What does it mean to play tabs on guitar?

Question

I'm in a beginner guitar class at school and there's a girl that played guitar in a rock band in the same class. She says that she is in beginner class because even though she plays lead guitar in her band, she only plays tabs and doesn't know notes. What are tabs and is it true that it's a shortcut/easier way to playing guitar, and can you play rock music with only tabs and little or no notes?

Answer 1

Tabs use numbers indicating the fret and six lines indicating the strings.

|E-1------------0------------------------|
|B----2---------0------------------------
|G-------3-----1-----------------------
|D--------------2-----------------------
|A--------------2------------------------
|E--------------0-----------------

The E on the top is the thin high E string. In the first example you would hit the E string on the first fret then the B string on the second fret and then the G string on the third fret. In the second example you would fret all of the strings with numbers and strum an E chord while leaving all of the strings with a 0 on them open. While it is an easy way to learn how to play songs it's good to know how to read music and to learn music theory too.

Answer 2

Tab is a way of depicting music for guitar (and other fretted instruments). Rather than notes on a staff it has symbols on a fretboard indicating which finger to put on which fret. It can show chords and single-note melody lines.