Help with guitar string identifications and finger positioning?

Question

I'm learning how to play Smells Like Teen Spirit, and I am a bit confused. I'm a beginner, but I want to jump right into tabbing my favorite artists songs. What does it mean on the tab website, it it says

e----------------0-|---------------|----------------|-------
b------xxx-333-x-0-|-----xxx-666-0-|-----xxxx-333-0-|-------
g------xxx-333-x-0-|-----xxx-666-0-|-----xxxx-333-0-|-------
d--333-xxx-333-x-0-|-666-xxx-666-0-|-333-xxxx-333-0-|-------
a--333------11---0-|-666-----444-0-|-333------111-0-|-------
e--111-------------|-444---------0-|-111------------|-------

Note: Yahoo cut off the last part of the lines.

Answer 1

I don't mean to take the easy way out, but this tutorial will answer all your questions...

http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/tab-notation.txt

Answer 2

The thickest string on the guitar is the E string (under the A on your chart ) So the string under the E string on your guitar, would be A, under that is D, G, B and the skinniest string is E ( The top E on your chart ).

When there are numbers, such as the 1&3's on your chart, you'll put your first finger on your thick E string, on the 1st fret. What these numbers are signafying is what fret you're supposed to be at. So the number 3, is the 3rd fret. The first 3 notes, you will have your 1st finger on the E string in the 1st fret. Your ring finger on both the A and D strings in the 3rd fret.

Does this make sense? Haha. I know it sounds confusing. I taught myself how to read tabs. What you should do is.. for instance, if you know Sweet Dreams by Marilyn Manson by heart, look up the tabs for it. And try it out. Smells Like Teen Spirit is an easy song, but if you're just learning how to read tabs you need something with just maybe one note at a time such as Sweet Dreams. That's the song I taught myself on. Once you get the hang of where your fingers are supposed to be according to the tab charts, everything will start making sense to you.

Answer 3

OK This is tablature. The strings are labelled with the highest sounding string at the top. The numbers tell you which fret to play on each string. Where you have numbers directly under eah other, that will give a chord. Hope this helps.