Wondered if anyone has any tips for playing from Tabs. Background - just really learning, been 2 months and I’m doing really well at playing some open chord songs, and can read and play from sheet music, but I have a real hard time following Tabs - i.e., how the lyrics/chords relate to the number of measures, where they fall in the progression of measures. If you don’t know and are able to sing the lyrics, knowing when the new chord changes occur are a real problem for me, how many measures of that chord, etc. Plus there are some music pieces that are written in a Tab, yet they have instructions for a particular section that say “hit on chord for first three bars, and full intensity starting on bar 4” - where the heck is the bar on the Tab??? Thanks.
Your best bet is to continue with Justin’s BC course and listen to the songs you want to learn learn to hear the rhythm and you won’t need tabs.
Hello Joe.
Welcome to JustinGuitar and the Community.
Justin has lessons on reading tab, reading chord box diagrams etc.
The first general comment I wish to make is that internet tab sources are notoriously unreliable. Many of them are not made by professional or experienced musicians.
The musical direction that you quote from whatever tab that is is actually meaningless, using non-musical terminology.
There is no such thing as ‘hit on chord’ nor is there such a thing as ‘full intensity’. Those are some individuals own instructions.
Can you share a photo or screenshot of it?
As @stitch says, learn using the course, step by step by step, and learn using the 700+ song lessons Justin has on the site. You can filter them in many ways too so you only see the lessons that are appropriate to beginner stage. https://www.justinguitar.com/songs
I appreciate the response. I’ll have to look for the lesson on reading tabs - not sure where it is - I just finished Basic Course 1. I do understand your comment about typical tabs posted online, and I agree, but this one I’m working on is from a church praise group site that is pretty good and has some very good tabs - that is if you can understand them 
– I’ll attach a screen shot of the group instruction from the chorus.
What you have here is a chord sheet, not a tab. It is more devoid of rhythm and intensity than a tab will be, but not much.
For this, your primary source of learning this is to listen to a recording. The chord sheet will help with the chords, and what location in the song they are to be played - based on the lyrics.
I dislike chord sheets myself, so have not spent much time with them. There are certainly others that can give you more detailed information than I have to give.
You can probably count to 1,2,3,4 for each line and that I’d expect to be a bar. The instructions will make sense when you connect them to the recording you are listening to
Thanks for the reply. I put songs I am working on on my music playlist and play them over and over to get the feel and lyics.
Are you sure the arrangement is for guitar? Those chords held out for a whole line make me think of an organ accompaniment typical of gospel rather than guitar strumming.
I’m not sure if it’s the same song as this sheet music is for: https://www.jwpepper.com/I’m-Gonna-Lift-My-Voice-and-Sing!/3295860.item
Obviously, reading musical notation is a bit more complicated than tabs or chord charts, but it will give you the most complete information about a piece of music.
Time and practice is what you need.
Those instructions are not standard. If it is from a church group then I assume it has been arranged by a ‘musical director’ who will have explained exactly their meaning to the church band / choir etc.
There is no way of knowing their exact meaning from what is written.
Songs like this will have many different interpretations and arrangements. That can include your own. You can play this how it suits you and how it matches your current playing ability using rhythm and strumming ideas taught in the beginner course.
Is this the song?
Actually no, it’s “The Joy Song” by Motion Worship.
Thanks for that - It’s “The Joy Song” by Motion Worship - and the intro actually has an accoustic guitar start to it - so it’s a piece for an entire praise band.
I do prefer reading from sheet music and adapt how I want to play from that.
Hi Joe,
Hope you’re having a great time learning guitar.
The chord sheets on Justin’s lesson tabs and chord sheets are very reliable.
Many, many chord sheets out there on the net are sloppily written so take care and approach with caution.
A good rule of thumb however is, in a properly prepared chord sheet, if the are no vertical lines then each chord is played over the whole measure. Where there are these lines, then everything between two lines is contained in that measure. Slanty lines represent one beat
Eg
C G C | F//G|
This is one measure C, one measure G, one measure C, and one measure of three beats F and one beat G
Cheers Ruaridh
