What are guitar tabs, and why is guitar tablature so important in guitar music?

Guitar tabs can be explained as easy to learn sheet music, but specifically for the guiar. Symbols using letters and numbers corespond with the fret and string that must be held in order to produce the desired note. Rather than depicing a music tone in the way traditional sheet music does, guitar tabs cutually represent the musical direction. Guitar tabs date back many years and is actually an ancient system... but that is another topic. Feel free to comment on that one :)

With guitar tabs, the vertical lines represent the strings on the fretboard of the guitar while the horizontal lines represent the frets themselves. A six stringed guitar, naturally, will have 6 horizontal lines. A bass guitar will only have 4. Dots, numbers and other symbols are then placed on the lines to how finger position, hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends, slides, harmonics and vibrato.

In the below guitar tablature, you can see that the chord is shown above the tab lines and the fret positoins (numbers) are within the tab lines. The tab is read from top to bottom in relation to how a right handed person holds their guitar. So, the bottom string on your guitar (the largest string) is bottom line in the tablature. The note that each string is tuned to is shown at the very begining of the horizontal lines.

Example:
D Csus2 G D Csus2 G
E |---------------------------------|-------------------------------|---------------------------|----------
B |------3------------------3-------|-------------------------------|------3-------------3------|----------
G |----------2-----------------0----|---------0--0--------------2p0-|--------2-------------0----|----------
D |---0-0-------0-----------------0-|------------------0—2p0--------|-0--0-----0-------------0--|----------
A |----------------3-(0)--3---------|--------------0h2--------2-----|------------3-(0)-3--------|----------
E |---------------------------------|-3 (0)-3-----------------------|---------------------------|--3--x--3-

Effects are noted in the tab legend as follows:

Hammer on: h                            Muted string: x
   Pull off : p                                  Vibro : ~~~~~~
Ghost note : ( )                     Phinched harmonic: < >
Full Bend : F^                       Natural harmonic: Harm
Half Bend : H^                                 Slide : / (up) \ (down)
Release bend: r

The legend for each tab may be differnt - there isn't really a standard to adhere to. Just look for the legend at the top of the tablature and you should be able to manage.

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