Do you find yourself struggling with learning to play guitar songs? If you use standard music notation, you might find it a lot easier to play songs from tablatures instead, at least at the early learning phases. Guitar tablatures, tabs for short, is an alternative form of music notation. It is easier to read than standard music staffs since it physically resembles the arrangement of the guitar strings and reading it is more intuitive. So, if you are just starting out with guitar tablatures, here are 4 important tips:

1. Get familiar with guitar tabs and learn how to read them

First, lets quickly learn how guitar tabs are arranged. Each line on the tablature represents a guitar string. The top line represents the thinnest, highest-pitch string, which is also numbered the 1st string and is the closest to the floor. The bottom line is the 6th string, which is the lowest sounding and the top string on the guitar. On a standard-tuned guitar, strings are arranged in the following order, from the bottom line of the tab and up: EADBGE. An easy way to remember this is this mnemonic: “Eat All Day Get Big Early”. Next, learn the symbols on the tabs. When a digit appears on a tablature line, it represents the fret number that should be pressed on the fretboard while picking the string. A number ‘0′ tells you to pick an open string, without pressing any fret. An ‘x’ represents an open string. Additional symbols exist, such as ’s’ for slide or ‘h’ for a hammer-on. You can learn more about these extra symbols and techniques as you go. For now we will stick to the basics.

2. Don’t jump too high above your skill level.

You should increase the challenge with time, but initially focus on songs that are in your comfort level. This will allow you to gradually build your guitar playing skills. Too often, people try to play above their level and give up entirely as a result.

3. Listen to the song before you attempt to play it.

It will be a lot easier to play a song after you know how it sounds. With internet, or ASCII, tablatures, there is usually no way to play the song correctly without knowing how it sounds since these tabs typically have no rhythmic information (how long to hold each note and breaks between the notes).

4. Practice, practice, practice!

This is the most important tip when learning to play any musical instrument. If you have problems playing the song correctly, break it down to small sections and work on each slowly, until you can play it easily.

If you want to learn much more about how to read guitar tabs, visit this lesson. You can find more tips, guitar lessons, videos, course reviews and more at guitaristsJourney.com.

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