How to Read Guitar Tabs: Easy Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

You just heard a song that absolutely rips. You want to play it. You Google “[song name] tab” and suddenly you’re staring at a screen full of numbers and symbols that look like someone spilled alphabet soup on a spreadsheet. Welcome to guitar tablature—the language that millions of guitarists use to learn songs, share ideas, and figure out what the hell their favorite players are actually doing.

Here’s the good news: learning how to read guitar tabs is way easier than reading standard musical notation. You don’t need to know what a treble clef is. You don’t need to memorize which note lives on which line. You just need to understand a simple system that tells you where to put your fingers. That’s it. If you can count to 22 (the number of frets on most guitars) and know which string is which, you’re already halfway there.

The less good news? Tabs aren’t perfect. They don’t tell you rhythm, they’re often wrong on the internet, and they can’t teach you the feel of a song. But they’re still the fastest way to learn how to play what you want to play, and once you understand how to read guitar tabs properly, you’ll unlock thousands of songs that would take months to learn by ear alone.

Before you dive into the mechanics of reading tabs, you need to understand what they are and why guitarists use them instead of standard notation. Standard musical notation—the stuff with staffs and notes and time signatures—has been around for centuries. It works great for piano, orchestras, and basically every other instrument. But for guitar, it’s kind of a pain.

Here’s why: the same note can be played in multiple places on a guitar. That E note? You can play it on the open 6th string, the 5th fret of the B string, the 9th fret of the G string, and a bunch of other places. Standard notation tells you what note to play but not where to play it. For pianists, that’s fine—there’s only one middle C on the keyboard. For guitarists, it’s a problem because where you play a note affects tone, playability, and what you can do next.

Guitar tablature solves this problem by showing you exactly where to put your fingers. It’s a visual map of your fretboard. Instead of abstract music theory, you get concrete instructions: “Put your finger on the 5th fret of the 4th string.” That’s it. No translation required.

Think of it this way:

Standard notation = telling you what notes to play (the destination)
Guitar tabs = telling you exactly how to play them (the route)
What you probably need = tabs first, then maybe notation later if you want to get serious

The foundation of how to read guitar tabs is stupidly simple. You’re looking at six horizontal lines. Each line represents a string on your guitar. The bottom line is your thickest string (low E), and the top line is your thinnest string (high E). Yes, it’s upside down from how you look at your guitar when you’re playing it. That confuses everyone at first. You’ll get used to it.

The letters on the left show you which string is which:

• e = high E string (thinnest, closest to the floor when you’re playing)
• B = B string
• G = G string
• D = D string
• A = A string
• E = low E string (thickest, closest to your face when you’re playing)

Sometimes tabs use lowercase for the high E and uppercase for the low E to differentiate them. Sometimes they don’t bother and just assume you know. Either way works as long as you remember: top line = thin string, bottom line = thick string.

Now here’s where it gets practical. Numbers on the lines tell you which fret to press down. A “0” means play the string open (no fingers on it). A “3” means press down the 3rd fret. A “12” means press down the 12th fret. You read from left to right, just like reading words.

Here’s a simple example:

Imagine the high E string (the top line in a tab) with the numbers 0, 1, 3, and 5 written across it from left to right, while all the other strings remain empty. This tells you to play the high E string at these frets, in order: open, 1st fret, 3rd fret, 5th fret. You play them one at a time, moving from left to right across the tab.

When numbers are stacked vertically, you play them all at the same time—that’s a chord. Here’s what a basic open G chord looks like in tab form:

• The high E string shows “3”
• The B string shows “3”
• The G string shows “0”
• The D string shows “0”
• The A string shows “2”
• The low E string shows “3”

All these numbers are aligned vertically

You’re pressing the 3rd fret on three different strings (high E, B, and low E), the 2nd fret on the A string, and playing the G and D strings open. Strum all six strings at once and you’ve got a G chord. Learning how to read guitar tabs means understanding that vertical alignment = simultaneous notes.

Tabs are read chronologically from left to right, just like English. Whatever’s written first gets played first. Whatever’s written last gets played last. If you see the high E string with the sequence: 0, 3, 5, 3, 0 (while all other strings remain empty):

• You play the high E string open
• Then 3rd fret
• Then 5th fret
• Then back to 3rd
• Then back to open

In that exact order. The spacing between notes gives you a rough idea of timing, but tabs are terrible at showing you rhythm with any precision. More on that problem later.

