How to read guitar Tabs Lesson by cowboynemo

FOUND THIS FREE TAB LESSON THOUGHT I WOULD SHARE IT


HOW TO READ AND WRITE TAB
A GUIDE TO TAB NOTATION


Written by Howard Wright
Howard.Wright@ed.ac.uk

Copyright Howard Wright and the olga-grunts

This document may be distributed freely as long as NO CHARGE is 
made and my name and email address are not removed. If you want to edit 
or re-format this document for public consumption, please contact me 
first. If you try to make any money by selling this guide to TAB, in 
part or as a whole, you will be struck down by a bolt of lightning. 
Probably. 
Updated : 11th October 1996


Contents
What is TAB 
What TAB will tell you 
What TAB won't tell you. 
Reading Tab
TAB notation - The Basics 
Other symbols used in TAB 
Hammer ons and pull offs 
Bends 
Slides 
Note length information 
Writing Tab
Getting Started 
To Tab or not to tab 
Things to do when writing TABs 
Things to avoid 




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What is TAB
TAB or tablature is a method of writing down music played on guitar or bass. 
Instead of using symbols like in standard musical notation, it uses ordinary 
ASCII characters and numbers, making it ideal for places like the internet 
where anybody with any computer can link up, copy a TAB file, and read it. 

What TAB will tell you
TAB will tell you what notes to play - it will tell you which string to hit and 
which fret to fret it at. 

TAB will tell you where hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends, slides, harmonics 
and vibrato are used. 

TAB will tell you what tuning the piece is in. If this isn't given explicitly, 
assume normal tuning. 

TAB should also give you information on use of capos etc. 

TAB will give you an indication of the ryhthm of the piece - i.e it will tell 
you which are the long notes and which are the short notes. 

However it will not tell you exactly how long or how short they are. 

This leads me on to ... 

Wh