Can someone please try to explain to me how to read guitar tabs?
 

All I can do on guitar is play chords and it's getting boring. I want to try to learn some songs but I have no fucking clue how to read these guitar tabs.

http://ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/s/sm...aceboy_tab.htm

what does that all mean right there

0?

--3/5--5-5/9-9--?

what does this all mean?

also with this http://ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/s/sm...disarm_tab.htm

does the 3 mean 3rd fret in? and the 2 2nd fret in? If so when I try it sounds absolutely nothing at all like it should sound.

dude, you're on the internet

Hence why I'm asking people on a message board

I'd rather get some direct assistance for help than read a website which I can't ask further questions.

oops. oh well.

the lines are the strings, the number on the lines is the fret

the --3/5-- means a hammer on if I'm not mistaken, ...or a slide...

did you read the websites and not understand something there? or did you skip the "try it yourself" step?

you must be mildly retarded.

3/5 probably means slide

honestly just look at a song you're familiar with and mess around with what you think it is you cant be this stupid

Spaceboy, the one you're wondering about, is a slide. So hold down the chord, hit the note and, keeping pushing down on the strings, sliddddeeee to the next chord. You can hear it in the song pretty clearly.

3/5 is the time signature.
to understand it properly we're going to have to do some clapping exercises. let's say we have a beat of 5. now what we need to do is use that to our advantage. this may feel awkward and unnatural, and that's mostly because your body isn't used to these kind of modal divisions. left arm extended, play the fretwork. use this moment to really explore the neck, keeping in rhythm, of course. with practice you'll have it down soon. best of luck... keep rockin' on!

tabs are extremely silly anyway. the purpose of music notation is to show people how to play a piece of music when they can't hear it. tabs on the internet are very limited at notating rhythms or note durations so it makes them virtually useless. just sound it out and you'll get better faster.

i think that's getting a little carried away. they're supremely useful for people who can't read music, or play by ear, and who woudln't have any idea where to put their fingers to make the notes and chords. aka people like me. i learn where to put my fingers from the tab and then learn how to make it sound good, or at least decent, by listening to the song and having the tab for reference.

they're probably quite lame if you're a real musician, but if you're not, they make the difference between not having a clue now to get started and learning how to play a song you like

i guess i am an elitist. i use chord charts sometimes when i'm having trouble drawing a song from memory and i dont have immediate access to an mp3. most of them are dead fucking wrong though and i take great pleasure in having remembered the correct way.

the thing that bugs me most about tabs is that it doesn't inherently communicate what the piece sounds like. it's all very...mickey mouse to me. it's like going to gamefaqs for walkthrus. i'd rather get better by straight up trial and error.

yeah

but most people hear a song, want to learn how to play it, and look it up

nothing too wrong with it

So yeah I just started "playing" guitar a few days ago. So I'm supposed to be able to just listen to the song and by messing around be able to play the song? I'm literally days into my guitar learning experience, no way that I'm able to play music by just hearing it.

no

meaning if you look at a tab and you see the number 2-2-2-2 followed by 3-3-3-3-3 for a certain song, you can mess around with the fret board, go up one.. two frets, then go up one more fret, and think to yourself "hey that sounds like the song i wanna play!"

the strings are also labeled on plenty of tabs. when the numbers are on the bottom string on a tab sheet, they're actually on the top string. on the 2nd to bottom, is actually on the 2nd to the top.

now open your mouth for the airplane

Now with the one string that's in the middle of the 22 and the 33, what do I do with that one? Do I strum it, if not than how do I not strum that but strum the other 4 strings in one swipe?

you should really look at a video of this if you're having a tough time with it. visuals would help.

maybe just look at some youtube video that plays all the open chords and try to play along with that to start off.

http://www.howtotuneaguitar.org/less...ad-guitar-tab/
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/lesso...lature_ii.html
http://www.mahalo.com/How_to_read_guitar_tabs
http://www.jazzguitar.be/how_to_read...tablature.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2440945/How-to-Read-Guitar-Tabs
http://www.guitarhack.com/2008/03/26...d-guitar-tabs/

whenever i see this picture the sound of crickets chirping plays in my head

Banana, just give up the guitar now. There will be enough college douche bags on your campus playing guitar without you. It won't thin the herd in the least.


i guess that was sort of harsh. now that i think back on it, it's wrong to discourage you. honestly guy, you're better off just learning how to form power chords and learn the basic open chords and mess around from there for a while until you get your dexterity up. Then you can invest your practice time into becoming a more technical and creative guitarist. Try to come up with your own riffs and chord progressions and find your style that way. Don't put all your time into learning how to play fucking spaceboy.

I skipped through this thread but im sure someone here has already given you better tips than that.

i figured out how to read tabs on my own














in 7th grade








banana03 is a fucking retard.

You won't be laughing when he is on Behind The Music in ten years. :erm:

i'm not laughing.

i'm genuinely disturbed by the fact that someone can't figure out how to read fucking guitar tabs. but then again, he doesn't know the difference between "then" and "than," so I guess he's on an entirely different playing field.

hiiiyooooooooooooo

I really don't care about trying to come up with my own music. The whole point of me wanting to learn guitar is to be able to play some of the music I enjoy listening too.

The instrument you should be playing is Guitar Hero then.