what does parenthesis mean on guitar tab

How to Read Guitar TAB: Ultimate Guide with Diagrams

Guitar TAB (or tablature) is incredibly easy to understand once you know what all the symbols and numbers mean.

In this guide, I will explain in detail how to read Guitar TAB you might find on websites such as Ultimate Guitar ( check out the best Guitar TAB websites here ).

Different Types of Guitar TAB

There are a few different types of Guitar TAB you may find online. While all Guitar TAB follows a similar format, they can look very different from each other.

Text-based Guitar TAB

This is the first type of Guitar TAB that became popular online. Text-based Guitar TAB is written in a simple text file as shown below.

The first online Guitar TAB websites only had this type of Guitar TAB and many sites still use this format today.

Later in this guide, I will explain all the symbols used in this type of Guitar TAB so you can read it if you need to.

The downside of this type of TAB is it usually doesn’t include any details on rhythm. While other types of Guitar TAB usually include rhythm notation, text-based Guitar TAB usually doesn’t.

Try to avoid this type of Guitar TAB and use other options if available.

If you want to write Guitar TAB in this format, you need to use a specific type of font.

The font Courier New is the most popular font for writing this type of Guitar TAB. Notepad in Windows has quite a few different fonts that work well with Guitar TAB.

If you see Guitar TAB like the below, it means the wrong font was used.

Simply changing the font will fix the format issues.

Interactive Guitar TAB

Websites like Songsterr use an interactive type of Guitar TAB that looks slightly different than text-based Guitar TAB.

As you can see, the above Guitar TAB looks similar to the text-based Guitar TAB earlier, but is easier to read and uses different symbols.

You may notice that there is a lot more information on this TAB compared to the text-based Guitar TAB from earlier. This is why I recommend avoiding text-based Guitar TAB if possible. Formal Guitar TAB like this or the below type is far more useful.

Tablature and Standard Notation

If you buy a Guitar TAB book, you will likely see this format. As you can see below, there are two staffs connected together:

The top half is the song written in Standard Notation and the bottom half is written in Tablature.

This is the best of both worlds as it gives you two different ways of reading the same music. Many guitarists prefer this format because it gives you the most information on how to play a song on guitar.

If you don’t know how to read standard notation, you can simply ignore the top staff and read the bottom Guitar TAB staff.

There are a few different ways you can create your own formal Guitar TAB.

The easiest way is with Guitar Pro 8  (link to my full review).

Guitar Pro 8 gives you everything you need to edit and create your own Guitar TABs. Being able to play the TAB back also helps you understand what to play on guitar.

Guitar TAB Layout

The first thing you need to understand with Guitar TAB is the basic layout.

Guitar TAB has six horizontal lines to represent the six strings on the guitar.

There may be more or fewer lines to match different instruments. TAB for bass or ukulele will have four or five lines and Guitar TAB for a 7-string guitar would have 7 horizontal lines.

As you can see in the diagram below, the six lines match up to the six strings on your guitar:

Looking at Guitar TAB is like looking down at your guitar in your hands. The bottom line in Guitar TAB matches the lowest pitch string (low E) on your guitar.

Text-based and formal Guitar TAB sometimes displays the string tunings for each line as shown below:

The key point to remember is that the top line on Guitar TAB matches the highest pitch string on your guitar and the lowest line matches the lowest pitch string on your guitar.

What Do Numbers Mean on Guitar TAB

Each line on Guitar TAB matches a string on your guitar. Whenever you see a number on a line in Guitar TAB, it is an instruction to play a specific note on that string.

The numbers on Guitar TAB represent the fret numbers on a string. 5 would mean the fifth fret on your guitar. 12 would mean the twelfth fret. 0 would mean the open string (zero fret).

Take a look at the below diagram for examples of different Guitar TAB numbers and how each number matches a note on the guitar:

There are two ways numbers can be written in Guitar TAB and it affects the way you play them.

Numbers Stacked on Top of Each Other

When numbers on Guitar TAB are stacked on top of each other, it is telling you to play those numbers at the same time. In other words, strum a chord.

