How To Read Guitar TAB Lesson on JustinGuitar

Beginner Grade 1 Module 4: Metronome, Stretches & THE Pattern
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Reading guitar TABs will open up a world of possibilities for your beginner guitar journey! :)


View the full lesson at How To Read Guitar TAB | JustinGuitar

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Justin says he recommends studying rhythms but he won’t cover on this course. So where can I learn, just searching on the internet? Also, tab rhythms and notation rhythms are the same? What exactly should I look for?

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Justin offers different options when it comes to learning to strum and studying rhythmic notation, both for beginners and more advanced students.

If you’re an advancing beginner (Grade 3) or an intermediate student (Grade 4 to 6), I can recommend his Rhythm Reading book to learn everything about reading, writing and understanding rhythmic notation.

For beginners (Grades 1 to 3) he offers a more practical application with the Strumming SOS course. Here you’ll learn different strumming patterns and how to physically strum the guitar. I haven’t followed this course myself, but it should cover “Strumming Theory & Patterns” according to the description.

There are various forms of rhythmic notation. The most common ones are standard musical notation (‘the dots’) and slash notation (a kind of shorthand that uses some of the symbols of standard notation but in a more simplified way).

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Awesome, thanks :+1:

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Hi! i have a question

I thought that the E in 4th space in the treble cleff was a E5, Why is justing playing a E4?

Thanks

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Hi there,

I guess because the guitar is a transposing instrument.

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Hi Jose, it is because all music for guitar, including classical guitar written in standard notation is one octave lower than the same note on a piano and in the standard musical notation. So the middle C on a piano that would be 2 notes below the treble clef is the same as the C on the second string of the guitar which would be the note 4 from the top of the treble clef in standard guitar notation.
I checked this out on a piano to be sure.

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This is pretty basic except for the rhythm. I don’t get it . If you play a song using tabs but no it won’t sound good, right?:neutral_face::confused:

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Sorry! “but no- rhythm-it won’t sound good.” Oops.:grin:

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Hi Bertha and welcome to our Community!

You’re perfectly right!

I’m a big fan of Music Standard Notation, but it really depends on which genre of Music you want to play. I’m pretty sure there’s a huge amount of people using Tabs, especially for riffs and rock solos or Blues, and they use them because they know (or should know) what they’re doing. Often these genres are improvising-friendly…which means the guitarist doesn’t have to strictly follow the musicsheet but allows him/herself to noodle around a musical idea…they listen a lot, have great Rhythm skills and don’t need the Rhythm to be written down on paper.

Me = My Rhythm skills are… :roll_eyes: … well, let’s say “still developing” :joy:, I need Standard Notation and all the information it provides. If you are or will get into Music Theory you’ll see how Standard Notation is also helpful for that.

Justin’s Tabs, over the website, they are all (or at least the most) made with the double staff, one is for the Tab, one is for the Standard Notation where you find the Rhythm information.

If you want to dig more into the subject I reccomend this lesson.

Is Reading Notation Worth the Effort? | JustinGuitar.com https://share.google/5BawLzLQXqwbfQU6f

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Thank you Silvia80! I am the same way. My rhythm skills are alright. I will watch the lesson and ( hopefully :grin:) It will help me understand this a bit better!!

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You can have rhythm in tabs and do not need standard notation on top of the tab. A complete tab notation would include spaces between tabs indicating the note interval, or below them they can have staves of differing heights again indicating the time interval.

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