Guitar music has its own musical notation. The standard musician’s notation of staffs, notes, note values, ledger lines, key signatures and time signatures is replaced with a simpler, operational type of notation, called a tab. Even if you do not know how to read music, you can learn how to play guitar with the acoustic guitar tabs. Many stringed instruments use tabs or tablatures.

“Tabs” is short for tablature. Acoustic guitar tabs arelike a little picture of your guitar strings. The first row is the top string and the sixth row is the bottom one. On each of the rows, or lines, the numbers indicate the fret you’re supposed to be playing. A “0″ (zero) is used to indicate an open string, while an “X” indicates a muffled string.

In case you don’t know what a fret is, it’s 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.

While looking at acoustic guitar tabs, first you should note if the numbers are listed one after another on each of the lines. If they are arranged in this manner, the numbers are indicating to you which fret to use on that string, and you pluck that one string alone. On the other hand, if you notice that the numbers are stacked one on top of the other (in a vertical manner) on the individual line, the acoustic guitar tab is instructing you to play these notes simultaneously, strumming all six strings at the same time.

When reading acoustic guitar tabs, you may come across things like, hammer-on, pull-offs, bends and slides. A hammer-on may be represented by something such as “7h9,” with the “h” being the notation for the hammer-on. A pull-off would be noted in the same way, with a “p” instead of an “h.” A bend is noted by a simple “b” and a slide would be represented by a “/.”

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

You’ll pick up a tune much more quickly if you can also listen to it while you’re trying to learn it. You get more detail and an added feel for the beat, even with a song you think you know by heart. Acoustic guitar tabs make learning more enjoyable, and it won’t take long to have a small repertoire you can trot out at parties or just jam around with in the privacy of your own home.