All of the above numbers in the Guitar TAB are stacked on top of each other and if you play them all at the same time, you end up with a chord.

Take a look at the below Guitar TAB and think about what is being played (or try to play it yourself):

While it may look confusing, it is simply asking you to strum an E minor chord eight times.

Numbers Written Left to Right

When numbers are written side by side (on the same string or different strings), the Guitar TAB is telling you to play the notes one after the other from left to right.

We read Guitar TAB just like you’re reading this sentence – from left to right one word at a time.

In the below Guitar TAB, you start by playing the 1st fret note, then play the 2nd fret note, then the 3rd fret note, and finally the 4th fret note because they are all written one after the other.

It doesn’t matter if you see a single-note or a chord, read everything left to right.

The key point to remember is that you only play a string on your guitar when you see a number on that string.

If you don’t see a number on a string, it means not to play anything on that string.

What Do Symbols Mean on Guitar TAB

Now that you know what the lines and numbers represent on Guitar TAB, let’s look at the important symbols used.

Symbols on Guitar TAB represent different guitar techniques such as slides, bends, hammer-ons, palm-muting, and more. When you see a symbol in Guitar TAB, it is telling you to perform a specific type of technique.

There are two sets of symbols to learn for Guitar TAB. Text-based Guitar TAB uses one set of symbols and formal Guitar TAB uses a different set of symbols.

Let’s go through all of the main symbols you will likely see in Guitar TAB.

What does h mean in Guitar TAB

‘ h ‘ in Guitar TAB is short for ‘hammer-on’. This is when you play a note and hammer-on to a higher note.

In text-based Guitar TAB this is shown as ‘h’ in between two notes. In formal Guitar TAB, this is shown as a curved line over the two notes as shown below and an H above the staff:

Both of the above Guitar TABs are showing the exact same thing to play.

2h4 means play the 2nd fret, then hammer-on to the 4th fret. 2h4h5 means to do two hammer-ons in a row (you only pick the first note).

What does p mean in Guitar TAB

‘ p ‘ in Guitar TAB is short for ‘pull-off’. This is when you play a note and pull-off to a lower note. It’s basically the opposite of a hammer-on.

The same curved line is used in formal Guitar TAB as is used for hammer-ons, so you simply need to look at whether the number is higher or lower to know which technique to use.

Hammer-ons and pull-offs can be combined (known as legato) all under the same curved line as shown below:

This can also be combined with slides as shown later.

What does / or \ mean in Guitar TAB

A slash ( / or \ ) in Guitar TAB is the symbol for a slide.

The type of slash used tells you whether you need to slide up to a note ‘/’ or slide down to a note ‘\’.

To know which slash symbol is which, think of the slash symbol as a slide you walk up to from the left. If the slash slopes downwards like \, you slide down on guitar. If the slash slopes upwards like /, you slide up on guitar.

The same symbols are used in text-based and formal Guitar TAB so it’s easy to identify slides. Some old text-based Guitar TAB may show  s  instead of a slash (eg: 7s5).

In formal Guitar TAB, you may also notice a curved line over the top of the slide, this is a reminder that you only pick the first note of the slide. If there isn’t a curved line, it means to pick both notes.

What does b mean in Guitar TAB

‘ b ‘ in Guitar TAB is the symbol for a bend. In formal Guitar TAB, a curved line with an arrow or number is used.

In text-based Guitar TAB, sometimes a number is given after the ‘b’ to tell us what pitch to bend up to. So 7b9 means to bend the 7th fret note up until it sounds like the 9th fret pitch.

Some older text-based Guitar TAB found online use the symbol ^ to represent a bend.

In formal Guitar TAB, a number is given at the top of the curved arrow to tell us what type of bend to play.

‘1/2’ means a half-step bend, ‘full’ means a whole-step bend, ‘1 1/2’ means a one-and-a-half step bend and so on.

‘ r ‘ in Guitar TAB means to release a bend. Sometimes this is shown if a bend needs to be held for a long time, so you know when to lower it again.