Once you’ve got the basics of how to read guitar tabs—six lines, numbers show frets, left to right reading—you need to learn the symbols. These tell you how to play the notes, not just where to put your fingers. This is where tabs go from being a simple roadmap to actually capturing some of the expression and technique in a piece of music.

A hammer-on means you pick the first note, then “hammer” your finger down on a higher fret without picking again. It creates a smooth, legato sound.

• In tabs, it’s shown with an “h” between two numbers, like “5h7” on the high E string
• Pick the 5th fret
• Then hammer your finger down on the 7th fret hard enough to make it ring without picking the string again
• The “h” between the numbers tells you it’s a hammer-on

The opposite of a hammer-on. You pick a note, then pull your finger off to a lower note without picking again.

• Shown with a “p” between two numbers, like “7p5” on the high E string
• Pick the 7th fret
• Then pull your finger off so the 5th fret (which should already have a finger on it) rings out
• The “p” tells you it’s a pull-off

Bends are when you push or pull a string to raise its pitch. They’re one of the most expressive techniques in guitar playing, and they’re crucial for blues, rock, and lead playing.

• In tabs, you’ll see something like “7b9” on a string
• This means fret the 7th fret and bend the string until it sounds like the 9th fret
• How far you bend depends on the number after the “b”
• Sometimes you’ll see just “b” with no number, which usually means a half-step bend
• Sometimes you’ll see “b” followed by “r” which means bend, then release (like “7b9r7”)
• That tells you to bend from the 7th fret to sound like the 9th, then release back down to the 7th

Slides are straightforward. Pick a note, then slide your finger up or down the fretboard to another note without lifting off the string.

• The “/” means slide up
• The “” means slide down
• You’ll see notations like “5/7” (slide up from 5th to 7th fret)
• Or “75” (slide down from 7th to 5th fret)
• Sometimes you’ll see slides with no starting or ending number, like “/7” (slide into the 7th fret from below)
• Or “7” (slide out of the 7th fret downward)
• This means start somewhere lower (or higher) and slide into (or out of) the written note
• The exact starting point doesn’t matter much

Vibrato is a rapid, slight variation in pitch that adds warmth and sustain to a note. It’s done by rapidly bending and releasing a string just a little bit.

• In tabs, you’ll see a tilde symbol () after a number, like “7”
• Fret the 7th fret and wiggle your finger to create vibrato
• The number of tildes (~) or length of the symbol sometimes indicates how much vibrato
• That’s not standardized though
• You’ll need to listen to the song to get the feel right

Palm muting is when you rest the edge of your picking hand lightly on the strings near the bridge to deaden the sound. It creates a chunky, percussive tone that’s essential for rock and metal rhythm playing.

• In tabs, you’ll see “PM” written above the staff
• A dashed or solid line extends over the notes you should palm mute
• For example, if you see “PM” indicated above repeated power chord patterns on the A and E strings (like fret 3 on the A string and fret 1 on the E string, played multiple times)
• You’d palm mute all those notes to get that tight, aggressive rhythm guitar sound

Harmonics are bell-like tones you create by lightly touching a string at specific frets (usually 5th, 7th, or 12th) without pressing down, then picking it.

• Natural harmonics are shown in brackets or angle brackets around the fret number, like “<12>”
• Lightly touch the string directly over the 12th fret wire (not in the space between frets like normal)
• Pick it
• Immediately lift your finger
• You get a chiming harmonic tone

Some tabs will indicate notes that should sustain while you play other notes.

• Usually written above the staff as “let ring” with a line extending over the notes
• For example, you might see “let ring” indicated above a sequence where you play the high E string open, then add the B string open, then add the G string open
• This creates a cascading effect where all the notes ring together
• Don’t mute the strings as you add new notes
• Creates a layered, harp-like effect

Here’s where learning how to read guitar tabs gets real: most tabs on the internet are wrong. Not slightly wrong. Sometimes catastrophically wrong. They’re transcribed by ear, often by amateurs, and nobody’s checking the work. You’ll find tabs that have the wrong chords, wrong timing, wrong techniques, and sometimes notes that are physically impossible to play. Welcome to the wild west of music education.

The tab is in the wrong key: This happens more than you’d think. Someone transcribes a song, doesn’t realize the guitarist was using a capo or tuned differently, and publishes a tab that’s technically accurate to their transcription but completely wrong for playing along with the actual song.

