Guitar tablature (tab) is the easiest and most convenient to read and write guitar music. Students taking acoustic or electric guitar lessons are usually introduced to guitar tab within their first few lessons. But some guitar tutors don’t teach tab, and many guitarists don’t take guitar lessons at all. For these guitarists, the quicker they take steps to become literate guitarists, the quicker they can become great guitarists.

But before learning the basics of guitar tab — a word of warning. These days, it’s easy to find the guitar tabs to almost every song imaginable by searching the Internet. That’s great news for guitarists. Unfortunately, many of these guitar tabs are not completely accurate. This is because most guitar tab is tabulated by amateur guitarists. New guitarists should exercise caution and only use guitar tab from trustworthy websites. Better yet, using professional guitar tab books from music stores guarantees accuracy.

How Guitar Tabs Work
A guitar tab is made up of lines and numbers:

• Lines. There are six lines which represent the six strings of the guitar. These are — from the top of the guitar to the bottom — E, A, D, G, B, and e. The “E” is the thickest string on the guitar; the “e” is the thinnest.
• Numbers. The numbers used in guitar tab represent the frets that left-hand fingers (for right-hand guitarists) are pressed down onto to create notes.

Here is an example of a very simple guitar tab:

e——-1———————————————————
B—————————————————————–
G—————————————————————–
D—————————————————————–
A—————————————————————–
E—————————————————————–

One of the first things to notice about guitar tab is that the strings are written upside-down. The “E” string (the thickest string on your guitar) is at the bottom of the guitar tab, while the “e” string is at the top. It might take new guitarists some time to become used to reading guitar music that seems upside-down at first. A good exercise is to find and name the strings of the guitar, and then locate them on the guitar tab.

The number “1″ on the above guitar tab indicates that a left-hand finger should be pressed onto the 1st fret on the “e” string. The “e” string is then picked with one’s right hand to produce a note.

Below is a more complicated guitar tab, which shows a picked melody, and a strummed guitar chord.

D Chord
e–0-1-2-3——2————————————————-
B—————3————————————————-
G—————2————————————————-
D—————0————————————————-
A—————————————————————–
E—————————————————————–

The numbers in this example are written in two different ways: horizontally and vertically. When numbers are written horizontally, this means they are played one after another. So, the “0 – 1 – 2 – 3″ on the “e” string are notes that are to be picked one after another. The “0″ represents an “open string”; in other words, a string which is played without putting a finger down on any fret.

The numbers that are written vertically are to be played all at the same time. This is how guitar chords are written. The guitarist is required to put their fingers onto each of the frets indicated by the numbers and strum these all at once. The name of the chord — in this case “D” — is often written above the tabulated chord.

Besides lines and numbers, there are also several other symbols that can be used to write guitar tab which indicate various guitar techniques, such as hammer-ons and and pull-offs. Good guitar tab and guitar tab books should explain these symbols for the guitarist.

Being able to sight-read guitar tab is a great skill to develop. The above information should provide the guitarist with a good starting point to being able to read any tab. Thankfully, reading guitar tab is quite simple and becomes second nature very quickly.

To do any kind of work we need tools. When it comes to guitarists most people think our tools of the trade are our guitar and amp. This is true and we spend many hours every week making sure our tools are in good order but we often neglect our most important tools, our hands.

New and seasoned guitarists alike need to keep their hands and fingers in good shape in order to develop and maintain dexterity. Having strong and quick fingers is essential for being able to change chords smoothly, play speedy solos, and pick and strum in perfect time. Playing guitar really is a physical activity, and like training for any physical activity, particular muscles need to be developed. If hand and finger muscles aren’t developed, they can become tired or cramped when playing guitar.

To develop strength and speed, guitarists need to do finger strengthening exercises as often as they can. A good finger strengthening exercise should always challenge the fingers and hands. This means that as muscles and skills develop, exercises should be made more and more challenging.

Aids can be used to challenge and track progress, such as a metronome or a stop-watch. Increasing the tempo on a metronome allows a guitarist to increase their playing speed. A good challenge is to set the speed of the metronome faster with each practice. Alternatively, a stop-watch can be used to time how fast a guitarist is playing through a particular pattern or exercise. Times can be recorded, and guitarists can then try to beat their best speeds.

One very important thing to be kept in mind when doing finger strengthening exercises is that sound quality should not be sacrificed for speed. While part of the challenge of finger strengthening exercises may be to play faster and faster, this should not be done at the cost of good tone and timing.