‘ pb’  in Guitar TAB means to pre-bend a note before you pick it. You push the string up to the correct pitch, then pick the note before releasing it or holding it.

What does x mean in Guitar TAB

‘ x ‘ in Guitar TAB is the symbol for a muted hit or rake. This can be across multiple strings or on a single string.

A muted hit is when you lightly place your fingers over the strings and hit them.

Think of a funk guitarist playing some percussive rhythms on his guitar without chords ringing out. Those are muted hits.

What do parentheses () mean in Guitar TAB

When a note is in parentheses () in Guitar TAB, it either means to play a ghost note or that the note is continuing to ring out.

In the below example, the notes in parentheses are ghost notes. This means you need to play the notes in the parentheses softer than the rest of the notes.

Sometimes ghost notes are shown to represent the repeated notes you hear from a delay pedal.

In the below example, the note in parentheses isn’t a ghost note. Instead, the parentheses tell you that the note has continued to ring out into the next bar and you don’t pick it again.

Normally when a note rings out to the next bar, parentheses are used to show that the note is still ringing out.

What does ~ mean in Guitar TAB

‘ ~ ‘ in Guitar TAB is the symbol for vibrato. In text-based Guitar TAB, this is usually displayed on the line next to the note and formal TAB shows a wavy line above the staff.

Some old text-based Guitar TAB uses v  next to the note to show vibrato because the ~~~ can be hard to see.

While ~ is the symbol for vibrato, quite often the symbol isn’t used because the guitarist uses vibrato so often it would make the sheet music messy to include it on every held note.

So if you don’t see a vibrato symbol in TAB but you can hear it in the song, that’s why it wasn’t noted.

What does <> mean in Guitar TAB

‘ <> ‘ in Guitar TAB is the symbol for natural harmonics. When you see a note in between the two symbols such as <12> it means to play a natural harmonic on that fret.

Some Guitar TAB will show N.H. above or below the staff to indicate the note is a natural harmonic. You may also see A.H. for artificial harmonics.

You may also notice that the notes in the standard notation staff show as diamonds when a harmonic is used.

The <> symbol may also be used to indicate volume swells, so listen to the song to know which is more likely.

What does t mean in Guitar TAB

‘ t ‘ in Guitar TAB is the symbol for tapping. This is sometimes displayed above the staff with a capital T, while other times it is displayed next to the note (usually on text-based TAB).

The curved line over all of the notes in formal Guitar TAB reminds us that all of this is played without picking (legato).

As you can see, tapping in text-based Guitar TAB can get really confusing and hard to read. When I was learning guitar I would print out the TAB and use a highlighter to clearly see which notes were tapped.

Check out these great tapping solos to learn about tapping .

What does PM mean in Guitar TAB

‘ PM ‘ in Guitar TAB is the symbol for palm muting. This is usually displayed above or below the staff and is followed by a dashed line if the palm muting is held for a long time.

In the above example, you only play palm muting when there is a PM or dashed line below or above the staff. The other notes are played without palm muting.

In some older text-based Guitar TAB, this symbol may not be used at all if the song heavily uses palm muting.

For example, in some metal songs, almost the entire song uses palm muting. It would be messy to add a dashed line to every note, so it is often left out.

Guitar TAB Symbols Summary

Here is a quick guide to the most common symbols you will see in text-based Guitar TAB:

• h = hammer-on
• p = pull-off
• / = slide up
• \ = slide down
• PM – – – – = palm muting (above or below TAB)
• ~~~ = vibrato
• x = muted hit
• <> = natural harmonics
• t = tapping
• () = grace note or let the note ring out

There are many more symbols that can appear in Guitar TAB, but the above covers all of the essentials you are likely to see.

Guitar TAB Template

If you want to quickly write some ideas down and you don’t have Guitar Pro 8 , you can use the below Guitar TAB template.

Simply highlight all six lines then copy and paste the above text into Notepad, Word, or any other text editor and you can start editing it to TAB out anything you want.

When you paste the text, make sure you use a font such as Courier New . If you use the wrong font, you will struggle to make the numbers, symbols, and dashes line up properly.