The rhythm is guesswork: Tabs show you where to put your fingers but not when. The spacing between numbers gives you a vague idea, but if you don’t know the song already, good luck figuring out the actual timing. This is the biggest limitation of tabs compared to standard notation.

Hammer-ons and pull-offs are missing: Lazy transcribers will just write out all the notes without indicating the technique. You’ll see “5-7-5-7-5-7” when it should be “5h7p5h7p5h7”. The notes are right, but the feel is completely wrong.

Power chords get written out wrong: Some tabs will write a power chord (which is two or three notes) as individual notes played in sequence when they should be played simultaneously. Or worse, they’ll write them simultaneously when they should be arpeggiated (one at a time).

Wrong fingerings: Just because a tab tells you to play something a certain way doesn’t mean it’s the easiest or best way. Sometimes there’s a simpler fingering that makes more sense.

How to know if a tab is decent:

• Check the rating and comments if you’re on a tab site
• Look for tabs marked “official” or “pro”—they’re usually more accurate
• Cross-reference multiple tabs of the same song
• Actually listen to the song while following the tab
• Trust your ears over the tab if something sounds wrong

Tabs are fantastic for learning the notes and the where. They’re terrible at teaching you the when and the how. Here’s what you’re not getting when you rely only on tabs:

Rhythm and timing: This is the big one. Tabs might have rough spacing that suggests timing, but they don’t use time signatures, note durations, or measures the way standard notation does. A quarter note and an eighth note look the same in tabs. You need to know the song to get the timing right.

Dynamics: How loud or soft to play, when to swell a note, when to back off—none of that is in tabs. You’re not getting crescendos, decrescendos, or accents unless the transcriber adds them as text notes.

Feel and groove: The subtle swing in a blues shuffle, the laid-back feel of reggae, the tight precision of metal—tabs can’t capture that. They show you the notes but not the vibe.

Articulation details: How hard to pick, whether to use downstrokes or alternate picking, how much to let a bend ring out—this stuff is missing or written as text notes at best.

Tone and effects: What pickup to use, what effects are on, how the amp is set—tabs don’t tell you this. You could play the right notes and sound completely wrong if your tone is off.

This is why when you’re really learning how to read guitar tabs effectively, you need to pair them with listening to the actual song. The tab shows you where your fingers go. Your ears teach you everything else.

Knowing how to read guitar tabs in theory is different from being able to use them effectively to learn songs. Here’s how to practice the skill itself, not just individual songs:

Start stupid simple: Don’t jump into “Through the Fire and Flames” tab on your first day. Start with single-note melodies you already know—”Happy Birthday,” “Smoke on the Water,” simple stuff. The goal is to train your brain to translate symbols to finger positions without thinking.

Learn one small section at a time: Trying to read through an entire song from start to finish is overwhelming and ineffective. Take four to eight bars. Loop them. Get them right. Move on. Your brain needs time to process and automate the movements.

Play along with the song: Tabs without audio are like reading a recipe you’ve never tasted. You need the reference. Play the song, follow the tab, and adjust when things don’t line up. This also trains your ear alongside your tab-reading ability.

Focus on the symbols, not just the numbers: Anyone can look at “5-7-8” and play those frets. The skill is recognizing “5h7p5” and immediately knowing it’s a hammer-on/pull-off combination without having to think about it. Make yourself slow down and play the techniques correctly rather than just hitting the right notes.

Write out your own tabs: Take a simple riff you know and tab it out yourself. This forces you to think about how tabs work from the other direction. It’s like learning a language—you really understand grammar when you try to write, not just read.

Compare tabs to videos: YouTube is full of lesson videos. Watch someone play, then look at a tab of the same song. See where the tab is accurate and where it’s not. This builds your critical eye for evaluating tab quality.

Learn songs slightly above your level: If everything in a tab is easy, you’re not improving. Pick songs that have one or two techniques you’re still shaky on. Struggle with them. Figure them out. That’s where growth happens.

There comes a point in every guitarist’s journey where tabs start to feel limiting. They were perfect for learning “Wonderwall” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” but now you want to understand why certain notes work, or you want to improvise, or you’re trying to learn jazz and tabs just… don’t cut it anymore. This is when you need to expand beyond tablature.

Learn some basic music theory: You don’t need a degree, but understanding intervals, scales, and chord construction will make you a better player. When you know that a minor pentatonic scale has the same pattern across the fretboard no matter where you play it, you stop needing tabs for every lick.

