Understanding Music Notation for Guitar

Reading music may seem a little daunting, but we're going to break it down and go through it together.

Two Lines of Music

When playing guitar, there are generally two lines we'll be looking at:

• The Stave: This is the top line in our example and has five lines.
• Tab: Underneath the stave, we have the tab, which has six lines.

These are exactly the same pieces of music, but we use them in different ways to find and work out a song.

Understanding Tab Music

The tab music, which is specific for the guitar, has six lines that represent the six strings on our instrument:

• The thickest E string (the big one) is played on the bottom line.
• We go through all six strings until we reach the high E, which is on the top line of the tab.

We can remember this by referring to the bass and treble:

• Bassier notes (the low notes) are at the bottom.
• Treble notes (the high notes) are at the top of that line.

The Role of the Stave

Above the tab, we have the stave, which is used to help with our notated rhythms.

• Tab music is great for learning songs quickly, as it tells you where on the neck to play the notes, with:
  • The numbers indicating the frets.
  • The lines representing the strings.

However, tab music doesn't specify when to play the notes, which is why we use the notated rhythms above.

Blending Stave and Tab

We're blending the stave and tab music together to learn a piece of music quickly.

Recap:

• The tab music at the bottom is used to find our strings and the frets on those strings:

  • The lines tell us the strings.
  • The numbers indicate what fret to place our fingers on.

• The stave above helps with notation, which guides us in understanding the rhythms and where we should be playing the notes.

Final Note

When playing through these examples, don't worry if it feels tricky now.

It takes time to get used to, but we will gradually work through the examples in the future, building up to a deeper understanding of music notation.