If you're new to fingerstyle guitar, here's a guide to reading and understanding fingerpicking guitar tabs.
When I started taking guitar lessons, I got started learning classical guitar, using the Royal Conservatory books.
Since classical guitar methods use exclusively standard notation, I had no idea what guitar tabs were until much later. Around the same time, my guitar teacher explained to me that I was one of the few students of his who didn't use guitar tab.
Being a young and inexperienced student, this comment made me feel rather smug. So, I totally ignored charts which were written in tablature, and continued exclusively using standard notation. Unfortunately, this one-sided approach caused some problems down the line when I began learning fingerstyle, which I'll get into shortly.
For now, let's go over the basics of reading guitar tablature, and then we'll tackle specific challenges with reading fingerpicking guitar tabs.
What are Guitar Tabs?
Guitar tabs, or tablature, are a form of musical notation that allows guitarists to read and play sheet music for guitar without having to learn to read traditional notation that other instrumentalists use.
Tablature, or tab for short, consists of a series of horizontal lines upon which we place numbers that indicate which fret to play on each string. Tabs are read (and played) from left to right. The lines are a visual representation of the strings, with the lowest pitched (thickest string) at the bottom and the highest pitched (thinnest) string at the top.
Unlike classical guitar sheet music, which uses standard notation exclusively, tablature shows you exactly where to place your fingers on the guitar. But unlike standard notation, guitar tablature often lacks rhythmic indications.
What is Standard Notation?
Standard notation is what other musicians usually refer to as sheet music and it's the universal way to represent musical notation.
Standard notation provides a visual representation of the notes that you need to play, such as their height (pitch) and duration. This notation lets the musician easily understand the music, such as the tune (melody) as well as separation between the melody and accompaniment.
While standard notation is a universal language for all instruments, tablature notation is specific to the guitar and is useful mainly to guitarists. Other fretted instruments such as the ukulele or banjo also use tablature in the same way as the guitar.
Basics of Fingerstyle Guitar Tablature
When you come across sheet music for fingerstyle guitar with guitar tablature, the tab notation will fall into two broad categories, called simple or standard. You may also hear them referred to as basic tablature for the simple version, or full or even complete tablature for the standard version.
Simple tablature
Simple tablature contains only the fret number indications, and sometimes the string tuning. This basic form of tablature can be written in a text editor using dashes as the horizontal lines (representing the strings), with each dash being replaced by a number when a finger placement is required. Other playing indications, such as fingering and note duration, must be provided separately.
In the case of fingerstyle guitar, this separate staff contains the standard notation version.
One of the main disadvantages of simple tabs, when compared to standard notation, is the absence of rhythmic notation. This means that, unless you're already familiar with the song, it can be challenging to understand the timing and rhythm of the piece just by looking at the tab.
Standard tablature
Standard or "full" tablature is a more complete representation of guitar music. Not only does standard tablature contain the finger placement information, it also contains complete rhythmic indications.
Sheet music for fingerstyle guitar containing standard tablature does not need to be accompanied by the standard notation version. Not only does complete tablature offer a visual representation of where to place your fingers on the fretboard, as well as which strings to play, the full tablature allows us to distinguish both the bass line (lowest-pitched notes) and melody (main theme).
How To Read Fingerstyle Guitar Tabs
When you encounter tablature for fingerstyle guitar, the first thing to check is the time signature. This is written as two numbers stacked one on top of the other, and there should always be a time signature at the beginning of the tab.
Next, you'll want to check that the music is properly divided into measures according to the time signature. This will allow you to determine exactly on which beat the note should be played. If you only have a simple tablature, you may have to add in the rhythmic notation over the top of each fret number.
Finally, like some electric guitar tabs, fingerpicking tabs also contain symbols to represent special effects used specifically in fingerstyle guitar. Here's an example of how fingerpicking tabs are typically notated.
Standard Notation With Simple Tablature
In this example, the standard notation contains the time signature and notes which indicate the rhythm. Underneath each note, the simple tablature contains numbers which clearly indicate in which fret to place the fingers.
In terms of the special notation, the vertical arrow indicates a strummed chord on the very first beat, while the x notes indicate a percussive effect delivered via a thumb slap. As you can see, bBecause fingerstyle guitar involves playing melody and bass at the same time, there is much more information crammed onto the staff as compared to single note soloing.
Letters And Numbers in Guitar Notation
Fingerpicking tabs may contain information on which finger to use to pluck the strings. This is particularly true if the tab contains a staff with standard notation. Each finger of the plucking hand is referred to with a letter, which comes from the Spanish name for each finger.