Train your ear: Being able to figure out a song by ear is the ultimate freedom. Start with simple songs. Hum a note, then find it on your guitar. Once you get good at single notes, try intervals and chords. It’s slow at first. It gets easier.

Learn standard notation eventually: Yeah, it’s harder. But it teaches you rhythm, it opens up music that’s not available in tab form, and it makes you a more complete musician. You don’t have to choose between tabs and notation—use both.

Take actual lessons: Learning how to read guitar tabs from the internet is great, but nothing replaces a real teacher who can watch you play, correct your technique, and show you things you didn’t know you didn’t know. If you’re in the Denver area, Sollohub School of Music has instructors who can take you from tab-dependent beginner to confident player who uses tabs as a tool, not a crutch.

Play with other people: Tabs work great when you’re alone in your room. They’re less useful in a band situation where someone calls out “play it in A” and you need to just… know what that means. Real-world playing forces you to develop skills beyond tab-reading.

Not all tab sources are created equal. Here’s where to find tabs that aren’t complete garbage:

Ultimate Guitar (ultimate-guitar.com): The biggest tab site on the internet. Quality varies wildly—some tabs are excellent, some are trash. Pay attention to ratings and look for “official” or “pro” tabs. The pro tabs cost money but they’re accurate, include rhythm notation, and often have backing tracks.

Songsterr (songsterr.com): Interactive tabs that play along with you, showing you where you are in the song. Great for learning timing, which regular tabs suck at. The free version has ads and limitations, but it’s useful.

YouTube lesson channels: Many guitar teachers post videos with tabs shown on screen or in the description. You get the visual demonstration plus the tab, which is the best of both worlds. Channels like Marty Music, JustinGuitar, and GuitarLessons365 are solid.

Official tab books: If you really want accuracy, buy the official tab book for an album. They’re transcribed by professionals, approved by the artists or publishers, and include all the weird timing and techniques that internet tabs miss. They’re expensive, but if you love an artist and want to learn their catalog right, it’s worth it.

TuxGuitar, Guitar Pro: Software that displays tabs with playback and realistic instrument sounds. Guitar Pro is the industry standard (costs money), TuxGuitar is the free alternative. Both let you slow down tabs, loop sections, and see the notation alongside the tab.

Learning how to read guitar tabs isn’t one universal skill—different styles of music have different tab conventions and challenges. Here’s what changes depending on what you’re playing:

Rock and metal tabs: Lots of palm muting, power chords, and fast alternate picking. You’ll see tons of “PM” markings and rhythmic chugging patterns. The challenge isn’t reading the tab, it’s building the stamina and right-hand technique to play it at speed.

Blues tabs: Heavy on bends, vibrato, and slides. The tab might look simple—just a few notes—but the feel is everything. A tab that says “7b9~” could be played a hundred different ways. Listen to the song to get the phrasing right.

Fingerstyle and classical tabs: More complex because you’re playing multiple things at once. You’ll often see numbers stacked on different strings, and you need to figure out which fingers play which notes. Some tabs include right-hand fingering (p = thumb, i = index, m = middle, a = ring) but not always.

Jazz tabs: Rare, because jazz guitarists usually read chord charts or standard notation. When you do find jazz tabs, they’re often just the melody or key licks. You’re expected to understand the harmony and improvise the rest.

Acoustic singer-songwriter tabs: Usually chord-based, showing you the fingerpicking or strumming patterns. Sometimes they include lyrics above the tab so you know where chord changes happen. These are beginner-friendly but can be deceptively hard to make sound good.

You’re learning a song. You follow the tab exactly. It sounds… wrong. Not “you’re playing it badly” wrong, but “this is literally not the same notes as the recording” wrong. This happens constantly. Here’s your game plan:

Trust your ears first: If something sounds off, it probably is. Don’t assume the tab is gospel. Your ears are your best tool.

Try it in different positions: Maybe the notes are right but the position is wrong. The same notes can be played in multiple places on the guitar. Move it up or down the neck and see if it sounds better.

Check if there’s a capo: Some tabs forget to mention if a capo is used. If everything sounds right but in the wrong key, that’s probably why. Try putting a capo on different frets and playing the tab as written.

Look for alternate tunings: Songs in Drop D, Open G, or other tunings won’t sound right if you’re in standard tuning. Check the top of the tab for tuning info.

Find a different tab: Don’t waste hours trying to make a bad tab work. Find another version and compare. Usually one is way better than the other.

Learn it by ear: If multiple tabs are wrong, just figure it out yourself. Slow the song down using YouTube or software and work it out note by note. It’s harder but you’ll learn more.

