Well, I went to the opthamologist this morning to see about my vision. Turns out I have the very beginnings of a cataract in my left eye. I guess I'll be facing some surgery sometime in the future. Good thing I already don't know how to read music. HA!
Which leads me to what I want to chat about today. I've been learning how to read Guitar TAB for many years. What is TAB? How do you use it?
TAB is a way of notating music without having to actually write music notes on a staff.
Below is sheet music. Each note on the staff (the 5 horizontal lines) corresponds with a note on my guitar.
I only have very rudimentary knowledge of reading music this way. I could figure it out but it would take me a long time to translate what I'm seeing here to my guitar.
Below is the same song but written in guitar Tab. It essentially tells me the same thing but instead of showing me which notes to play, it tells me which strings to play and at what fret on the neck of the guitar I should place my finger to make that note ring out.
For example I know the first note is on the A string (the second thickest guitar string) on the second fret. In order to read this properly, you must first know the melody - which is not the same with sheet music.
There are lots of online resources for finding guitar Tab for various songs. Ultimate Guitar is probably the most common. You can find it here
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