We have already seen one form of diagram, now it’s time for another. The most common form of notation for guitars is tablature, known as ‘tab’ for short.

Below is the E Major chord we saw earlier but this time it’s shown in tablature instead of a chord diagram.

E|—–0——-

B|—–0——-

G|—–1——-

D|—–2——-

A|—–2——-

E|—–0——-

Instead of the strings being vertical they are laid out horizontally with the first string at the top and the sixth string at the bottom. Tablature doesn’t have lines to represent the frets, it has numbers. You read it from left to right as if reading words so you play the numbers in order from the left of the tablature to the right. If more than one number is shown at a time (as above) the notes are played at the same time.

Here are some single notes. This is the E Minor Pentatonic scale.

E|——————————–0—3

B|————————0—3——–

G|——————–0—–2———

D|————–0—2—————–

A|——–0—2———————–

E|–0—3—————————–