These two techniques are often used together and are called “legato”. This technique represents the opposite of the Hammer-on. Notice that this finger on the left hand is taking on the function that it would be playing on the right hand to play the 5th string when the 3rd fret was being pressed.Ī Pull-off can also be represented by the letter p. In this case, the finger that was pressing on the 5th fret of the A string should slide downwards (vertical) so that the 3rd fret is played. Look at the example below (the notation is identical to the hammer-on): It can be represented by the letter h next to the number that shows the fret to be played, or by a line connecting one note to another:Ĭonsists of sliding the finger of the left hand down on a string that was being pressed, in order to play that string without the aid of the right hand. This technique consists of hammering the string in a respective fret with the left hand, without the aid of the right hand (the one who plays the note is the left hand only). See how simple it is? In the tab, in addition to showing what you should play, we can also show the techniques used to play each note.īelow are the most common techniques and symbologies. If a line appears empty at that moment, it should not be played. Notice that this is how we represent chords. In this case, you should press all of these frets on their respective strings and play them at the same time. When the numbers appear on top of each other, it means that they must be played at the same time. Here, the B string should be played loose. Note: the number zero represents the loose string (without pressing any frets), for example: In that case, you should play the 5th fret of the D string, then the 7th fret of the D string, then the 5th fret of the G string, and so on. When other numbers appear in sequence, you must play one note after another. In this example, you should press the third fret of the A string with your left hand and play that string with your right hand. On top of each string, a number is placed that represents the guitar fret that must be pressed.

The other strings follow the same logic that the instrument presents. The thickest and lowest string (low E) is at the bottom, while the thinnest and highest string (high E) is at the top. The order of the strings in the tab, from top to bottom, is as follows: The form of writing by tab consists of 6 lines representing the 6 loose strings of the guitar. The tabs for other string instruments follow the same principle. We will show the guitar tab here, because this is the writing used here in the website. And it could not be any different, after all its reading is quite simple and practical, as we will see below. Tablature (or tab) writing is widely used in string instruments.

Take 5 guitar tab