Guitar For Busy People, Lesson 1 - Notes And Tabs
Figuring out what notes are and how to read them
Introduction
So, in this lesson, we’re going to talk about musical notes and how they’re written on what is known as a guitar tab. Let’s begin
Musical Notes
In music, there are a total of 7 different notes that can be notated in two ways:
using the first 7 letters of the alphabet: C, D, E, F, G, A, B
using a Neo-Latin notation: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si (or Ti)
We will be using the first notation as it’s far more common for guitarists.
Each note has a trait known as the pitch, which helps us differentiate between how they sound. The pitch of a note helps us distinguish between two different notes, or the same note, but in a different octave (more on that in just a second).
Sounds can be represented by a sine wave. One of the most basic sound types, a sine wave (fairly common in synths), looks like this:
The wave cycle I notated there is the distances between the two points on the graph where the sine wave hits 0. The number of wave cycles that occur in a second of time gives us the frequency of a sound (measured in hertz, abbreviated Hz). The higher the frequency, the higher the pitch.
Remember octaves from earlier? Well, an octave is the frequency range between a starting frequency value and double the starting value.
In music, that translates to the range of notes between a starting note and the same note, but higher or lower in pitch. We’ll play the C major scale in the next section, and you will understand what I mean.
Standard Guitar Structure
Whether you’re following this along on an acoustic, classical, or electrical guitar, reading tabs is the same. Let’s take a look at the basic structure of a guitar so the next section doesn’t sound like alien speak:
That right there is a classical guitar. An acoustic guitar is like 90% identical, with the difference being that the strings are steel instead of nylon and the headstock area will look slightly different. An electric guitar will have something called pickups instead of a sound hole and will need to be plugged into an amplifier to get the electric sound out.
Guitar Tabs
Throughout these lessons, I am going to focus on guitar tabs in 99% of the cases. And even though I will probably use Guitar Pro at times that generates both tabs and sheet music, I will focus mainly on the tabs. In 20 years of guitar playing I don’t think I’ve ever used sheets for reading guitar music. And unless you’re into classical guitar, you probably won’t either.
A guitar tab looks like this:
E|-------------------|
B|-------------------|
G|------------2-4-5--|
D|------2-3-5--------|
A|--3-5--------------|
E|-------------------|
Brilliant, right? How does one read that? Quite simple, really. Pick up your guitar and let’s play this thing.
What you need to understand for now are the following things:
A standard guitar has 6 strings
on a tab, the highest line corresponds to the thinnest string
The notes on the left of the tab represent the tuning of the guitar
The numbers you see on the tab refer to the fret number you’re supposed to press
Right, we’ll discuss this in way more detail in a future lesson, but for now, just do as I say with regards to playing this. I’m going to detail what you need to do with the hand you use on the fretboard. As for the hand you use to actually play the notes, if you’re a complete beginner, just use either your thumb or a guitar pick:
The first two notes, on the A string, are to by played with your middle finger and your pinky finger from the hand you use on the fretboard; so, you put the middle finger on the 3rd fret and play the note (it’s going to be a C note) and after that, you will place your pinky finger on the 5th fret and play that note (a D note)
For the next 3 notes, on the D string, use the index, middle and pinky fingers respectively (the notes will be E, F and G)
For the final 3 notes, on the G string, use the index, ring and pinky fingers respectively (the notes will be A, B and C, an octave higher than before)
And what you just managed to play is known as the C major scale. Notice how you start on a C note on the A string, 3rd fret, and end on another C note, an octave higher, on the G string, 5th fret.
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Bonus: Musical Sheets
If you’re really into classical music and want to know more about sheet music, here’s a breakdown of all the elements that can be found on it:
And in order to properly understand where all notes are located, here is the C major scale (C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and ending on C) written using both a G clef and an F clef:
Note that guitar sheets usually make use of only the G clef (which is named like that because you start drawing it near the line where the G note goes on a sheet; you may also find it referenced as the treble clef, since it contains notes higher in pitch).
There, music purists, I fixed this lesson for you after all :)). We’re going to detail time signatures, tempos, note lengths, and other things in future lessons.
For now, it’s enough. I hope you found this lesson useful! I’ll see you in the next one.