Tablature is the representation of music by indicating the fret position of each note.? Mainly used by those who cannot read music.? A 6 line chart is used to indicate each of your guitar strings.? The tablature for the beginning of "Swanee River" in shown below:

Don't get confused.? This is not a stave of music.? The lines represent your guitar strings and the numbers represent the fret position for each string.? Each number represents a note in the sequence it is to be played.?? So for this piece you start with the 4th string, 2nd fret.? Then 4th string open, indicated by the 0.? Then 5th string, 3rd fret, then back to 4th string, 2nd fret, and so on.? In this example the fret positions are much the same as the finger numbers previously described but this is not always the case so don't confuse the fret position indicated in a tab with finger numbering.

Now this is very handy as a guide but there is an enormous drawback to tablature and that is that there is no indication of rhythm or timing which you are going to learn shortly.? For tablature to be of any use you really need to know the tune beforehand so that you can add your own rhythm and timing.? Some people have made an attempt to indicate the timing in tablature by adding little tails to the numbers but if it is going to get this complicated why not learn to read music.? Written music has been around a long time and is proven to be the best way to learn to play a piece.? Another problem is that there is no instant way to recognize the key that the piece is written in.? Also your guitar tab is of no use to a keyboard player, or any other instrument other than guitar.? With proper printed music you can play any piece no matter what instrument you play so if you have a friend learning keyboards you can simply look over his shoulder and play from his music.? Not so with tabs.? However tabs do have a place particularly when you are just starting and need a bit of guidance.? You can create your own tabs by simply ruling out 6 lines and fill in the fret positions.? Why not do that now and tab the rest of "Swanee River" from the information you already have.? It doesn't matter whether you like the piece or not.? Soon you will be able to choose what you want to play without restriction.? But for the purpose of learning just be patient and see if you can make the most out of this simple tune.

Because not everybody has a graphics program suitable for creating tabs or sheet music many people simply use the characters provided on their computer keyboard like this:

e |-----------------------------------------------------------

b |--------------------------1--------1----------------------

g |-------------------------------2-------0------------------

d |---2---0------2---0-----------------------2------0-------

a |-----------3----------3-----------------------3-----------

E|-----------------------------------------------------------

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This is very handy if you want to share tabs with other people and there are a lot of free guitar tabs available on the internet.? Simply key in the search phrase "guitar tabs" into your favorite search engine and see what you can find.?

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In addition to your fret board chart provided in lesson 1 there is also a note location chart with sound files which you can use with your "Finale" viewer.? Location.MUS is the file to load. With this you can relate the above tab to sheet music and understand what notes you are playing.