ICM P9 SUP1: Understanding Guitar Tab

Guitar Tablature
Understanding Guitar Tab

Guitar tab is widely used when writing down music played on guitar. Tablature
indicates the position for playing notes and chords, as well as the order in
which they are to be played. Sometimes symbols are added to indicate
technique, time and rhythm.

The guitar strings are depicted as six horizontal lines. The line at the base
represents bottom E (E2), and the line at the top E (E4), with the other four
lines representing the four strings in between.

E----------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------

Figure 1. An example of guitar tablature layout.

Numbers are placed on the lines to show the fret position for each note. So,
for example, the number 4 on the top line represents the 4 th fret of the top E
string.

Fret positions are shown from left to right in the order they are to be played.

E----------------0--------------------------------------------
B--------------0-----------------------------------------------
G------------0------------------------------------------------
D----------2--------------------------------------------------
A--------2----------------------------------------------------
E------0------------------------------------------------------

Figure 2. An example of guitar tablature for an arpeggiated E minor chord

Chords (i.e. several notes played at once) are shown as fret positions stacked
on top of one another.

E-----0-------------------------------------------------------
B-----0--------------------------------------------------------
G-----0------------------------------------------------------
D-----2------------------------------------------------------
A-----2------------------------------------------------------
E-----0------------------------------------------------------

Figure 3. An example of guitar tablature for an E minor chord

Two example files (that have been downloaded from the web) are provided.
The first is for Pink Floyds Bike: this is made up entirely of chords (i.e. all
ICM P9 SUP1: Understanding Guitar Tab

notes stacked on top of one another), with no single notes. The second,
Radioheads No Surprises provides an example of single notes.

Below is the guitar tab for the introduction of No Surprises:

E--16-----------16-----------16----------------12-14--
B--------17-----------17-----------17-------13---------
G-----16----16----16---16----16----16-14-----------
D-----------------------------------------------------------
A-----------------------------------------------------------
E-----------------------------------------------------------

Figure 3. Guitar tablature for the introduction of No Surprises (it needs to be repeated four times).

The guitar tab for No Surprises gives tabs for certain specified chord names
and then the chords (as opposed to the tab for the chords) are given above
the lyrics in the order they are played. Sometimes the tabs are not given for
chords, and it is just assumed that the person following the tab just knows
what the chords are (often the chords are common ones). To find the tabs for
chords use the guitar chord chart at 8notes.com; to just get the notes (e.g. for
transcription to keyboard) refer to the bottom half of chord-notes.jpg or use
the chord finder at www.8notes.com.

Using Guitar Tab to Help Complete MPP2

Guitar tab can be useful when trying to copy a piece of music. The melodies
and chord progressions of a piece of music can be easily found in this way.

There is a lot of guitar tab available: many people have transcribed many
songs; these transcriptions can be found on the internet by typing in the name
of the song and tab into a search engine.

Guitar tab can then be converted into MIDI notes (using the Guitar-Note-to-
MIDI-chart.jpg) that can then be input directly into a sequencer.