Beginner Guitar Lesson 09 - Playing with Tablature

Today, we’re going to try to play some music using guitar tablature. It may seem a little daunting if this is your first time reading guitar tablature, but it is so exciting because once you get good at this, you’ll be able to play a LOT of famous songs! There are literally thousands of freely available guitar tablatures on the internet, and there are hundreds more books available that have the official guitar tablatures for your favorite songs.

So with that in mind, let’s dig into it with some enthusiasm! Below is the guitar tablature of a short riff that we are going to play today:

e|--------------|--------------|--------------|-----------|

B|--------------|--------------|--------------|-----------|

G|--------------|--------------|--------------|-----------|

D|--------------|--------------|--------------|-----------|

A|--------------|--0-----0-----|-----------2--|-----2-----|

E|--0--1--2-----|-----2-----2--|--2--1--0-----|--0--------|      

Press the play button to hear what it sounds like:

Play button goes here

Now the first thing you’ll notice is that this uses only finger picking. Don’t be daunted, you have to start this part sometime! In order to pick the first 3 notes, follow these simple steps:

Pluck the open E string. (photo here)

Place your index finger on the first fret of the E string, and pluck the E string. (photo here)

Place your middle finger on the second fret of the E string, and pluck the E string. (photo here)

For now simply pluck with a downward motion (later we’ll integrate upward plucking). Hold for 2 beats when you pluck the third note. Repeat this a few times until you are comfortable with this note. This should sound as follows:

Play button goes here

Now we’ll proceed to pluck the next 4 notes:

Pluck the open A string (photo here)

Place your index finger on the second fret of the E string, and pluck the E string. (photo here)

Pluck the open A string again (photo here)

Place your index finger on the second fret of the E string, and pluck the E string. (photo here)

Repeat this a few times until you are comfortable. This should sound like the following sound clip:

Play button goes here

Now we’ll proceed to pluck the final 6 notes:

Place your middle finger on the second fret of the E string, and pluck the E string. (photo here)

Place your index finger on the first fret of the E string, and pluck the E string. (photo here)

Pluck the open E string (photo here)

Place your index finger on the second fret of the E string, and pluck the E string. (photo here)

Pluck the open E string (photo here)

Place your index finger on the second fret of the E string, and pluck the E string. (photo here)

This should sound as follows:

Play button goes here

Once you’ve practiced this a few times, then it’s time to go back to our guitar tab and play the full riff:

e|--------------|--------------|--------------|-----------|

B|--------------|--------------|--------------|-----------|

G|--------------|--------------|--------------|-----------|

D|--------------|--------------|--------------|-----------|

A|--------------|--0-----0-----|-----------2--|-----2-----|

E|--0--1--2-----|-----2-----2--|--2--1--0-----|--0--------|      

Play button goes here

There you have it. You’ve played a short riff from guitar tablature! Hopefully you enjoyed this lesson. In the next lesson, we’ll look at finger picking a riff from "Blister in the Sun" by The Violent Femmes.