Guitar Lesson Three - How
to Read Guitar Tablature
TAB or
tablature is the most common
method of writing out music for
the guitar. It is different
from classical music notation
in that; TAB uses ordinary
numbers and keyboard characters
as opposed to standard musical
notation which uses symbols.
Because of this format, anyone
with a computer can write or
read TAB making it the most
user friendly way to read and
communicate guitar music. Also
TAB relates directly to the
fret board of your guitar
meaning that you may easily see
where you put your
fingers.
In the full
version of Jamorama, both
standard musical notation and
tablature are used. But for
this six day course we will
only use TAB. The reason for
this is that tablature is very
easy to read and you should
have no problems learning TAB
in a few short minutes of
reading.
TAB has some
weak points, the worst of which
is that rhythm can't be easily
indicated. This shouldn't pose
a problem though, as I will
indicate the rhythm for each
exercise using the strum
indicators that were introduced
in lesson one.
OK. To
start I want you to look at
your guitar and you will
clearly see that it has six
strings going from thickest to
thinniest. On a TAB diagram,
the thinnest string, (or 1st
string as its most commonly
called) is at the top - The
thickest (or 6th string) is at
the bottom. This is clearly
demonstrated in the 1st example
below.
The
following diagram shows you how
tablature relates to the guitar
fret board:
Some of you may
notice that this guitar
seems upside down in
relation to how you play.
This is simply the way that
guitar music is generally
written. Now if you transfer
this same model to a written
format you will get TAB,
which can be seen below.
So the lines
above indicate the strings
on a guitar. The top line of
the TAB being the thinnest
string of the guitar, and
the bottom line on the TAB
chart indicating the
thickest string of the
guitar. Now if you look at
your guitar you will see
metal bars that raise up
from the neck of the guitar
called frets. TAB uses
numbers to show you which
one of these frets to press
down and play.
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For
example, look at
the tab diagram to
the right and you
can see that the
1st string
(thinnest string)
is being played.
The number refers
to the fret that
you should press
down. In this case
the number zero is
displayed. This
means that you
shouldn’t press
down
anything. |
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So if
you were to play the above
piece of TAB on your guitar,
you would pick the thinnest
string once with your plucking
hand and do nothing with your
fret hand.
Tip: If you
are having trouble with this
concept, you can download a
video or audio example of the
above exercise to see and hear
it for yourself. The download
links are below (right click on
the link and select "save
as"):
Now let's see
if we can start pushing down
some strings. Look at the
next example below and try
and play the note that the
TAB chart displays.
If you pressed
down the thickest string at
the 3rd fret then you played
the exercise correctly. If
you are still unsure whether
you are doing the right
thing or not, refer to the
video below.
Tip: The
download links are below
(right click on the link and
select "save as"):
Let's try
another one. Play the
following piece of TAB:
This TAB
diagram above indicates the
2nd string (second thinnest)
and you should be pressing
down on the first fret.
Tip: Once
again, there is video
available for this example.
The download links are below
(right click on the link and
select "save as"):
Things become
a little more complicated when
you are required to play
chords, however the basic
principals I have already
outlined still apply. The only
difference is that you will be
required to play more strings
and hold down more strings with
your fingers. In this next
example I will show you how to
play the chord ‘A’.
A Major
Chord
The first and
fifth strings are played
open while the second, third
and forth strings are played
at the second fret. The
sixth string is not played
in the A Major Chord and
this is indicated by an
X.
If you have
read the TAB correctly your
fingers should look like
this:
Tip: You can
download a video or audio
example of the above exercise
to see and hear it for
yourself. The download links
are below (right click on the
link and select "save as"):
So now you know
how to use basic tablature
as it applies to notes and
full chords. In this
introductory set of lessons
you will use TAB to learn
different chords and by
lesson six you will be able
to play the full song,
'Rivers of Babylon'.
Time to
take a break. Well done, you've
just completed the first part
of this newsletter. Next you
are about to learn about notes
on the first string.
