How To Read Guitar Tabs?

[Thackeray61]

Hi guys! Just want to learn how to read guitar tabs..i can read chords but not tabs..so hope you guys can teach me..Thanks

[Webmaster]

Hi, it's really quite easy and once you get a hang of it you should be able to play along to tabs with no problem. Here's a good tutorial:
http://www.wikihow.com/Read-Guitar-Tabs

Hope that helps and welcome to the forum. 

[melanie14]

h means hammer-on so if it reads 4h6 you play the 4th fret and without plucking the string again you hammer another finger down on the 6th fret to make the 6th fret note sound.
p is the oppisite of a hammer-on and it means pull-off so if it reads 6p4 it means that you play the 6th fret and without plucking again you pull your finger off the 6th fret to make the 4th fret sound. (You must have a finger already on the 4th fret when you pull your finger off the 6th fret, and when you pull-off pull the finger sideways a little to help it sound.)

[Roy01]

There is nothing wrong with taking a more informal approach to learning music, but one of the basic skills that invariably gets ignored is learning to read music. Learning to sight read takes a reasonable amount of work, without immediate benefit, and it is these sort of skills that self-taught musicians tend to avoid. You need to get familiar with the various forms of guitar tab.

EDIT: Removed link, will ban you if you repeat it...

[dimebagdave]

its really easy- if you can read chord charts you are more advanced than reading tabs really- its quite simple- the number refers to which fret to play and the lines correspond to the strings- other than that there should be a key explaining what any other characters mean- typically h= hammer on- p= pulloff and b with an arrow means bend but sometimes it will just be the arrow and a number like 1 or 1/2 to indicate how much to bend- and that's pretty much all there is to it

[kamaxirav]

The absolute basics of guitar tab, how to read the notes. Guitar TAB consists of six lines, each line represents a guitar string. The lines are laid out as though you had the guitar lying down face up on your lap and were looking down at it, presuming you are a right handed player.
The vertical lines represent each bar and each bar is one measure. Because each line represents a guitar string, writing tabs is as simple as writing the fret number on each string. The horizontal axis equals time so you play each note on the fretboard from left to right.
The numbers on the fretboard below show the exact note order in which you would play the above tab.

Edit: Removed links.