How to Play Guitar Solos - Understanding Guitar Tab

by Glenn Bird
Filed in Newbies , Theory

It's always a challenge learning something new, especially when it comes to things like foreign languages. Music is no different, especially if you're planning to learn to read sheet music. This can be a daunting task for even the most keen students among us, but you don't have to learn to sight read to be able to know how to play guitar solos or anything else!

There is a form of written music known as guitar tablature (usually referred to as just 'Tab'), and this can be so much easier to read as it Is literally written as it is on the guitar, so you can see it and play it. Even with the most basic forms of anything though, it still requires explanation to know how to read and understand it, especially when everyone is suddenly an expert on it, so let's cover the basics so you can actually learn something whenever you want to.

Just as sheet music has 5 lines on the page where the notes fit into, guitar tab also has lines. The difference being it has one line for each string on the guitar, and instead of notes being drawn in a separate place for every note, they are simply written on the line (string) with the number of the fret they are played on. Simple. You'll quite often see this tab as a basic form done in a program like notepad, with broken lines made into a music line. If you want to write your own you can use quite a few programs to draw lines such as Microsoft word, or any free word processing program.

  Badd11                                    E7Madd13

--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|

-----------5--------|-----------5--------|-----------4--------|

--------8-----8-----|--------8-----8-----|--------6-----6-----|

-----9-----------9--|-----9-----------9--|-----6-----------6--|

--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|

--7-----------------|--7-----------------|--0-----------------|

This is what the tab looks like, and you'll see it has six lines for the six strings, going from the bottom line being the low E string all the way through to the high E string as the top line. The bars are separated the same as any other sheet music, and the chords that the notes are based on are at the top (in this case it's Badd11 & E7Madd13). The notes are written as the number of the fret played on the string, so it starts with 7^th fret on the low E string, then 9^th fret on the D string and so on. Easy huh? This combined with a couple of videos to get the feel and sound of the track you're learning and you're well on your way.

When the notes call for a specific technique such as a hammer on, vibrato etc it will tell you, and this is what to look out for:

Slide - ( / ) up or ( \ ) down - means to slide, usually from one note to the next.

Vibrato - ( ~ ) means to add vibrato, usually after the note.

------------------|--------------|-------------------|

--4----5----------|--------------|-------------------|

----------4/6~----|--------------|--6/4---6--6/8-----|

------------------|--------------|-------------------|

------------------|--------------|-------------------|

------------------|--------------|-------------------|

Hammer on - ( h ) means to hammer the note after the ( h ) instead of picking it.

Pull off - ( p ) means to pull off the note before so it sounds the note after the ( p ).

------------------------------|------------------------------|

--5-12p0h7-12p0h9-12p0h7-12p0h|--5-12p0h7-12p0h7-12p0h7-12p0h|

------------------------------|------------------------------|

------------------------------|------------------------------|

------------------------------|------------------------------|

------------------------------|------------------------------|

Other symbols to look out for are ( t ) - Tap ( x ) - dampen the note or palm mute it.

You won't have too much else in most songs and if you do there will usually be an explanation with it. Just remember, when learning how to play guitar solos it pays to get all the different forms of the song you can to learn from, video/ tab/ live audio etc. This will give you the best chance of getting the overall feel and notes of the song.

If you want more guitar solo advice and lessons, feel free to check out my site How to Play Guitar Solos

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