Acoustic Lesson 04 - Tabs, Notation, and Charts

If you’re trying to learn your favorite song and you search for it on the internet, you will be blasted with results of song tab, guitar chords, and music notation. But what do all these terms mean and which is the fastest, easiest, and most effective way to learn your song? Well lets first look at what they mean and how they work.

Guitar Tab, or tablature, is predominantly found on the internet. Tab tells the musician where to place their fingers on the neck rather than which pitches to play, like traditional notation. Tab lays out the guitar neck like a map starting from the lowest string (E) at the bottom of the chart and showing each string above that (as you would see it from your playing position). Using a number, tab marks which fret to put your fingers in (three for the third fret ect). Tab is easy to use if you know the melody of the song but is hard to sight read if you have never heard the song before. Tab provides no time signature or tempo only the note notation for the song. Guitar tablature looks like this.

Chord charts are similar in their advantages and disadvantages to tab and are as easily found on the internet. Chord charts work well for a rhythm guitarist who just wants to strum along with their favorite song or a singer who just needs some basic accompaniment.  Chord charts lay out the lyrics with the chords listed above the words where they should be played. Chord charts also do not have tempo or time signatures marked. Here is an example of a chord chart.

Standard music notation is the most traditional music notation. This type of notation uses a music staff to mark out pitches, rhythm, tempo, and time signature. It is the most complete and all encompassing type of notation and is often referred too as sheet music. Sheet music consists of a staff containing a treble and bass clef. Next to the clefs a time signature and a key signature are given. Sheet music uses a series of musical symbols to mark out pitches and the rhythms of each note in accordance with the previously given signatures.  We will talk more later about reading music. An example of what this looks like is below.

Many guitarists avoid this type of “reading music” because it is at first harder to grasp but once you have learned it sheet music can help learn any song exactly the way it was written. Knowing how to read all three types of notation is the best way to further your guitar playing abilities.