There are 2 common methods for reading music on guitar. One is called TAB and the other is called SCORE. In Guitar Tots Book 2 we are going to use TAB.

TAB is useful if you want to know a note that is being played and what fret it is being played on to make a tune.

A TAB diagram represents the 6 guitar strings and the frets to be played to make the melody. TAB is shown as a series of numbers, zero (0) being the open string, (1) being the 1st fret, (2) being the 2nd fret and so on.

(a.3) Here is a diagram of some tab. See if you can play the tune.

So in the example above in order we play a note at the 3rd fret on the A string two times, then the open D string, then the 3rd fret on the A string again, then the 3rd fret on the D string and finally then 2nd fret on the D string.

Did you recognise the melody? Played with a little rhythm we make the first line of Happy Birthday.

With a little practice, TAB is very easy to use to play our songs and melodies!