Tablature (tab) is a common way of notating music when played on plucked string instruments. Basic guitar tablature requires that the player be somewhat familiar with the song already. As shown in Figure 3.43, guitar tabs use six lines like the regular music staff, but in this case, each line represents one of the six guitar strings. The top line represents the high E string and the bottom line represents the low E string. Numbers are then drawn on each line representing the fret number to use for that note on that string. To play the song, every time you see a number, you put your finger on that string at the fret number indicated and pluck that string. Simple tablature doesn’t give any indication of how long to play each note, so you need to be familiar with the song already. In some cases, the spacing of the numbers can give some indication of rhythm and duration.
