how can i read guitar tabs? please reply!!?

Question

but you know what i really dont know how to do it, even flucking, i just do strumming.. dats it.. can you help me? i really want to learn how to read it. and power chords?

Answer 1

This is a tab from a Sufjan Stevens song called Abraham. I figured I'd use this is as an example because it's one of the easiest tabs I know (granted, it's got a capo on the 4th fret but that's neither here nor there)

e|---------------------------------------------------|
B|---------------------------------------------------|
G|------0-------------------------------------------|
D|--2---------------0----------------0-------------|
A|----------0---2-----------------0----------------|
E|-----------------------0---2-------------2-------|
Basically: whatever number you see on that string, that's the fret that you play that string. So for the first note, you see 2 on the D string. So you would put your finger down on the second fret on the D string and play that note. For strings with a 0 on it, it's just playing the plain ol' open string. No matter what number I could type there, from 1 to even 10 or 11, you put your finger on that fret on that string and play that. So if I had this (just kind of came up with it off the top of my head):
e|-----------------|
B|-----------------|
G|------3---------|
D|--5-------------|
A|----------1---2-|
E|-----------------|

I would start by placing my finger on the 5th fret on the D string, then move to the G string and place my finger on the third fret. Finally, I would move to the A string and place my finger on the first fret, then move it to the second fret and play that.

Sometimes you can get tabs that have those things stacked like this: (again, random off the top of my head):
e|-----------------|
B|------4----------|
G|------3---------|
D|---------1-----|
A|----------1---2-|
E|-----------------|
All this means is that you play each of those at the same time. It's basically the tabulature way of seeing a chord.


I hope this helped you out. It took me a while to learn tabs, but now that I have, I love it. :)
Good luck to you!

Answer 2

instead of notes you look at numbers on the string you should play. and when i looked, there is a-lot of stuff online for this kind of info. i only play guitar to amuse myself, but it would be nice to get better.

Answer 3

Here are some links that could teach you a thing or two about guitaring-

http://www.guitartabbooks.com
http://www.guitarlessonsonvideo.com
http://www.allguitartabs.com/
http://www.fretplay.com/tabs/m/mc5/
http://www.guitartab.com
http://home.online.no/~prannug.
http://www.axeltabs.com
http://www.beavertabs.com
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com
http://tabcrawler.com/
http://www.shizzletabs.com
http://www.thetabworld.com/
http://www.911tabs.com

Answer 4

personally id just google it or something because i dont think anyone will be willing to type everything. just a suggestion