So you’re ready to start playing. The only problem is, you sit down with your guitar, strum the strings, and it sounds ugly. You have no idea where to put your fingers and surprisingly, mashing your fingers against the fret board doesn’t evoke the masterpiece you are pining for. (How did that kid in August Rush do it, anyway?) You haven’t the slightest clue where to start.

If only it were this easy . . .

Since you don’t live in a fantasy world where you can pick up any old guitar and suddenly play like Michael Hedges, you’ll need a starting point. Using tablature to learn how to play the guitar is a very common way for many beginners to make that first step toward creating music.

How Does Tablature Work?
Tablature uses six horizontal lines to represent the actual strings of the guitar, with the numbers on the lines representing where to apply pressure, or where to “fret” the guitar.

For example, using tablature, we can see how to create a G chord:

e|—-3—-| 1st string (thinnest)
b|—-0—-|
g|—-0—-|
d|—-0—-|
a|—-2—-|
E|—-3—-| 6th string (thickest)

In the example above, the letters on the left represent the strings on the guitar. Unless otherwise noted, you can assume that all lessons will be conducted using standard tuning where the strings match the notes E, A, D, G, B, and E respectively. (For more information about tuning, check out my article, “Good Vibrations: Tuning Your Guitar.”) The capital “E” represents the low E, or the sixth string of the guitar, which is also the thickest. The “A” is the fifth string, and so on. In this way, tablature allows you to find which string and on which fret to apply pressure. In the case of the G chord, both the sixth string and the first string should be fretted at the 3rd fret and the fifth string should be fretted at the 2nd fret. The zeros indicate that these strings are “open” strings, which means that they are unfretted.

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