When editing the TAB, remember to add or remove the dashes to keep the lines the same length. This can be done by pressing the Insert key on your keyboard with some word processors. It will type over the top of the dashes instead of adding numbers or symbols in between the dashes.

Download some printable Guitar TAB templates in PDF format here .

Find Guitar TABs Online

Now that you know how to read Guitar TAB, search for some online to get used to reading them. Learning how to play by reading Guitar TAB is an easy skill to learn, so keep this page open while you look through some Guitar TABs to get used to all the symbols.

Read this guide on the Best Guitar TAB Websites to check out some formal and text-based Guitar TABs.

Guitar TAB is one of a few ways of reading music. Find out about the other ways of reading music here and check out this guide if you want to learn how to read standard notation .

Related Guides and Lessons:

The ultimate guide to guitar tabs: how to read tab and symbols explained

Learn to play acoustic and electric guitar with our guide to this easy-to-read notation

Fret boxes: chords, scales and capo notation

Guitar techniques: picking, fretting hand, bending and vibrato, vibrato bar/whammy bar, guitar tablature explained.

Tab is short for tablature, a notational system used to give detailed information as to where notes should be played on the fretboard.

Tab appears underneath conventional music notation as six horizontal lines that represent the strings of the guitar, from the sixth (thick) string at the bottom to the first (thin) string at the top.

On these lines, numbers represent the frets where you should place your fingers. For example, an A note on the 2nd fret, third string, will be shown as a number ‘2’ on the third line down on the tab. Unfretted strings are shown with a ‘0’.

The key and time signatures are shown in the traditional notation. A timestamp may also tell you where in the original track you’ll find each example. Finally, a tempo marking is expressed in beats per minute.

Once you've got the hang of reading tab, why not try learning a few open-position guitar chords ?

Hand labelling

Here are the abbreviations used for each finger. Fretting hand: 1, 2, 3, 4, (T)

Picking hand: p (thumb), i (index), m (middle), a (annular), c (little finger)

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Nut and fretboard

This fretbox diagram represents the guitar’s fretboard exactly, as seen in the photo. This design is used for ease of visualising a fretboard scale or chord quickly.

Chord example

This diagram represents a G chord. The ‘o’s are open strings, and a circled number is a fretting hand finger. A black ‘o’ or circled number is the root note (here, G).

Capo example

The blue line in the diagram represents a capo - for this A chord, place it at the 2nd fret. Capos change the fret number ordering. Here, the original 5th fret now becomes the 3rd fret, 7th fret now 5th fret, etc.

Capo notation

Here, the chord looks like a C in the tab, but the capo on the 2nd fret raises the pitch to make it a D. The 2nd fret capo’d notes are shown with a ‘0’ in the tab as if they were open strings.

Scale example

The fret box diagram illustrates the fret hand fingering for the A major scale using black dots for root notes and red dots for other scale tones. The photo shows part of the scale being played on the fourth string with the first, third and fourth fingers.

Down and up-picking

The symbols under the tab tell you the first note is to be down-picked and the second note is to be up-picked.

Tremolo picking

Each of the four notes are to be alternate-picked (down- and up-picked) very rapidly and continuously.

Palm muting

Palm-mute by resting the edge of your picking hand palm on the strings near the bridge saddles.

Drag the pick across the strings shown with a single sweep. This is often used to augment a rake’s last note.

Arpeggiated chord

Play the notes of the chord by strumming across the relevant strings in the direction of the arrow head.

Hammer-on & pull-off

Pick the first note then hammer down on the string for the second note. Pick the third note and pull-off for the fourth note.

Note trills

After picking the first note, rapidly alternate between the two notes shown in brackets using hammer-ons and pull-offs.

Slides (glissando)

Pick the first note and then slide to the next. For the last two notes pick the first, slide to the next and then re-pick it (RP).

Fret-hand tapping

Sound the notes marked with a square by hammering-on/tapping with your fret-hand fingers, instead of picking.

Fret-hand muting

X markings represent notes and strings that are muted by your fret hand when struck by your picking hand.

