If you see several numbers stacked on top of each other, that's a chord.

If you see just one number by itself, that's a single note to be played by itself. (If you see a '0' on a string, that means you'll play that string open. Those indicate what fret to press on that string. If you're looking at TAB, you'll notice numbers on the string lines. I'm gonna call those 'string lines.' There. The lowest line represents the 6th string (the lowest pitched string). The top most line represents the highest pitched string on your guitar, the first string. There are 6 horizontal lines in guitar tab (one for each string, counted from top to bottom). If you're looking at TAB, it means that some other guitarist took the actual notes and did some mental interpretation for you ahead of time to produce that TAB. It offers a mental 'shortcut' to learning. You can see why TAB would become popular with guitarists. Instead of telling you what notes you'll be playing, letting you decide what strings, frets, and fingers to use when playing those notes, TAB gives you a visual 'how to' rather than the note names. That means that it paints a picture that roughly corresponds to your guitar neck. The first thing to know about TAB is that it's 'visually analogous'. The image is taken from our lesson book ( session 3) below shows both Standard Notation (top staff) and TAB (bottom staff): It almost died out but was revived after WWII by thousands of new guitar players. (There have been tablature schemes invented for other fretted instruments too, but you'll have to find another article for lute TAB.) Just know that TAB was invented before the guitar. TAB is a way to notate musical notes and chords that is specific to guitar. If you are unfamiliar with guitar tablature (most of the time called ' TAB'), let's set you straight before moving into the main discussion. Standard Notation Saturday, February 26, 2011

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