Left Hand Guitar Exercises
One of the most useful exercises for strengthening the left hand is playing variations of the chromatic scale. The basic chromatic scale below can be used as a starting point. Guitarists can play through this scale at a pace they are comfortable with. With each practice, the playing speed should be increased slightly.

e—————————————–1-2-3-4———-
B———————————1-2-3-4——————
G————————-1-2-3-4————————–
D—————–1-2-3-4———————————-
A———1-2-3-4——————————————
E-1-2-3-4————————————————–

Having played the chromatic scale, it can then be played backwards. For example:

e-4-3-2-1———————
B———4-3-2-1————-
G—————————–
D—————————–
A—————————–
E—————————– etc.

From this, alternative patterns can be introduced. Playing the chromatic scale with the below variations helps a guitarist’s hand become accustomed to stretching in different ways:

e———————————————————-
B———————————————————-
G———————————————————-
D———————————————————-
A———————————————————-
E-1-4-3-2—-4-2-3-1—-2-3-1-4—————————- etc.

Right Hand Guitar Exercises
For electric and acoustic guitarists, playing with speed and strength with the right hand means using a guitar pick well. One very useful exercise for developing right hand muscles is to play the above chromatic scale using different patterns of up-strokes and down-strokes.

A down-stroke is when a guitar pick is used to pick a string (or strum strings) in a downward motion. An up-stroke is the opposite; strings are picked from bottom to top. By changing the pattern of up-strokes and down-strokes, the right hand can be trained to move in ways that it may not be used to. This will help strengthen finger muscles as they will be used in new ways.

In the above chromatic scale, four notes are played on each string. This makes it convenient to create picking patterns based on different combinations of four up-strokes and down-strokes. For example, “down, up, down, up” is a very basic picking pattern that can be used to pick the chromatic scale. More complex patterns could be “down, down, up, down”; “up, up, up, down”, “up, down, down, up”, etc.

Once the guitarist practices the basic chromatic scale with different combinations of up-strokes and down-strokes, a greater challenge can be introduced. Using complicated patterns of up-strokes and down-strokes while playing more complicated variations of the chromatic scale with the left hand can provide a real physical and mental workout for the guitarist.

The best part about these guitar finger exercises is that they develop finger muscles, but as they become more complicated, they also train left hand and right hand fingers to play complicated patterns simultaneously. In that sense, these exercises are as much a physical activity as they are a mental activity.

So remember its your hands that do the work. Keep them in good shape and you can make any guitar sound good.

- Axel

Becoming a good guitarist takes a lot of practice unless you’re a Jimi Hendrix or an Axel Bay who just pick up a guitar and it becomes another appendage to your body. But for normal people it takes a lot of practice. Developing good practice habits is something that many guitarists fail to do. So keep on reading for 5 tips and techniques for healthy and effective guitar practice.

Make Time – It’s important to find a time and space to focus on guitar practice. I know we all get lazy and sometimes setting aside a certain amount of time each day for practice seems like a chore but it is important to have some time set aside where you can concentrate solely on practicing guitar. However, the guitar doesn’t always have to be played in such a strict and formal way; just strumming a guitar when watching TV or running through scales while chatting with friends is another great way to become comfortable with the guitar. I knew a Chinese girl who was a great guitarist, all due to the fact that she never put the guitar down. She was always playing regardless of what she was doing. The Emmanuel Brothers used to sleep with their guitars as kids, and look how good they got. The more time spent with the guitar the better, but at least part of this time should be focused, quality time.

Make Practice Fun - As above, guitar practice doesn’t always have to be strict and formal. But even when you are practicing in a formal way, there are ways to make the practice really enjoyable. Playing along to favorite songs, playing with friends, making fun challenges such as playing scales as quickly as possible — all of these techniques can be used to keep guitar practice from becoming a chore.

Play To a Metronome – It’s important to develop a good sense of timing as early as possible or you will end up playing like Steve Jones (Sex Pistols). Playing to a metronome or a CD will help you learn to play in time. Another option is to play with a drum machine or a good drummer. If you only practice alone without some sort of timing device you could develop bad habits which will make it difficult to play with other musicians.

Strengthen Weaknesses – When practicing, you shouldn’t just cover the things you can already do well. Practice should be a time for developing new skills, and this means understanding your weaknesses as a guitarist and remedying the situation by practicing the techniques that you are having problems with until they become easier.

Understand Music Theory – Being a good guitarist will always be more than just having quick fingers and a good ear. With no comprehension of music theory, it can be difficult to understand chord progressions, how to play solos well, how to read music, and a myriad of other important skills. The best option is to develop your fingers and mind simultaneously. This doesn’t mean spending years becoming a music theory pro, but it does mean learning some basic theory principles.

By balancing fun with hard work, and practical skills with theoretical knowledge, you can develop healthy practice techniques. From this, you can become well-rounded with a wide range of technical abilities and musical knowledge. It all starts with developing and maintaining a good practice schedule. The sooner this is done, the quicker you will progress as a musician.

- Axel