Bend and release

Fret the first note (here, the 5th fret) and bend up to the pitch of the bracketed note, before releasing again.

Re-picked bend

Bend up to the pitch shown in the brackets, then re-pick the note while holding the bent note at the pitch shown.

Silently bend the string up from the 5th fret (PB5) to the pitch of the 7th fret note, pick it and release to the 5th fret note.

Quarter-tone bend

Pick the note then bend up a quarter-tone (a very small amount). This is sometimes referred to as a ‘blues curl’.

Your fretting hand vibrates the string by small bend-ups and releases. Exaggerate this effect to create a ‘wide’ vibrato.

Natural harmonics

Pick the note while lightly touching the string directly over the fret indicated. A chiming harmonic results.

Artificial harmonics

Fret the note as shown, then lightly place your index finger directly over ‘x’ fret (AH ‘x’) and pick (with a pick, p or a).

Pinched harmonics

After fretting the note in the triangle, dig into the string with the side of your thumb as you sound it with the pick.

Tapped harmonics

Place your finger on the note as shown, but sound it with a quick pick hand tap at the fret shown (TH17) for a harmonic.

Touched harmonics

A previously sounded note is touched above the fret marked TCH (eg, TCH 9) for it to sound a harmonic.

Whammy bar bends

The note is picked as shown, then the vibrato bar is raised and lowered to the pitches shown in brackets.

Scoop and doop

Scoop: depress the bar just before striking the note and release. Doop: lower the bar slightly after picking note.

Sustained note and divebomb

A note is sustained then the vibrato bar is depressed to slack. The square bracket indicates a further articulation.

Sound the note and ‘flick’ the vibrato bar with your picking hand so it ‘quivers’. This results in a ‘gargling’ sound!

Whammy bar vibrato

Gently rock the whammy bar to repeatedly bend the pitch up and down. This sounds similar to fret hand vibrato.

Pick scrape

The edge of the pick is dragged either down or up along the lower strings to produce a scraped sound.

Turn the volume control down, sound the note(s) and then turn the volume up for a smooth fade in.

Finger numbering

The numbers in the traditional notation refer to the fingers required to play each note.

pima directions

Any kind of fingerpicking requirements are shown at the bottom of the tab notation.

Pick-hand tapping

Tap (hammer-on) with a finger of your picking hand onto the fret marked with a circle. Usually with ‘i’ or ‘m’.

Now you've got the hang of reading tab, try learning a few open-position guitar chords .

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How to read a tab

Table of contents, understanding tab.

Guitar tab or tablature is a very popular method of notating guitar music. What makes tab so popular is that, once you get the hang of it, it is very easy to read. In order to understand tab, you need to visualize a guitar neck as if you are playing the guitar and looking down on the neck. Tab consists of 6 horizontal lines that represent the strings of the guitar. The thickest string being the bottom most line and the thinnest string being the topmost.

Numbers are then placed on these lines to represent finger positions on the guitar fret board. If you read the diagram below you would play this on a guitar by putting your finger just behind the 2nd fret on the 5th string, then you would play the note at the 4th fret, then again on the 2nd fret. The ‘zero’ represents playing an open string. As musical notes this would read as follows B C# B A.

Guitar Tab Chords

To tab a chord the notes would be placed in a vertical line upon the horizontal ones. This diagram represents a C Chord. You would strum the bottom 5 strings of the guitar in one motion if you were to read this tab properly:

And in this case you would strum the ‘C Chord’ three times:

Hammer-on is executed by picking a note and then hammering done with the fretting hand on the second note. The second note isn’t actually picked but kind of echos the first one. Song example with this technique:

. Hammer-ons are written in a tab like this:

Pull-off is the opposite of a hammer-on, so the first note is played again then the fretting hand pulls the finger off and lets the one fretted behind it play. Song example with this technique:

This is where the fretting hand actually bends the string to give a wobbly effect. It's often used in solos. Song example with this technique:

Release Bend

Release bend is just like a bend, but it tells you when to release the bend and go to the next note. Song example with this technique:

For a slide you start off plucking the first note and slide on the string up or down to the second. Song example with this technique:

