing from that, we know know to put our fingers over the 9th fret of the A, D and G strings to execute the lick, and so forth. Great, so now you know where to put your fingers! What about those other stuff in there, you ask? Well, I’m not sure if there’s an actual convention as to how to write ASCII tabs, but this is how I annotate mine:

~sweep~   - arpeggiate
p.             - pull off
h.             - hammer on
b/r            - bend/release
ph.            - pinch harmonic

That’s just a small sampling, of course, but it covers the techniques I illustrated in the tab above. For more information, check these other resources out:

• Learning Guitar
• How To Read Guitar Tab - A Detailed Explanation of How To Read Guitar Tab