Guitar tablature
Guitar tablature consists of a series of horizontal lines forming a staff (or stave) similar to standard notation. Each line represents one of the instrument's strings. Therefore standard guitar tab has a six-line staff and bass guitar tab has four lines. The top line of the tablature represents the highest-pitched string of the guitar. By writing tablature with the lowest pitched notes on the bottom line and the highest pitched notes on the top line of the tablature follows the same basic structure and layout of Western Standard Notation.
The following examples are labelled with letters on the left denoting the string names, with a lowercase e for the high E string. Tab lines may be numbered 1–6 instead, representing standard string numbering, where "1" is the high E string, "2" is the B string, etc.
The numbers that are written on the lines represent the fret used to obtain the desired pitch. For example, the number 3 written on the top line of the staff indicates that the player should press down at the third fret on the high E (first string). Number 0 denotes the nut—that is, an open string.
For chords, a letter above or below the tab staff denotes the root note of the chord.
Examples of guitar tab notation:The chords E, F, and G:
e---0---1---3---
B---0---1---0---
G---1---2---0---
D---2---3---0---
A---2---3---2---
E---0---1---3---
E F G
Below is a simple melody in tablature.
e---0-1-3-5-3-1-0-- -----------------
B------------------3--1---------------
G-------------------------------------
D-------------------------------------
A-------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------
[edit] Lower Section
In the lower section of the example above, the top line represents the thinnest string of the guitar (high e) and the lowest line represents the thickest string of the guitar (low E). Each number on a line represents a fretted note on that string. The number zero is an open string, the number one is the first fret, and so on.
The tab is divided into bars using bar-lines but the duration of the notes is not indicated. You can figure out the duration of the notes using the Standard Notation in the upper section. You can also work out the note values using the time signature; which in this example is four-four time. This means that there are four quarter-notes in each bar. The tempo or style, which is given at the top of a piece of sheet music, is also an indicator of how a song should be played.
The key signature is not shown in the example. Key signatures show which sharps or flats are to be used; represented by #'s and b's. Each sharp or flat is shown on their respective line and space after the time signature.
[edit] Upper Section
The upper section of the example above is in Standard Notation and shows that the first bar has 8 notes. Each note is represented by an oval note-head which indicates which note is to be played and the note stem indicates the notes duration (how long the note is to be held). Because the notes in the first bar are all eighth notes they are connected with a beam as shown in the example. The beaming of the same notes in a bar allows for easier reading. Eighth notes would normally be shown with a single tail which here is replaced by a single beam. Sixteenth notes have two tails so a double beam is used when grouping.
At the end of the last eighth note there is a vertical bar-line. The bar-lines are used to show the pulse and rhythm of a piece of music. If a note is tied over the bar-line with a curved tie-line, then the note duration is held over to the next bar. Bars must never have more notes in them than is indicated by the time signature. In the next bar there is a whole note, which is an oval that is not shaded in the middle and has no stem.
The two vertical black lines at the end are called a double bar-line and this shows that the piece of music has ended.
"Every Good Boy Deserves Food" and the word "face" = egbdf and face
