Understanding Guitar Tablature

ICM P9 SUP1: Understanding Guitar Tab

Guitar Tablature

Understanding Guitar Tab

Guitar tab is widely used when writing down music played on guitar. Tablature indicates the position for playing notes and chords, as well as the order in which they are to be played. Sometimes symbols are added to indicate technique, time and rhythm.

The guitar strings are depicted as six horizontal lines. The line at the base represents bottom E (E2), and the line at the top E (E4), with the other four lines representing the four strings in between.

E------B------G------D------A------E------

Figure 1. An example of guitar tablature layout.

Numbers are placed on the lines to show the fret position for each note. So, for example, the number 4 on the top line represents the 4th fret of the top E string.

Fret positions are shown from left to right in the order they are to be played.

E------0------B------0------G------0------D------2------A------2------E------0------

Figure 2. An example of guitar tablature for an arpeggiated E minor chord

Chords (i.e. several notes played at once) are shown as fret positions stacked on top of one another.

E-----0------B-----0------G-----0------D-----2------A-----2------E-----0------

Figure 3. An example of guitar tablature for an E minor chord

Two example files (that have been downloaded from the web) are provided. The first is for Pink Floyd’s “Bike”: this is made up entirely of chords (i.e. all notes stacked on top of one another), with no single notes. The second, Radiohead’s “No Surprises” provides an example of single notes. ICM P9 SUP1: Understanding Guitar Tab

Below is the guitar tab for the introduction of “No Surprises”:

E--16------16------16------12-14-- B------17------17------17------13------G-----16----16----16---16----16----16-14------D------A------E------

Figure 3. Guitar tablature for the introduction of “No Surprises” (it needs to be repeated four times).

The guitar tab for “No Surprises” gives tabs for certain specified chord names and then the chords (as opposed to the tab for the chords) are given above the lyrics in the order they are played. Sometimes the tabs are not given for chords, and it is just assumed that the person following the tab just knows what the chords are (often the chords are common ones). To find the tabs for chords use the guitar chord chart at 8notes.com; to just get the notes (e.g. for transcription to keyboard) refer to the bottom half of chord-notes.jpg or use the chord finder at www.8notes.com.

Using Guitar Tab to Help Complete MPP2

Guitar tab can be useful when trying to copy a piece of music. The melodies and chord progressions of a piece of music can be easily found in this way.

There is a lot of guitar tab available: many people have transcribed many songs; these transcriptions can be found on the internet by typing in the name of the song and “tab” into a search engine.

Guitar tab can then be converted into MIDI notes (using the Guitar-Note-to- MIDI-chart.jpg) that can then be input directly into a sequencer.