The fastest and best way of learning is through a trained guitar teacher or an experienced friend, but it is not the only way. You can also teach yourself, definitely not the quickest way, but with time and effort it can get the job done.

So once you got the basics what do you do next? Normally, it is start learning other people’s songs. One of the easiest ways of doing this is by using guitar tabs. Unlike written music, you can learn how to read tabs in about five minutes. If you need some help on reading tabs we have an article just for you. It goes over the basics of reading tabs. Click here to check it out.

Next step is to find the tablature you are looking for. Now if you are looking for tabs on the internet you will literally find 100’s of different websites claiming that they have the best and largest archive of tablature. So what we are going to do today is talk about some of the largest and most successful tablature sites.

Guitartabs.cc – Rating 4/5

First, we have Guitartabs.cc. A very good site with 1000’s of tabs to choose from. If you are looking for a song it is probably here. You can search by band or by song to help you find what you are looking for. Or if you like you can browse until you find the band you are looking for by searching by letter.

The downside to Guitartabs.cc is it has an area to rate songs, but it is not very well used; this can be a real pain. Why? You might ask. Unlike people not all tabs were created equal. Some tabs are done by people who are very good and are near flawless and others are done by amateurs that don’t do such a good job.

What the rating system does is helps you to see which ones are done well and which ones, you don’t really want to use. This is very helpful when you have a list of 20 different tabs for the same song. Instead of clicking down the list until you find one you like, you can look for a good rating, which will most likely be what you are looking for.

For these reasons we give Guitartabs.cc a rating of 4 out of 5.

Guitaretab.com – Rating 4/5

Now we have Guitaretab.com.

What you can expect from Guitaretab.com is about the same a Guitartabs.cc. A good selection of songs, slightly less than Guitartabs.cc, but a much better rating system. It is pretty easy to see which ones are good tabs and which ones are not so good. Besides these few differences they function just about the same.

Guitaretab.com gets a rating of 4 out of 5.

Ultimate-Guitar.com – Rating 5/5

Next we have Ultimate-guitar.com. Ultimate-guitar.com is my personal favorite for a variety of reasons. First, their selection. Ultimate-guitar.com definitely has the best selection of tabs you will find on a single site. If you can’t find it here you will hard pressed to find it somewhere else.

The rating system is the best that I have see, making it very easy to distinguish which tabs are the most reliable. You will also find the guitar tabs in three different formats. You regular tablature, guitar pro and power tab. You can also find tabs for other members of your band, you will find quite a selection of bass tabs and a growing number of Drum tabs.

Then you have other features of the site that make Ultimate-Guitar.com to music lovers what super Wal-Mart is to your mom. They have just about all you need in one location.

You will find guitar forums, where you find discussions on the best way to write music and fix your guitar yourself to topics on the latest bands and albums.

There are also interviews with famous band members and reviews on their most recent albums. Last but not least they have a tab request area. So if you can’t find the tab you are looking for, you can put in a request for someone to tab it for you.

For these reasons Ultimate-Guitar.com gets a strong 5 out of 5 and is TheDigitalGuitar.com’s tab site of choice.

911tabs.com – Rating 5/5

Last, we have 911tabs.com. This one is a little different than the previous 3. On 911tabs.com you will not find a single tab that was posted on the site. What 911tabs.com is, is a directory of guitar tabs. Kind of like the Google of the guitar tab world.

While at first glance it looks like any of the other tablature sites and the way of looking for tabs is the exactly the same, all 911tabs.com is, is a way of looking for tabs. Once you find the tab you want it simply opens the page containing the tabs you want on its mother site. It takes all the major tabs websites and puts all their archives in one location to make it easier to find what you are looking for.

For this we Give 911tabs.com a 5 out of 5.

We hope this article was helpful in your quest to find good guitar tabs, but the only way to see which site is right for you is to check it yourself.

It may take a little while to get used to the way tabs are oriented. At first it seems like they are upside down. The number 1 string (lower case e) is actually the bottom string on the guitar neck; it is also the highest pitched and thinnest. The number 6 string (Upper case E) is actually the top string on the guitar neck; it is also the lowest pitched and thickest. So the top string on your guitar is on the bottom of the diagram and the bottom string on your guitar is on the top of the diagram.

1 – e|———————————————-|
2 – B|———————————————-|
3 – G|———————————————-|
4 – D|———————–5———————-|x2
5 – A|———3——–5-/7—7p5-3–5—5———|
6 – E|—5-3-5—-5-3-5—————–3—2——-|

Now that you have the basics lets reading this tab. The first 3 numbers on the tab are 5, 3, 5 and they are on the 6th string (Top string on Guitar). First we play the 5 on the 6th string, which means we hit the 6th string on the 5th fret. The next number is 3, which means we hit the 6th string on the 3rd fret. After that, the number is 5, which means we hit the 6th string on the 5th fret. Then to play the 3 on the 5th string, we simply hit the 5th string on the 3rd fret.
It is important to realize that tabs do not follow ridged rules like normal music notation. In one set of tabs 1^3 could mean slide from the first fret to the third fret, in another set of tabs it could mean hit the note on the 1st and bend to the note on the 3rd fret. Because individual tabs can be so different from one another it is important to look for a key on that set of tabs. It might look something like this.

^ = bend
r = release
t = tap
h = hammer on
* = pinch harmonic
~ = let it ring
/ = slide up
\ = slide down
. = palm mute
+ = harmonic
v = vibrato
p = pull off

Congratulations you have just completed the lesson that has enabled you to read guitar tablature.Š

If you have any questions ask them in a comment below and I will answer them as soon as possible.

I happened to stumble on this site and right away I was very impressed. It breaks the song up into sections. Then, it plays the song along with the corresponding line of tablature and it uses a marker, so you never loose you place. It is kind of hard to explain, so I recommend checking Magic Tabs-guitar.com out for yourself.

If you have any questions ask them in a comment below and I will answer them as soon as possible.