Guitar tabs are an informative guitar- friendly mode of putting riffs down, but they generally are not as much informative as sheet music. Guitar tabs often rely on backing tracks with some descriptions and analysis to support them. This is because they do not possess key information and timing??” but if you are lucky, the description will give you the key.

A lot of tabs published in magazines include the key at the top of the tab. But if you have a tab without the key, you will not be able to say what key it is in? Well, don’t worry at least you have the notes, which is a great start. One method is to write down all of the notes and compare them to scales that you have in your mind. A good opportunity of understanding the key out will be there, if you can pick out 8 different notes but if you only have two the case may be different.

For instance, if you pick out 8 notes and they are A, B, C, D, E, F and G that grants you some good clues. The first 2 choices are the key of C and the key of a minor. I found this out by arranging the notes and comparing them to the tones in several scales.

Other possible actions include the several modes of the C Major scale. Such as:
A Aeolian ( same as the A minor-scale above),
F Lydian, G Mixolydian
D Dorian, E Phrygian
B Locrian

Experience is important to figure out the modes in use. Particularly, you can check the chord that is being played as it will probably give you a hint. For example Em or Em7 would direct towards a Phrygian scale instead of standard major.

Of course you may play some very complicated scales that aren’t just very simple to spot by looking at the notes, or even somebody is merely “cheating” in which the song is being played chromatically or without reference to a particular scale. In short terms, the all-important thing is to have knowledge about the backing chords that will serve you here.