(bar 5). In the tab below you would play the first note on the 10th fret then slide the finger that is holding that note up to the 8th fret (a slide-down):

Or here you slide your finger from the 3rd fret to the 5th without lifting your finger (a slide-up):

Legato Slide

The same as usual slide except the second note is not struck. Song example with this technique:

Slight Left Hand Vibrato

Vibrato is like a constant rhythmic bending of the string. You do a bend up and bend down quickly to create a moving sound. Song example with this technique:

Wide Left Hand Vibrato

The pitch is varied to a greater degree by vibrating with the fretting hand. Song example with this technique:

Vibrato w/ Trem. Bar

This technique utilizes the tremolo bar to achieve vibrato. If the beat contains multiple notes, the effect is applied to all notes in the chord. The Wide vibrato creates a more pronounced effect than a Slight one. Song example with this technique:

"Let ring" marker tells you to let that note ring until the end of the dashed line. Song example with this technique:

A palm mute effect is achieved when you take the side of your right hand (4th finger side) and lightly touch the string at the edge of the bridge. This will give the notes that you are playing a muffled sound. Song example with this technique:

The best description of a ghost note, is a note that is felt but not heard. You will play the note softer, and without emphasis. A ghost note can be played by fretting a note, but not picking it. Ghost notes are barely audible, but they do a lot to the feel of the music. The notation for the ghost note is round brackets. Song example with this technique:

Dead note refers to muting the strings with your left hand. A dead note effect is achieved by lightly resting your left hand across the strings without actually pressing the strings against the fret. Song example with this technique:

Up/Down Strokes

The first chord is to be played with a down stroke, the second chord is to be played with an up stroke and the third is to be played with a down stroke again. Song example with this technique:

Up/Down Arpeggios

The chords are to be played with arpeggio technique, so that the notes in the chord are played very quickly one after another. Song example with this technique:

Natural Harmonics

Natural harmonics are notes that produce a bell like sound when you touch a string over a particular fret bar. The notation that is most commonly used is the fret that you will touch with romb sign before. Song example with this technique:

Polyphony is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody. In the tabs, one of these lines is shown in gray with the number of the fret, the other in black. Song example:

Pinch Harmonic

A pinch harmonic is a guitar technique to achieve artificial harmonics in which the player’s thumb or index finger on the picking hand slightly catches the string which the player picked, silencing the fundamental frequency of the string, and letting one of the harmonics dominate. Song example with this technique:

Rhythm Notation

Tabs do not have information on the rhythm or lengths of the notes – only on their pitch. This means you can play the same tab in different ways. Although with Songsterr you can see and hear the tab as it is being played, rhythm notation will tell you exactly when to play note and how long to hold it. We use rhythm notation which is very similar to sheet music notation (scores). The basics of rhythm notation are explained below.

Music is based in time. Most music has a steady, recurring pulse called the beat. It’s the steady rhythm to which you want to tap your foot or dance. Think of any music you’ve heard in a dance club and you can quickly imagine the beat of the music. The element of time in a piece of music revolves around the beat.

To help keep our place in music, beats are grouped into bars, or measures as they are also called. Bars are delineated by bar lines. In many songs four beats make up one bar. The steady pulse would be counted 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, … and so on. Beat one always marks the beginning of the bar.

Time Signature

When reading tab, we can look at the time signature. This is that fraction that happens at the beginning of each tab. The top number in the fraction stands for the number of beats in a bar (in most cases it is 4). The bottom number stands for the note value that is equal to the beat of the music. In most cases the bottom number is also 4, which indicates that the 1/4 note is the pulse of the music. In other words, 4/4 time means each bar is equal to 4 1/4 notes.