Here’s the thing about learning how to read guitar tabs: it’s not a one-time skill you master and forget about. You’ll get faster at it. You’ll get better at spotting errors. You’ll develop intuition about what’s playable and what’s not. But every new style, every complex technique, every weird timing pattern—that’s a new challenge.

The tabs for “Blackbird” by The Beatles are going to challenge you differently than the tabs for a Metallica solo or a Django Reinhardt jazz piece. You’re not just learning one system; you’re learning to adapt that system to whatever music you want to play.

That’s actually the beautiful part. Tabs are a tool, not a destination. They’re scaffolding you use while building your skills. Eventually, you’ll need tabs less and less because you’ll understand the patterns, you’ll recognize the sounds, and you’ll be able to figure things out on your own. But they’ll always be there as a quick reference, a starting point, a way to share ideas with other guitarists across the internet.

The best approach to tabs is treating them like a rough draft. They’re a starting point, not the final answer. Use them to get the general idea, then make the song your own. Add your own feel. Change a note if it sounds better your way. Play it faster, slower, with more aggression, with more softness—whatever serves the music.

Some guitarists treat tabs like sacred texts. They obsess over getting every note exactly as written, even when the tab itself is just someone’s best guess at what the original guitarist played. That’s missing the point. The original guitarist probably doesn’t play it the same way twice. Music is supposed to be alive, not fossilized in a text file.

Learning how to read guitar tabs is about gaining access to music, not limiting yourself to one interpretation of it. The tab says “play 5h7p5 on the high E string.” Okay, you do that. But how hard do you attack it? How much sustain? What’s the next phrase? Where does this fit in the bigger musical picture? That’s what separates someone who can read tabs from someone who can actually play music.

You now know the basics of how to read guitar tabs. You know what the lines and numbers mean, what the symbols represent, where tabs fail, and how to use them effectively. Here’s what you should actually do with this information:

Find a tab for a song you love: Not the hardest song you can think of. Not something to impress people. A song you genuinely want to play. Pull up the tab, pull up the audio, and start working through it section by section.

Focus on technique, not speed: Playing the right notes slowly with good technique beats playing the wrong notes fast. Hammer-ons should be clean, bends should be in tune, slides should be smooth. Slow it down until you can do it right, then gradually speed up.

Don’t skip the basics: If you’re stuck on advanced tabs, go back to simpler ones. Build your foundation. You can’t read a novel if you’re still sounding out words.

Listen more than you read: For every minute you spend staring at a tab, spend two minutes listening to the song. Internalize how it sounds, feels, grooves. The tab is just a map. The song is the destination.

Get feedback: If you’re serious about guitar, find a teacher, jam with friends, or at least record yourself and listen back. You can’t always hear your own mistakes while you’re playing. Sometimes you need an outside perspective to realize you’re reading that hammer-on symbol but playing it like two separate picked notes.

If you’re in the Denver or Broomfield area and want hands-on help learning how to read guitar tabs and actually apply them to real playing, Sollohub School of Music has instructors who specialize in taking students from “I know what a tab is” to “I can learn any song I want.” They’ll teach you not just to read tabs, but to understand music in a way that makes tabs just one tool in a much bigger toolkit.

Tabs aren’t perfect. They’re sloppy, often wrong, and limited in what they can teach you. But they’re also the fastest way to learn songs, the easiest entry point for beginners, and the universal language that millions of guitarists use to communicate. Learning how to read guitar tabs doesn’t make you a complete musician, but it opens doors that would otherwise stay locked.

You could spend months learning music theory, training your ear, and painstakingly figuring out songs note by note. Or you could pull up a tab, get 80% of the way there in an hour, and spend the remaining time actually playing music. Both approaches have value. The smart move is using tabs to accelerate your learning while gradually building the deeper skills that make you a real musician.

Start with simple songs. Progress to harder ones. Make mistakes. Figure them out. Learn from bad tabs by spotting what’s wrong. Eventually, you’ll reach a point where you can look at a tab and just know what it’s going to sound like before you even pick up your guitar. That’s when tabs stop being a crutch and become a convenience.

Until then, pick up your guitar, pull up a tab for a song you love, and start playing. The theory doesn’t matter until you’ve put in the hours. The mistakes don’t matter until you’ve learned from them. What matters is that right now, today, you know how to read guitar tabs—and that means you can learn just about any song you want.

The rest is just practice.