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TAB notation - the basics
TAB is simple to read, and should be simple to write if you
want to submit a song you have worked out yourself. The idea
is this:
You start out with 6 lines (or four for bass). These
correspond to the strings of the instrument. The top line
is the highest pitch string, and the bottom line is the
lowest pitch string. Below is a blank bit of TAB with the
string names at the left.
E-------------------------------------------------
B-------------------------------------------------
G-------------------------------------------------
D-------------------------------------------------
A-------------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------
Numbers are written on the lines to
show you where to fret
the string with the left hand. If a zero appears , this
means play the open string. Like standard musical notation,
you read from left to right to find out what order to play
the notes. The following piece of TAB would mean play the
sequence of notes (E F F# G G# A) on the bottom E string by
moving up a fret at a time, starting with the open string.
E-------------------------------------------------
B-------------------------------------------------
G-------------------------------------------------
D-------------------------------------------------
A-------------------------------------------------
E---0--1--2--3--4--5------------------------------
OK so far ?
Here we have notes being played one at a time. If two or
more notes are to be played together, they are written on
top of one another, again just like standard notation.
In the next example we have a G bar chord.
E----3--------------------------------------------
B----3--------------------------------------------
G----4--------------------------------------------
D----5--------------------------------------------
A----5--------------------------------------------
E----3--------------------------------------------
So this means play all these notes
together as a chord.
You might see the same chord written like this:
E--------3----------------------------------------
B-------3-----------------------------------------
G------4------------------------------------------
D-----5-------------------------------------------
A----5--------------------------------------------
E---3---------------------------------------------
Which would mean strum the same
shape starting at the bottom string, so that each string is hit slightly later than the
last string, but all notes will ring together. Below is am
example of the same shape again, but now the gaps between
the notes are bigger - so you would probably pick the
strings separately instead of slowly strumming the shape.
E------------------3------------------------------
B---------------3-----3---------------------------
G------------4-----------4------------------------
D---------5-----------------5---------------------
A------5-----------------------5------------------
E---3-----------------------------3---------------
You might ask - How do I know how
fast or slow to play this?
Are all the notes supposed to be the same length?
This is where TAB differs from standard notation. Most often
TAB will not give you any information on the note lengths.
It is usually left up to you to listen to the song to pick
up the rhythm.
However - don't despair. TAB should give you some indications
of timing. In the example above all the notes are evenly
spaced so you can reasonably assume that the notes are the
same length (maybe all eighth notes or quavers) but this may
not always be true - it depends on who wrote the TAB.
As a general rule, the spacing of the notes on the TAB
should tell you which notes are the long ones, and which are
the short and fast ones, but obviously it won't tell you if
a note is a triplet or anything like that. Again, this will
depend strongly on the person who wrote the TAB.
As an example, here are the first few notes of the American
National Anthem in TAB. You should see fairly clearly that
the different spacing corresponds to the different note
lengths.
E-----------------------0---4--2-0----------------
B---0--------------0----------------------------0-
G------1------1-----------------------1----3------
D--------2----------------------------------------
A-------------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------
Obviously it will be a lot easier to
play the TAB for a song
you know well than for a song you've never heard of because
you will already be familiar with the rhythms of the familiar
song.
Also, here's a list
of the most commonly used symbols:
h - hammer on
p - pull off
b - bend string up
r - release bend
/ - slide up
\ - slide down
v - vibrato (sometimes written as ~)
t - tap (with strumming hand)
x - muted, struck string
Copyright Howard Wright and
the olga-grunts
Howard.Wright@ed.ac.uk
How To Write Guitar Tablature |
