How to Read and Write Guitar Tablature

Form: Breaking Down A Tab

Tabs usually come in one type of form. Below is what the form would look like and how to understand it.

1. This is usually the header explaining what the song is and what band it is by. It also shows the date the tab was created and who it was tabbed by. Since mostly tabs are created from fans and submitted by them, it would contain their name.

2. This is where a key goes. A key is the same as a legend for a tab. It contains all the symbols used in the tab with what the symbols stand for. To learn more about symbols go to our Symbols page.

3. This is the body of the tab. It is where the song is shown how to be played. Each line of a tab contains six smaller dashed line. A line of a tab would look like this:

	e|--------------------------------------------------|
	B|--------------------------------------------------|
	G|--------------------------------------------------|
	D|--------------------------------------------------|
	A|--------------------------------------------------|
	E|--------------------------------------------------|

The smaller dashed lines each represent the six strings of a guitar E (lowest, thickest string), A (second lowest, thickest string), D (third lowest, thickest string), G (fourth lowest, thickest string), B (fifth lowest, thickest string), and e (the thinnest string). E and e are the same notes except e is two octaves higher. The notes of what the strings represent are usually to the left of the whole line. Tabs will contain numbers in their lines such as this:

	e|--------------------------------------------------|
	B|--------------------------------------------------|
	G|---------------5--------------------------17------|
	D|---------5--7-----7---------------17--19------19--|
	A|---5--7-------------------17--19------------------|
	E|--------------------------------------------------|

The numbers all represent the different frets on the guitar neck. Each dashed line is for each note. There is a maximum of 22 frets on a guitar so the highest number on a tab would be 22 (unless there is a bend on the 22, but that can be learned later). For the tab above, you would pick the 5th fret on string A, then pick the 7th fret on string A, move to string D, pick the 5th then 7th frets, move to string G, pick the 5th fret, then come back to string D and pick the 7th fret. The same goes for the second part except you would go even higher and pick the 17th and 19th frets.