Reading tablature

What the numbers mean

Each horizontal line is a string. The high E string is on top, the low E string at the bottom — the way you look down at the fretboard with the instrument in your arms. Get that the wrong way round once and everything comes out upside down.

The number on a line is the fret you press. 0 means an open string, press nothing. x means that string stays silent: not struck, or damped with a finger.

Numbers above one another are played together — that is a chord. Numbers side by side are played one after another — that is a melody or a picking pattern.

The first chords as tablature

What tablature does NOT say

Two things are missing, and both really are missing.

The rhythm. Tablature says which fret to press but not how long the note lasts. If you do not know the piece, you cannot play it from tablature alone — only play along, once you have heard it. Some tablature puts note stems under the numbers; most of it online does not.

The note. Tablature says »3«, not »G«. Read only tablature and you learn the shapes but not the fretboard — and you cannot play the same piece on any other instrument.

Tablature or notation?

Both together is the answer, and that is how guitar books are printed: notation on top with the rhythm, tablature underneath with the shape. The notes say what sounds, the tablature says where to put your fingers.

If you will only learn one, start with tablature — it gets you playing today. But reading notation takes a few weeks and opens everything else.