Notes and Rests

Rhythm notation is created by altering the appearance of notes to indicate the relative duration that these notes occupy within a tab. Conversely, rests describe the relative length of silence. The names of the different notes and rests are derived from their fractional value of what is considered a beat:

All the basic rhythmic values are just simple fractions of the 4-beat whole note. Let's look at the rhythm notation of the tab below:

We can see that each note has the value of quarter. Quarter notes last one beat each. You can play this tab fast or slow, but the relative duration stays the same (one note for one beat). Another example:

Here you can see the pause with duration of half (two beats) and then chord D5 is played four times with duration of eighth (half of a beat)

All rhythm values can be constructed from two rhythm values of half the duration:

It is common for smaller valued notes to be grouped together via beams. Grouped notes usually have the length of one beat. Rests are never beamed:

Dotted note

Notes and rests can be attended by a small dot, appearing just to the right of the rhythmic element. This increases the duration of the note or rest by one half. Song example with this technique:

Double-dotted note

The first dot extends the note's duration by half, and the second dot adds another quarter of that extended duration, a half of a half. Song example with this technique:

The duration of notes can also be increased by the use of ties. When tied together, the following notes are held for the duration of the second note as well. Rests are never tied together. Song example with this technique:

Grace-note before the beat

A Grace note is a musical ornamentation characterized by a quick note played before another note. Grace note doesn't factor into the bar's duration or rhythm display. Song example with this technique:

Grace-note on the beat

Similar to the one before the beat, but initiated exactly on the beat, resulting in a subtle delay of the subsequent beat. Song example with this technique:

Generally triplet consists of three notes that will have duration of two notes of the same length when playing. In the example below notes are grouped in three's because the duration of 3 of this triplet's 1/8 notes equal the duration of only one 1/4 note (not 3/8). So basically instead of dividing the 1/4 note by 2 to get 1/8th notes, we have divided by three. In standard music notation these usually have a 3 written underneath the group. Song example with this technique:

Swing Rhythm

In swing rhythm the pulse is divided unequally, such that certain subdivisions (typically either eighth note or sixteenth note subdivisions) alternate between long and short durations. Check out

to discover the difference between swing eighths and straight ones.

Repeat is one of the most confusing parts of a tab notation. When a pair of dots accompanies a double bar, it signifies that you must repeat music either from the very front of the piece or front the previous repeat symbol as follows:

You should ignore repeat symbols with the dots on the right side the first time you encounter them; when you come to a repeat symbol with dots on the left side, jump back to the previous repeat symbol facing the opposite direction (if there is no previous symbol, go to the beginning of the piece). The next time you come to the repeat symbol, ignore it and keep going unless it includes instructions such as "3x" (repeat three times). See

song for example (bar 5).

Alternate Endings

A section will often have a different ending after each repeat. The example below includes a first and a second ending. Play until you hit the repeat symbol, jump back to the previous repeat symbol (not shown on the picture) and play until you reach the bracketed first ending, skip the measures under the bracket and jump immediately to the second ending, and then continue. See

for example (bar 45).

An accented note is an emphasis, a stronger attack placed on a particular note. Play this note louder than the others. See

for example (bars 16 – 18).

Heavily accented

A heavily accented note is a maximum emphasis, an even stronger attack placed on a particular note. Play this note much louder than the others. See

for example (bar 19).

Staccato indicates a very short note, independently of the note’s duration on the score. See

for example (bar 3, 4).

Popping is a technique commonly used on bass guitars where the player forcefully plucks one of the two highest strings using the right-hand index finger. This produces a sharp and percussive sound. See

for example (bar 1).

Slapping is a technique primarily used on bass guitars, where the player hits the strings with their right-hand thumb while rotating their wrist to produce a percussive sound. See

Tapping is hitting a fret with your fingers with no previous attack on the note. See

for example (bar 33).

Tremolo occurs with quick short picks up and down. In this case, the pick pulls the string with the same force both when moving down and when moving up, the hand is as relaxed as possible to achieve high speed. See

for example (bar 9).

Anacrusis, also called a pickup bar or upbeat, is a partial, or incomplete bar at the beginning and the end of a tab. This bar will not be highlighted as erroneous, even when it is not completed. See

for example (bar 1, bar 78).

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Guitar Tab Symbols, Notations and Abbreviations

On this page I published the ultimate table of guitar tab notation and symbols for both graphic tablatures that mostly used in guitar magazines, books, software editors, as well as the ASCII (plain text) tabs that often can be found on web pages.

