Guitar music has its own special musical notation. Rather than a guitarist using the standard musical notations which other musicians use i.e., staffs, notes, note values, ledger lines, key signatures and time signatures. Guitar players will use a much simpler operational type of musical notation, known as the tab. The advantage to using acoustic guitar tabs is that you can learn to play guitar without needing to learn to read music in the normal sense. Tabs (tablatures) are not only used by guitarists but by other people who play any kind of stringed instrument.

When you start to learn how to read these tabs, you will see in front of you a diagram with various different lines, numbers and dots on it. The lines on the diagram represent the strings on the guitar the top one being string number one and the bottom line being string number six. As for the numbers that appear on the diagram these represent the frets which are found on the neck or fingerboard of the guitar and which is where you fingers will need to be placed in order for the right note to be produced. Yet if you see a Zero (0) on the line this then tells you that you need to leave this string open (no finger placed on it), where as the letter "X" informs you that the sound that this particular string produces needs to be muffled.

If you are unsure as to what we mean by the Fret, this is the area that is located between the two metal bars that are on the neck (fingerboard) of the guitar. Normally a good quality guitar will have between 21 and 24 frets on it. In order to know which fret you need to place your finger a dot appears on the diagram in front of you.

When learning how to play guitar tabs occasionally you will notice that all the numbers appear on the same line one after the other. Plus you will also see that the frets you need to place your fingers at will the same as well. When you see this notation on the diagram it means that you should just pluck this one string and no others at all. Also it is through this tab you learn that you must play this one note and no others.

Yet if you find that as you, look at the diagram there is a number located on each line and they are then above one and another, this tells you that you must play all of these notes together. In order to do this rather than pluck at the strings you need to strum all six of them at the same time.

Along with the tab positions, we have mentioned above there are other ones which you will need to learn. This includes Hammer-ons, Pull-offs, Slides and Bends and these are denoted by various letters and symbols. The Hammer-ons are denoted by the letter "h", Pull-offs are denoted by the letter "p", whilst bends are denoted by the letter "b". As for Slides, these are denoted by a slash "/". The type of tab you are likely to see on the diagram in front of when learning tabs where Hammer-ons are required are "7h9".

Once you have learnt the basics of reading tabs, carry out a search online for easy acoustic guitar tabs. Then select a very basic song that you know well and start to play around with it. However, it is important to note that reading and then playing acoustic guitar tabs does take some getting used to. But you will be surprised at just how quickly you can pick them up once you know how to read them.

If you can when practicing, the tabs for a particular song listen to it at the same time. By doing, this you will find actually, learning acoustic guitar tabs becomes much easier, even if you think you know the song already. Being able to listen as well as read the tabs at the same time will make the process of learning them much easier, but you will be able to better understand the detail and rhythm of the song that you are playing.

Using acoustic guitar tabs to learn to play the guitar can be a great deal of fun and before long; you will be able to play several different songs. Which you cannot only play for your own pleasure but also for impressing friends and family at parties as well.