Introduction

Written by Morten Gjermundsen (trollstjerne@yahoo.no)

All lesssons and exercises found on my site is written in tablature(TAB).Tablature is a system of notating finger positions by giving a fret number on a line of the tab.Each line on the tab represents a string on the guitar,with the lowest line corresponding to the lowest sounding string. 
                                                                                      
E||-------------------|-------------------|--------------------|--------------------||
B||-------------------|-------------------|----------12--------|----------15--------||
G||-------------------|----------5--------|--------------------|--------------------||
D||----------0--------|-------------------|--------------------|--------------------||
A||-------------------|-------------------|--------------------|--------------------||
E||-------------------|-------------------|--------------------|--------------------||

           Open             5th fret             12 fret              15 fret
        4th string.        3rd string.         2nd string.           2nd string.
Lets look at some more tablature examples.

Here the tablature tell you to stroke the open 6th sting (lowest sting). 


E||-------------------||
B||-------------------||
G||-------------------||
D||-------------------||
A||-------------------||
E||--------0----------||

   Open 
   6th string.

In this next example place your 1th finger (index finger) on the G string 5th fret.
E||-------------------||
B||-------------------||
G||--------5----------||
D||-------------------||
A||-------------------||
E||-------------------||

 5th fret
  3rd string.
When 2 or more notes are sounding together the tablature looks like this. 
E||-------------------||
B||-------------------||
G||--------0----------||
D||--------0----------||
A||-------------------||
E||-------------------||
Letīs take a look at the D major chord.

                        
E||--------2----------||
B||--------3----------||
G||--------2----------||
D||--------0----------||
A||-------------------||
 E||-------------------||
When playing this chord place your 1th (index finger) on the G string 2nd fret,your 2nd finger (middle finger) on the B string 3rd fret and your 3rd finger (ring finger) on the E string 2nd fret.Sound this chord by strumming all the notes showed in the tablature starting on the open D string.Since there is no numbers on the 5th string (A string) and the 6th string (E string) these strings shouldnīt be played.

Here is another example this time we will use the C minor barre chord.

E||--------8-----------||
B||--------8-----------||
G||--------8-----------||
D||--------10----------||
A||--------10----------||
E||--------8-----------||
To play the C minor chord place your 1th finger (index finger) over all the stings on the 8th fret,your 3rd finger (ring finger) on the A string 10th fret and your 4th finger (little finger) on the D string 10th fret.

When the notes are played one after another the tablature looks like this.

Listen
 
E||-----------2-------------||
B||--------3-----3----------||
G||-----2-----------2-------||
D||--0-----------------0----||
A||-------------------------||
E||-------------------------||
On the example above first fret the D major chord,then strike the notes one at the time starting on the D string.

There is a lot more in to tablature than this some tablatures show how to create certain sounds and effects and so on.In most cases an explanation of the tablature can be found where you got the tablature.

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