There are four methods commonly used to notate guitar information.
1. GRIDS
Grids represent a portion of the fretboard.
They are used to show chords and scales.
The horizontal lines represent the frets and the vertical lines the strings.
The strings are show with the thickest (6th) as the left horizontal line.
The frets progress from the top of the diagram towards the body of the guitar.
The black dots indicate where to place your fingers.
The number/s next to the grid are fret numbers. These tell you which part of the fretboard the diagram is representing.
2. CHORD SYMBOLS
Chord symbols are used as abbreviations for the full name of a chord.
They are used in chord progressions, like this:
|| C | Fmaj7 | G7 | Am9 ||
3. TAB (Tablature )
Each horizontal line represents a guitar string.
The top line is the thinnest string on the guitar.
The bottom line is the thickest string.
The numbers indicate which fret to play on the string.
The diagram above shows a series of individual notes to be played starting from the fifth fret of the thickest string.
4. STAVE / STAFF NOTATION
Each line and space on the stave represents a different pitch (note).
Pitch is the height or depth of a sound. (The thickest string on the guitar is low pitch and the thinnest is high.)
Pitch on the stave increases vertically.
Dots on the stave show which pitch to play.
The symbols on the stave also represent the duration in time of a note.
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© Carlos Thrale 2014
