How To read Guitar Tab Part Two

Part 4 - How to read String Bends

String bends are a big part of some guitar solo’s and playing styles. Blues, Metal, Country, & Rock guitarists in particular use them extensively, and being able to read tabbed string bends is important for the modern day guitarist.

This example shows the tabbed standard that you are likely to see online quite a lot.

The first number tells you what note to start from, followed by the b that tells you what to do (b=bend), finally the number in brackets tells you what pitch or note to bend up to.

There are several ways of showing a bend in guitar tab, the first example is the most common online.

Example two is more commonplace in bought books and published materials.

Here we see the b is replaced with a symbol, the bent line with an arrow indicating what direction the bend should take.

The starting note and target note [E.g. (9)] remain the same as the first example.

----------------------------------------------------[Part 4 Done]----------------------------------------------------

Part 5 - How to read String Bends Continued

Once you’ve understood how to read tabbed upward string bends, the next progression is to understand the opposite, downward string bends.

The guitar tab example on the right shows the difference between two common tab styles.

The first has the target note in brackets followed by r for release and finally ending on the finishing note.

The second shows the same notes but with a bent line pointing downwards, indicating the direction the bend should take.

----------------------------------------------------[Part 5 Done]----------------------------------------------------

Part 6 - How to read Vibrato on Guitar Tab

Vibrato is a fast repeated string bend, but does not have to extend to a full fret step; all it needs to do is make the note sound “wobbly”.

Vibrato is represented in guitar tab by having the vibrato note written on the string as any usual note would be.

Above that note would be a wobbly line, this wobbly line represents vibrato, so should be added to the note it is above.  

----------------------------------------------------[Part 6 Done]----------------------------------------------------

More to come soon