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Friday, April 18, 2008

How to Read Guitar Tabs - An Introduction

A burning desire to play the guitar is very strong in some individuals, regardless of age or background. One reason for this is that with just a little bit of practice, you can use guitar tabs to play many of your favorite songs. The only thing that stands in the way between you and the song that you want to play is learning how to read guitar tabs. It is actually a lot simpler than what you may have thought.

Guitar tabs are available on the Internet on thousands of different websites (some for free, some not). Regardless of where you get your tabs from, most of them follow the same basic procedure. The strings are shown as horizontal lines with the uppermost line being the first, or lower string on your guitar. The vertical lines are the fret bars that are on the guitar and typically, the uppermost fret is numbered so that you know where to begin.

The other part of learning how to read guitar tabs is finger placement. This is actually made very simple as well whenever you're looking at these charts because the finger placements are shown directly on the strings, nearest and right above the same corresponding fret bar on the guitar. You simply place your fingers as they are arranged on the guitar tab and then strum the strings that are to be strum. Any strings that are to be skipped whenever you are playing this particular tab will be marked with the letter x.

Once you learn these very simple steps, you will not be very far away from playing any number of songs by using guitar tabs. Take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the steps and an entire world of guitar playing will be opened to you.

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Learn How To Read Guitar Tabs And Release The Power Of Acoustic Guitar Today

Guitar music is unique. The standard musical notation used by other musicians does not come into play as the notation used by guitarists does not involve key signatures, ledger lines or notes. On the contrary, guitar musicians use "tabs", which are a much simpler musical notation. Read on and find out how to read guitar tabs easily.

An acoustic guitar tab is a musical sheet that represents a diagram of guitar strings. In a guitar tab, strings are represented by horizontal lines. The top string represents the first string on the guitar while the bottom one is for the sixth string. You also find on a guitar tab a number of numbers. Those numbers are representing the frets on the guitar. (0) means it is an open string whereas (X) represents a muffled one.

Do you know what a fret is? A fret is the area between the two metal bars on an acoustic guitar's fingerboard. Usually on any guitar you will find between 21 to 24 frets. When you see dots on the frets, it indicates how and where to place your fingers on the guitar's neck.

When you see all the numbers coming one after another on a guitar tab, it tells you which fret you should use on a particular string. Because the numbers appear one after the other, it tells you that you have to play the notes one at a time. When you see a number on every line, with numbers on top of the other, it means that should play all the notes at the same time. In that case, you strum the six strings on your guitar simultaneously.

If you learn how to read acoustic guitar, you will come across slides, bends, hammer-ons or pull-offs. You will get used to those notations and assimilate the new codes as you play along.

Once you have an idea of how to read guitar tabs it becomes extremely easy for you to do your own research online and get the tabs for your favorite song. You can then start practicing along to your favorite love song.

You can also find on the internet, video lessons that teach you how to play a song on the guitar. As you are learning your song, you will start picking on rhythm and even smaller details. Learning acoustic guitar is fun and you should not wait any longer to take the step.

You want to play acoustic guitar fast? Find out new tips about how to play acoustic guitar easily and start learning today!

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