How To Play Guitar: Tabs, The Easy Way (NG11)

What's up future rock stars!!!
Today we are going to discuss the good and the bad of tablatures.

First of all, what are tablatures, or tabs, and how do I read them.
Tabs are a simplified way to write down music, instead of musical pitches you get the fingerings. You don't need any musical theory to use this method, all you need is the ability to read numbers.

Here is an example of a tablature for guitar:

e |-----------------------------|
b |-----------------------------|
g |-----------------------------|
d |-----------------------------|
a |-----------------------------|
e |--------0--1--2--3--4------|

 It's very simple, the six horizontal bars symbolize the six strings of the guitar, the highest bar being the highest sounding string. I wrote the strings name next to it, most of the reliable tablatures out there will also give some indication of the tuning. Reading tabs is very easy, just go from left to right, the 0 indicates an open string, 1 indicates fingering the first fret, 2 the second fret and so on. The more reliable tabs will also give some sort of indication for which technique to use, like / and \ for slides, or maybe just an “s” between the start and end of the slide, bends will usually have a “b” followed by the note you have to reach or the note will just be between brackets and so on...
It's usually very straightforward, tabs are ridiculously easy to use, which makes them very appealing to beginner guitarists. There are thousands of tabs out there for any song.

I have used tabs a lot in my first two years of playing, now I try to limit that as much as possible. I do use tabs to write down my own music because I don't know how to write or read sheet-music. But to learn songs I truly do believe it's way better to use your ears. It'll take a while longer to learn a song, but your playing will benefit from it.

Another reason I don't like using tabs too much is their reliability. As I have said, tabs are easy, they are easy to read and easy to write, anyone can post them online. This makes for an abundance of sources, but it also means there are a lot of tabs written by inexperienced players, a lot of them have mistakes.

Tabs can be very helpful, but use them wisely. I would recommend trying to figure out a song by ear, or by using a cover or instructional video, and only using tabs for the parts you can't figure out. And even then, be very critical of them, read other peoples comments, look at the tabs rating, if they seem fishy in any way, they are probably not worth using. That being said, it is a great way to write down music for those who don't know how to read sheet-music.

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Don't forget to listen and have fun!!