There are two different ways of writing down or reading songs. There is the professional way, with all the fancy note symbols and there is the basic, more common way. I will be teaching you how to read the basic type. These are called Tablatures. The basic structure for a tablature (or tab) looks like this: E|------------------------ B|------------------------ G|------------------------ D|------------------------ A|------------------------ E|------------------------ The bottom line represents the top (thickest) string on your guitar. The top line represents the bottom (thinest) string on your guitar. Look at this: Thinest |------------- 2nd Thinest |------------- 3rd Thinest |------------- 3rd Thickest |------------- 2nd Thickest|------------- Thickest |------------- The first fret is the furthest away from you. There are usually 21, 22, 23 or 24 frets on a guitar. If you look, they all get thinner as they get closer to you. There are also marks telling you what fret is what. There is a dot on the third fret, the fifth fret, the seventh fret, the ninth fret, the twelve fret, the fifteenth fret, the seventeenth fret, the ninteenth fret, and the twenty first fret and maybe more. This is to help you get around your guitar quicker. Now to put frets into a tablature: E|----------------- B|----------------- G|----------------- D|----------------- A|----------------- E|1-2-3-4---------- What this tab is telling you to do is first, to put a finger (The Index Preferably) on the first fret on the top/thickest string. Then you pluck the string. If you are pushing hard enough onto the fret you shall find that you get a nice, deep note. Next, you put your next finger (preferably your middle finger) onto the second fret on the top string. Now hit the string. You should get a nice, slightly higher pitched note. Then you put your next finger (your ring finger) onto the third fret, if you are pushing down hard enough you will find that when you pluck the string you will get a slightly higher pitched note again. Then you push your next finger (your pinky) down hard onto the top string pushing it down into the forth fret, pluck the string and you will get another, slightly higher pitched sound. If you followed this carefully you should be getting the idea. Look at this: E|1-2-3-4---- B|----------- G|----------- D|----------- A|----------- E|----------- On this one, you are doing the exact same as the last one but you are put your fingers on, and hitting the thinnest string. You should get a very high pitched sound. Try this: E|---------- B|---------- G|---------- D|1-2-3-4--- A|---------- E|---------- Had a good try? If you're stuck, what you're doing is putting your fingers on the third thickest string, the third one away from you. So what about this? E|--------- B|--------- G|--------- D|--------- A|--------- E|0-1-2-3-- A 0? What do you do with a 0? Fear not! A zero simply means you pluck that string without putting your finger on a fret. This is fret zero. Make sense? Here are two, infamous and simple riffs, try them out: Source from ultimate-guitar.
