Guitar music has it's own form of notation, called a tab, or tablature. Tabs are different from standard musical notation because they do not use staffs, ledger lines, key signatures, or notes. For this reason, acoustic guitar tabs are beneficial because they allow you to learn how to play the instrument without also having to learn to read music. Tabs may also be used as notation for other stringed instruments.

The form of musical notation specific to the guitar is acoustic guitar tabs, or tablature. Each chord is notated with one tab, a small chart of the guitar strings themselves. The string at the top of the diagram is the one furthest from your body as you hold the guitar. Each string will show a number, which is the fret you should hold to create that chord. If you see a zero, that means an open string. An X means that string should be muffled.

In case you dont know what a fret is, its the space between two of the metal bars on the long neck of your guitar. Most acoustic guitars have from 21 to 24 of these frets. Their dots are just there to help you in positioning your fingers.

Take a look at the acoustic guitar tab and if all of the numbers are listed one after the other and all on one line, the numbers indicate the fret to use on that string; only pluck that particular string. Numbers that are noted one after the other indicate that you play one note at a time. If there is a number on each line and the numbers are stacked, one on top of the other; then the acoustic guitar tab is saying play all the notes simultaneously, in other words, strumming all six strings.

When you're reading on up acoustic guitar tabs, a few other things are going to come up, like hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends and slides. The letter h indicates a hammer-on. For instance, you might see something like 7h9 on one of the lines. Pull-offs are indicated by a p, bends by the letter b, and slides by the notation "/ (thats a slash mark).

After youve gotten accustomed to the notion of reading music by string position, search online for basic acoustic guitar tabs and find a tune youre really familiar with to practice on. While the approach may be new to you, youll see that you can pick up its melody quickly this way now that you can read tabs.

Listening to a song while you are trying to learn it makes it simpler to learn. Details and rhythms that you think you remember will pop out and help you. Learning the guitar using acoustic guitar tabs makes it quite a bit more fun. It won't take long to learn several songs, and you will be able to play them for your friends at parties, or while you're alone so you can enjoy them in private.