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How To Read and Play using Guitar Tabs?
Now that you
have bought the guitar and a pick of your choice, you are
probably excited about learning to play it. You are probably
done with some strumming too. So let’s get ready for the real
thing.
Your guitar
has six strings and if you make your guitar sit then the
strings will somewhat be in the following structure:
E----------------------------------|| This is the thinnest
string and always at the bottom
B----------------------------------||
G----------------------------------||
D----------------------------------||
A----------------------------------||
E----------------------------------||This is the thickest
string and is always at the top
This structure
remains the same for both right-handed (standard) and
left-handed guitars. The small bars that run through the
guitars neck and the space between 2 bars are called frets and
they are primarily responsible for creating the heavenly sound
that guitars are famous for.
The type of
sound or the tune depends on how you play on the fret and what
tabs you use. Now tabs, short for tablature is basically a
6-line staff that stands for each of the guitar strings. First
you have to understand what the different types of tab symbols
represent. The tab symbols can be classified broadly under 7
categories, which are bends, vibrato, slides, hammer on/pull
off, tremolo bar, natural harmonics and artificial harmonics.
Let’s take a detailed look at some of the tab symbols because
this is the first step in learning to play guitar. If you
understand the tab symbols then everything else will
automatically fall into place.
BENDS
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Quarter
bend: When you see this symbol on a tab, it simple means
that you need to strike the note on which the bend is up
1/4 step or ½ a fret.
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Half Bend:
This symbol means that you need to strike the note while
bending it up by 1/2 step or one fret.
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Full Bend:
While playing a full bend, you need to strike the
particular note and bend it up by a whole step or 2 frets
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Bend and
Release: Whenever you see this symbol, you should strike
the particular note and bend it up by 1/2 a step and in
some cases a whole step. Immediately after, release the
bend in such a way that it comes back to the original note
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Pre-Bend:
Don’t get confused by this symbol. There’s a marginal
difference between this and full bend as this symbol as a
straight arrow. When you see a pre-bend symbol, just bend
you note up by 1/2 a step or a whole step and then strike
it.
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Bend/Release/Bend: This will take a little time for you to
master it. You have to first strike the particular note by
bending it up by 1/2 a step or a whole step. Then release
the bend without striking it back to original note, which
should be followed by another bend of 1/2 a step or a
whole step.
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VIBRATO
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Vibrato:
Vibrato simply means that you have to get the string(s) to
vibrate rapidly when you are applying a bend and release
of the note(s) using the tremolo arm.
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Exaggerated Vibrato: Exaggerated vibrato is similar to a
vibrato except for the fact that the pitch in exaggerated
vibrato varies by a higher degree. A tremolo arm is used
to play this tab.
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HAMMER-ON/
PULL-OFF
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Hammer-On:
In hammer on, you will need to strike the first note and
then while holding that particular note down, you will
need to use any other finger(s) to hammer down the string
for the following note as indicated on your tab chart.
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Pull-Off:
In pull off, you will need to fret the lower note using
your index finger while keeping another finger on a higher
note. You should first strike the higher note and then
pull out your finger off from the lower note.
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