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Guitar tabs

Guitar tabs are actually rather simple, once explained. In fact, one reason why many people prefer to read guitar tabs rather than standard staff notation is because of the simplicity of guitar tabs. Guitar tabs are almost like a how-to-guide. How so?

Well, guitar tabs are direct representation of the strings on a guitar. The tablature consists of six horizontal lines, each line representing one of the six strings on a guitar. Guitar tabs are really like a picture of where to put your fingers and play.

Some people may be confused by the order of the strings, though, when first looking at guitar tabs. The highest pitch string appears at the top of the tablature while the lowest pitch string appears at the bottom. Of course, there is a reason for this seemingly odd organization of guitar tabs – if a guitarist is reading guitar tabs while playing guitar, he or she will be looking down at the guitar, and the strings will, indeed, appear to be in the order suggested by guitar tablature.