Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Here is why acoustic guitar tabs makes learning very simple

By Shane Fenham

Guitar music has it's own form of notation, called a tab, or tablature. Tabs are different from standard musical notation because they do not use staffs, ledger lines, key signatures, or notes. For this reason, acoustic guitar tabs are beneficial because they allow you to learn how to play the instrument without also having to learn to read music. Tabs may also be used as notation for other stringed instruments.

"Tabs" is short for tablature. Acoustic guitar tabs arelike a little picture of your guitar strings. The first row is the top string and the sixth row is the bottom one. On each of the rows, or lines, the numbers indicate the fret youre supposed to be playing. A 0 (zero) is used to indicate an open string, while an X indicates a muffled string.

If you're not sure what a fret is, it's the area between the metal bars on the neck, or the fingerboard of your guitar. Usually there will be somewhere between 21 to 24 frets on the acoustic guitar. The dots you see on the frets are simply a visual guide to let you see where you are.

Take a look at the acoustic guitar tab and if all of the numbers are listed one after the other and all on one line, the numbers indicate the fret to use on that string; only pluck that particular string. Numbers that are noted one after the other indicate that you play one note at a time. If there is a number on each line and the numbers are stacked, one on top of the other; then the acoustic guitar tab is saying play all the notes simultaneously, in other words, strumming all six strings.

When researching acoustic guitar tabs you will find things like hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends and slides. The letter "h" notates hammer-ons. This might be noted on a line as 7h9. Pull-offs are noted in the same way by the letter "p". Bends are notated by "b"s and slides, "/" (slash).

After youve gotten accustomed to the notion of reading music by string position, search online for basic acoustic guitar tabs and find a tune youre really familiar with to practice on. While the approach may be new to you, youll see that you can pick up its melody quickly this way now that you can read tabs.

Listening to a song while you are trying to learn it makes it simpler to learn. Details and rhythms that you think you remember will pop out and help you. Learning the guitar using acoustic guitar tabs makes it quite a bit more fun. It won't take long to learn several songs, and you will be able to play them for your friends at parties, or while you're alone so you can enjoy them in private.

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