It is one of the most complete references out there, so you might bookmark this page for future use, rarer notation symbols I've put closer to the bottom.

You'll see that in the ASCII column there's a lot of blank cells, it's because ASCII tabs do not have some equivalent notation and symbols, this presumes that you know the song and can figure out additional playing techniques on your own.

Graphic tablatures often include lines of staff notation along with tab lines, that's why I created diverse examples in order to get you used to different tab formats.

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How to Read Guitar Tabs And Their Corresponding Symbols

Guitar tablature is denoted in a series of horizontal lines with a set number of beats (usually 4 beats) per bar. Each horizontal line represents a string of the guitar.

The top most line represents the 1st string of the guitar (thinnest string ~ high e) while the bottommost line represents the 6th string (thickest string ~ low E).

Click here to download one of the best guitar tablature software ever to be created. Period.

Have you noticed the numbers on the horizontal lines? These are fret numbers indicating which fret to play on the given string. In this example, the 1st note is a 0 which indicates an open string on a high e string (strike the string without pressing any frets).

The next note is played by fretting the 2nd string at the 3rd fret and so on. As you might have observed, the main drawback of guitar tabs is that they do not provide the duration of the notes. Unless you have software like Guitar Pro 6, you’ve got to figure out the timing of the tabs yourself in most cases.

The above melody is the intro to “Mary had a little lamb”. Try playing it on your guitar.

Now, most guitar lessons on GuitarPlayerWorld.com come with a guitar pro 6 file (.gp6). Basically, Guitar Pro is used to facilitate learning as this useful tool enables you to HEAR and SEE how a guitar tab is played in real time. You can get your free download of Guitar Pro 6 with this link .

Let’s take a look at how tablature is shown in Guitar Pro. This tool does wonders for understanding how tabs are played and I strongly encourage you to download the software.

Download .gtp5 file or mp3 file ( Right-click Save Target as… )

Understanding Advanced Tab Symbols And Notation

The following section on reading tabs is meant to give an overview of what the various tablature symbols mean. For newer players, you probably have some difficulty in figuring out how to play them on your guitar. Don’t worry!

This lesson is meant to give you an overview of what the symbols mean and not how to actually play them. The reason is that I don’t want you to get stuck on figuring out what these symbols mean when you come across them.

Techniques and details on how to play them can be found in the guitar techniques section . Once again, I want to stress that you should go through the beginner guitar lessons first before attempting more advanced stuff.

Explanations For Symbols Found in Tablature

Harm . Natural Harmonics – Place your finger over the string at the indicated fret but lightly touch the string as you strike the note.

A.H. Artificial Harmonics – Fret and play the note normally. Produce the harmonic by touching the string lightly with the edge of the thumb when striking the string

T Finger Tapping on Guitar – Tap the fret indicated and pull off.

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What does the number in parenthesis on a Tab represent?

• 3 have this problem
• Last reply by user633449

10 years ago

Using Firefox 24.0 on a desktop and laptop, when I open Facebook the Tab title shows the Facebook icon, the number seven in parenthesis (7), and the word Facebook. What does it mean?

Chosen solution

For Facebook, that usually means you have 7 notifications. Other sites use it for different things.

All Replies (3)

• Top 10 Contributor

Sounds like something added by an extension.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

• Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window.
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

The tab usually shows the data designated by the page between the <title> and </title>tags in the head section of the page. This might not might not be displayed in the page itself.

Some sites use a script to update the title of the page to reflect things like unread messages. If you notice the number going down when you read messages or notifications, that could be it.

Chosen Solution

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What do "parentheses" mean in tab?

• Thread starter bunnyo
• Start date Sep 16, 2023

Well-known member

• Sep 16, 2023

Hi, I'm trying to learn to read a little tab for the solos in And I Love Her. I have some figured out, other things baffle me. For instance, what do the parentheses mean? I recognize them as chords, but it's confusing how many to play in a bar, etc. Thanks, Bunny  

Attachments

Believe it means to hold the note/chord through that beat without playing it again (let it keep ringing).  

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