How do I read guitar tab?

Tablature is a fingering map rather than notation, which is exactly why it is quick to learn and why it will not replace reading music. It tells you where to put your fingers and nothing else, and understanding both halves of that sentence saves a lot of confusion.

Step by step

1. Get the orientation right first.The bottom line is the thickest, lowest-sounding string — the low E. The top line is the thinnest, highest-sounding string. When you hold a guitar and look down, the thick string is nearest your face, so the diagram looks upside down. Everybody gets this backwards once.
2. Read the letters at the left end.Most tab labels the strings down the left side, from the top line: e, B, G, D, A, E. Those are the notes of the open strings in standard tuning, and a different set of letters means the piece uses an alternative tuning.
3. Read the numbers as frets, not fingers.A 5 on a line means press that string at the fifth fret. It says nothing about which finger to use. This is the single most common misreading and it makes simple passages look impossible.
4. Count frets from the nut.The fret nearest the headstock is fret one. Zero means play the open string without fretting it at all.
5. Read left to right, one note at a time.Numbers written in sequence along the staff are single notes played one after another. Spacing across the page loosely suggests timing but is not a reliable rhythm indication.
6. Read a vertical stack as a chord.Numbers lined up in a column are all sounded together. A stack of six numbers is a full strummed chord; a stack of two or three is a partial chord or a double stop.
7. Learn the articulation letters.An h between two numbers is a hammer-on, where the second note is sounded by the finger landing rather than by picking. A p is a pull-off, the reverse. A forward slash is a slide up, a backslash a slide down. A b is a bend, an r a release, and a tilde vibrato.
8. Accept that tab does not give you rhythm.Plain tab shows where the notes are, not how long they last. That is why tab works for songs you already know and is close to useless for a piece you have never heard. Some tab adds rhythm notation above the staff, which solves it.
9. Use tab and the recording together.The recording provides the rhythm and the feel, the tab provides the fingering. That combination is how almost every self-taught guitarist works, and it is genuinely effective.

Tips

• Chord diagrams and tab are different things. A chord diagram is a picture of the fretboard with the thickest string on the left; tab is a staff with the thickest string on the bottom. The orientation differs, which is a real source of confusion.
• Tab quality online varies enormously, and a lot of it is simply wrong. Cross-check against the recording, and prefer tabs with high ratings or from official sources.
• If a tab sounds wrong in a way you cannot fix, check the tuning indicated at the top. A great deal of music is recorded in drop D or tuned down a semitone.

Common mistakes

• Reading the top line as the thickest string — It is the opposite, and the result is a piece played upside down that sounds nothing like the song. Once you know it, it becomes automatic quickly.
• Treating the numbers as finger numbers — They are frets. A tab with a 12 in it does not mean an impossible finger — it means the twelfth fret, halfway up the neck.
• Trying to learn an unfamiliar piece from tab alone — Without rhythm information there is no way to know how the piece goes. Tab is a companion to a recording, not a replacement for notation.
• Ignoring the tuning note at the top — A tab for a piece in a non-standard tuning played in standard tuning sounds wrong everywhere, and people conclude the tab is bad rather than checking the first line.

If it doesn't work

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