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Reading guitar tablature found on the
Internet
Chords in Tab
If you see numbers stacked up
on top of each other, you will play all of the notes at the same time. The
example below represents a C chord. The transcriber (person who wrote the tab)
may write the name of the chord above the tab like in the example.
C
E:-------0------
B:-------1------
G:-------0------
D:-------2------
A:-------3------
E:--------------
Sometimes the notes of a
chord are picked individually. If you were to see something similar to the
example below, you would put your fingers on a C chord and pick the notes in the
order that you see them. Take inventory of the notes, and see if it is a chord
that is being played. The transcriber may also write "hold" or "let ring" to
give you a cue that the notes should continue to ring, and are part of a chord.
E:-----------------------------------------
B:------------------------------1----------
G:------------------0--------0-------------
D:-------------2----------2----------------
A:----------3-----3------------------------
E:-----------------------------------------
|-- hold --- or let ring--|
Tablature is a term that is
used loosely on the Internet. In fact, you may find that a song does not have
any tablature in it at all. The song may just contain chords, and therefore the
detail of tablature is not necessary.
You might just see a list of
chords in the order they are played:
G D7 G
Or you may see the lyrics
with the chords written above the word or syllable that it is played on:
G D7
G
Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb
G D7 G
Mary had a little lamb, it's fleece was white as snow.
A variation on having the
chord written above the lyrics, is to write the chord in parenthesis before the
word or syllable.
(G)Mary had a little lamb,
(D7)little lamb, (G)little lamb
(G)Mary had a little lamb,
it's (D7)fleece was white as (G)snow.
You might just see a line of
lyrics and then a list of the chords that are used in that line, with no
indication of where to change.
I'll have a blue Christmas
without you; [F C7]
There are usually no
indications of measures. So unless you know how the song goes, or can get a
recording, playing a song from the tablature alone would be difficult. Some
transcribers will divide the song into measures using a vertical line "|".
G
|D7 G |
Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb
G |D7 G |
Mary had a little lamb, it's fleece was white as snow.
When you see G in a song,
that does not really tell you which G you should play. There are many ways to
play a G chord. Sometimes the transcriber will give you a list of the chords and
how to play them. Here are some common ways that you will see chords described.
You may see the chord written
in tablature.
C
E:----0----
B:----1----
G:----0----
D:----2----
A:----3----
E:---------
You might also see an
indication of what fingers you should use in parentheses next to the frets to be
played.
F7
E:----5(4)----
B:----4(2)----
G:----5(3)----
D:----3(1)----
A:------------
E:------------
You might see a chord written
with a list of the frets that you will put your fingers on. This will read from
left to right, starting with the 6th string. The x means either a
muted string, or you will not play that string.
C: x32010
There is an Internet
equivalent of a normal chord chart as well.
C
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X32010
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