Acoustic Guitar Tablature

Actually, the term acoustic guitar tablature is a bit misleading because whether for acoustic or electric guitar playing, guitar tablature provides an easy way for guitarists to read and share music. There is some debate about whether or not guitarists should learn to read music or if tablature alone is sufficient.

Since the internet and the explosion of online sites offering free tablatures, starting with OLGA (on-line guitar archive), tablatures have become the fastest and easiest way for guitarists to learn songs. There are a large number of tablature sites with free tablatures, but many of these can be fairly inaccurate. One of the best and accurate on-line tablature resources for playing guitar is Guitar-pro tablature, which once downloaded to your computer enables you to play around in great detail with an extremely accurate version of whatever song you have downloaded. I downloaded the trial version of this software and it blew me away with it’s accuracy and functionality.

Drawbacks to tablature
I recommend learning how to read tablature, regardless of whether or not you intend to learn how to read music. The one major drawback to tablature is that you can not gauge the length of any given note or chord. But, if you have a reasonable ear and have some familiarity with the song this usually doesn’t pose a problem.

How to read guitar tablature
Reading guitar tablature is very easy and should be possible for most people to learn in a matter of minutes.
Below is an example of the E-scale, starting from the open string on the bottom E to the 4th fret on the top e.

When you visit guitar tablature sites, you’ll find some symbols and notation which you probably haven’t seen before. Below is an example of a hammer (h) and pull off (p). You can play a hammer on by plucking a note and then placing another finger down (forecefully) on a higher note.

Another symbol used in tablatures is the slide, which is written with a ’slash’ as below.