Guitar Notes Made Easy - How To Make Sense Of Guitar Notes On Tabs

I have posted before on learning to play guitar tabs but many beginner guitar players are still confused by guitar tabs.

Guitar notes are shown on tabs as numbers on lines. The lines are the guitar strings. The numbers represent the guitar frets. The guitar tab shown is of the C major chord. The top line is the thinnest string on the guitar, so if you are holding the guitar in the playing position, the thinnest string will be near your leg. The bottom string on the tab is the thickest string which will be at the top of the guitar as you are holding it in playing position.

You probably already know that the guitar strings, from the thickest to the thinnest, sound the notes E A D G B E. The first string on the guitar is designated with a lower case e. The top e string is played open in the C chord, so there is a zero on that string. The second string, or B string, is stopped at the first fret, the G string is played open, the D string is fretted at the second fret, the A at the third, and the E string is usually not played even though it sounds the E note which is part of the C major chord.

e————-0———|

B———-1————|

G——-0—————|

D—-2——————|

A–3——————–|

E———————–|

Every guitar tab writer has his individual way of showing left hand fingerings and techniques in tab. This video focuses on a common method of adding fingering to tab:

Here is another article on reading guitar tabs.