Don't
forget, for the ultimate guitar
learning kit which includes
step-by-step written lessons,
video lessons, audio lessons
and sophisticated software
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Notes on
the First String
Knowledge of
the notes that are on each
string is necessary for
understanding guitar theory.
The first string is also known
as the high E string. The main
notes in the first position on
the first string are E (open),
F (1st fret) and G (3rd fret).
The first position refers to
the first 4 frets of the
guitar.
We will use
these notes in the following
exercise to introduce to you
the concept of note
picking.
Exercise:
Note picking is a skill that is
used in all types of music. For
now, we will use it to
familiarize ourselves with the
note names on each string in
the first position. Pluck these
first string notes with a
downward picking motion. Notice
that your fingers should match
the fret number when playing in
the first position:
Try listening
to audio for this
example.
Audio
Picking the notes on the first
string mp3. (456KB)
We will leave
it there today in terms of
guitar theory. Next time I want
to get you strumming a whole
lot more, but right now I want
to look at something else and
that is how to get a 'that'
sound.
Getting ‘That’ sound –
blues/rock guitar solo aka Jimi
Hendrix.
Many people around the world
love blues, and many people
love Jimi Hendrix, infact some
would argue that he is the most
influential guitarist to ever
grace the planet. Blues/rock
guitar tends to have a
characteristic sound to it.
Sure there is a style of
playing that characterizes
blues guitar, infact we cover
this style in the Jamorama
course thoroughly. There are
blues Jam tracks and blues
songs, the course will teach
you HOW to play the blues
guitar, but a question that
often pops up is ‘Once I know
how to play the STYLE, how do I
get that ‘sound’ out of my
amp?’.
Ok, firstly let’s look at the
aspects of a guitarist’s set up
that have an effect on the
final sound.
- Ability of player to play
that style.
- Choice of guitar (i.e.
Electric or acoustic?? Solid
body or semi-acoustic, single
coil pickups or humbucking
pickups??)
- Choice of amplifier
- Settings on the guitar
- Settings on the amplifier
- Other miscellaneous items
(e.g. strings, effects pedals
e.t.c)
So, from this list we can see
that there is simply no ONE
aspect that will directly
change the sound, it’s the use
of all of these things that
point to the final outcome. A
nice way of looking at it is to
treat all of these aspects as
ingredients to the sound
recipe. By changing the
ingredients or amount of, or
order in which they are used
you end up changing the final
product. Obviously one of the
most important of the
ingredients is the ability of
the player themselves. There is
no point in having all of the
ingredients to play blues
guitar if the player can’t
actually play blues style
guitar… make sense?
Let’s start with the guitar
itself, the best choice of
guitar would be a solid body
electric guitar such as a
Fender Stratocaster, or a
Gibson lespaul, pretty much any
solid body electric guitar will
do. Once you have selected the
guitar let’s look at the
settings that are to be used on
the guitar itself. You will
want to select the neck pick up
(the pickup that is closest to
the neck of the guitar). This
pickup gives a more rounded
natural sound, often called the
rhythm pickup. The on board
controls of the guitar (the
volume and tone knobs) are also
very useful. To achieve a
bluesy sound you should
slightly roll off some of the
tone knob, roll it back to
about 7 or 8.
Ok once you have this set up,
look at the amplifier. Blues
guitarists have a slightly
overdriven or distorted sound.
To achieve this I want you to
make sure that you are plugging
the guitar into the ‘Hi-gain’
input of your amplifier (if you
only have one input then use
that one. What you need to do
next is to turn up your amp
gain to a point where the sound
coming out is slightly
distorted (on most amps this
would be just after halfway).
If your guitar amp doesn’t
distort or overdrive then there
are other alternatives, you
could purchase and use a
distortion effect pedal.
Ok, the amplifier’s EQ
settings??? What do I do with
those? Basically I want you to
leave all the ‘EQ’ knobs in the
middle (i.e. don’t boost or
drop any of them). The bluesy
sound really comes from having
selected the neck pick up and
by having the amp slightly
distorting. Follow these tips,
and I guarantee you that your
next blues solo will now
actually SOUND like a blues
solo. Get into it! See you in
the next lesson.
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