Understanding Tablature

There are lots of great software, lessons, tutorials, books, etc. for learning guitar, but they aren't going to do you any good if you can't read the music inside! Most modern guitar resources use something called tablature, which can be daunting at first, but really isn't that hard to understand. let's look at an example tab:
tablature(also called tab for short) is the numbers and lines on the bottom row, we'll ignore the actual sheet music for now. Tab has 6 lines, one for each string on the guitar. the bottom line represents the low E (a.k.a. the fat one) , and they move up to A , D, G, B, and the high E, respectively. a number on the line represents that fret, with '0' representing an open fret.


so the first six notes would be an open low E string, the 2nd fret of the A string, then the 2nd fret of the D string, and so on. this represents playing all of the notes of an E minor chord one at a time. If you want to represent a chord being strummed at once, you put the notes on top of each other, like the C major chord that follows.

tablature also includes various symbols for the different kind of inflection you can put on notes. the three symbols after the C chord represent a hammer-on, a pull-off, (both of which are playing two notes, then hammering on or letting go to let a second one play) and a slide (playing one note, then without picking again, sliding to a different fret).

These are just the basics of tablature, and you may run across some other symbols from time to time. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a question in the comments and I'd be happy to respond.

Want more good online lessons like this? How about multimedia tutorials, including video, backing tracks, tablature, and more? Then be sure to check out Ben Edwards' Jam-O-Rama, which is currently offering a 6-day free trial!

Understanding Scale Theory: Part 1: The Basics

Scale theory can be a little intimidating, but once you understand it, everything in music makes so much more sense. There are 12 scale tones, which can be used to make a nearly infinite number of scales.

We use numbers to represent the scale tones, and notes can be put in place of any of these. For example, let's look at the major scale in C:

C D E F G A B

in scale tones, we would write it like this:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

this series of scale notes is called the scale formula for the major scale. they show how many half-steps (1 fret on the guitar, also called a semitone) and whole steps (2 frets on the guitar, also called a whole tone) . The first note (the 1) is also called the root note. so, for the major scale we have:

1: the root
2: the second, a whole step higher than the root
3: the third, two whole steps higher than the root.
4: the fourth, 2 1/2 steps above the root.
5: the fifth: 3 1/2 steps above the root.
6: the sixth: 4 1/2 steps above the root.
7: the seventh: 5 1/2 steps above the root.

using this formula, we can plug any note into the root, and get the major scale of that note. For example, let's put in A instead of C:

A B C# D E F# G#
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

and that's how we can find the major scale. next time we'll discuss how this can work for other scales, and applying this knowledge to the fretboard!

Want more good online lessons like this? How about multimedia tutorials, including video, backing tracks, tablature, and more? Then be sure to check out Ben Edwards' Jam-O-Rama, which is currently offering a 6-day free trial!