- p indicates the thumb, or pulgar.
- iindicated the index finger, or índice.
- m indicates the middle finger, or medio.
- and a indicates the ring finger, or anular.
In addition, the strings in standard notation are represented by numbers as follows.
- ① indicates the note should be played on the high E string
- ② indicates the note should be played on the B string
- ③ indicates the note should be played on the G string
- ④ indicates the note should be played on the D string
- ⑤ indicates the note should be played on the A string
- ⑥ indicates the note should be played on the low E string
Standard Fingerstyle Guitar Tabs
Because standard or full tablature contains the note values which are usually represented only using the stems, since noteheads aren't required in tab notation. Because the stems are present, you can also differentiate between melody and bass notes using the stem direction.
The following example shows a standard Travis picking arrangement of Freight Train. This pattern involves alternating the thumb between two bass strings while the fingers play a melody.
Notice with standard tablature, I've notated the bass line played with the thumb using stem down notes. The melody that you play with your fingers is marked with stem up notes.
If you are used to reading standard notation, the double lines on the stem in the melody are not an indication of a tremolo. Instead, this represents a half note duration in full tablature. The other note value present in this example is of course the quarter note.
With this example, you could also mark the notes that should be played with the thumb using 'p' and the melody using 'i', 'm', and 'a' fingers, although this level of indication is rarely needed in such a simple example.
Notating Advanced Fingerstyle Techniques
Other special effects found in fingerstyle guitar, such as harmonics, bends, palm muting, etc. are notated much the same way in fingerpicking guitar tabs as in regular tabs. In order to represent these techniques in tablature, we use special symbols.
Notating Fingerstyle Percussion Notation
Unfortunately, there is no standard way to notate fingerstyle guitar percussion. The most common way to notate guitar percussion is to use ghost notes.
Some guitarists require that you strike various parts of the guitar body in order to get different percussive sounds. To show this, composers assign the different areas meant to be struck to each line of the staff. So, a ghost note on the bottom line of the staff would represent a bass drum effect by striking the guitar bout, and a ghost note on the top line of the staff could represent a rim shot, sounded by striking the sides of the guitar body.
I have not had much success in easily understanding this notation, even with the detailed explanatory notes helpfully provided by Jon Gomm. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a better way around this cumbersome approach. I recommend the best way is to watch a video or listen carefully to a recording of the fingerstyle guitar song that contains the percussion.
Harmonics in Guitar Tablature
Although natural harmonics are notated the same way as in any other tablature, artificial harmonics are commonly used in fingerstyle guitar and require extra indications. When notating artificial harmonics in fingerstyle guitar tabs, the tablature must contain the fret number where you place your fretting hand, as well as the fret where the node is located.
In this example, we want to place a finger on the second string in the 2nd fret while simultaneously touch the node at the 21st fret to sound the harmonic. This will produce an artificial harmonic sounding an octave and a fifth higher than the fundamental.
Tablature vs Notation: Which Is Better?
When I was learning guitar, I originally believed we could dispense with tabs altogether. However, over the years of teaching guitar and learning songs myself, I came to the realization that there is definitely a place for guitar tablature.
Finger Placement Indication
To indicate a finger position in standard notation, a guitarist must add two numbers beside the note: a circled number to denote the string and a separate number for the finger. Some parts even indicate the fret number in Roman numerals, such as when the notes are guitar harmonics.
I always felt this was a somewhat clunky workaround and a weak point in guitar sheet music. Using guitar tablature provides a more elegant solution to the problem of indication accurate finger placement in my opinion.
In fingerpicking, each finger is assigned to a specific string. Typically, the thumb plays the bass notes and the fingers play the higher notes. If the tablature does not contain stems pointing a certain direction to help you decide which finger you should use to play each note, you will have to decide yourself which finger pattern to use.
Transcribing Music
On the other hand, I exclusively use standard notation when I transcribe songs from recordings. It's far quicker for me to notate the notes being played rather than write down each individual fret number.
Plus, music notation software will often create tablature automatically and you can always go back and correct the fret numbers later.
Should You Learn Tabs Or Notation?
One of the biggest advantages of tabs is that they allow guitarists to learn songs quickly without having to read traditional sheet music. This is particularly useful if you are a fingerstyle guitarist who has not had much formal music training.
However, guitarists who want to take their playing to the next level should consider learning how to read sheet music in addition to tabs. Reading music notation helps you understand that one note can be found in several places on the guitar neck.
My preference is for a guitar part that contains both standard notation and tabs. This provides for the most accurate notation possible, indicating which notes to play as well as how to play them.
