Understanding Guitar Tabs

Ever wonder what a guitar "tab" is or means? Look no further.

Source: Ultimate-Guitar.com

Tab (or tablature) is a method of writing down music played on guitar, bass, drums etc. Instead of using symbols like in standard musical notation, it uses ordinary characters and numbers. Tablature is possibly the best way to learn music for those who don't know special music notation. Reading tabs is easy, you won't have to go through this lesson twice. 

Guitars usually have 6 strings (there are 7-string and 12-string guitars also, but we'll ignore them now). The first thing you have to know is the names of all the 6 strings. The top string is the thickest string, and it is called the 6th string or E-string because it plays E note at open fret (when you don't hold down any frets and just pick the string), assuming standard tuning. The next string is called 5th string or A string for similar reasons. The other string in order are 4th or D string, 3rd or G string, 2nd or B string and 1st or e-string(thinnest string). As the 1st and 6th string are both E notes, we distinguish the 1st string by writing it in a smaller case "e". 

As you can see, guitar tabs aren't as complicated as you may have thought. In fact, using guitar tabs can often speed up your learning curve and overall satisfaction with the guitar.