How to read guitar tabs

Difficulty...easy to moderate

Introduction:

I can think of a number of times I have tried to pick up and play the guitar.  I usually can stick to it until my fingers get to sore to play and my interest level takes a dramatic drop.  Although learning to play the guitar and reading tab may look complex to some, learning can be quit simple and you could find yourself reading tab in no time. Guitarist are unique in comparison to other musicians, chances are if you know how to play the guitar you are self taught or had relatively few lessons from a friend or teacher.  On the other hand, if you are a pianist you most likely have spent years in private study, learning both the music and theory with a heavy focus on readying and sight. Learning to sight read music can be laborious without immediate benefit.  It's those type of duties that self-taught musician prefer to avoid.  If you are looking to spend a long career in the music industry being able to read music is essential.  However, guitarists have created their own style of music notation referred to as guitar tablature.  This provided a simple and easy to read way for guitarist to share music with in each other. Below are a couple more basic listed steps to learning to read tab.

Step 1:
A guitar tablature staff has 6 horizontal lines, each one representing a string on a guitar.  The bottom line on the staff represents your lowest "E" string.  The line up from that represents your "A" string.

Step 2:
In the middle of the lines there are numbers placed, those are telling you what fret to play in.  Along the stem of the guitar there are vertical bars; between each one is a fret.   For example if there is a number 6 on the 3rd line down that means to play the third string in the 6th fret.
Note:  An open string should be played whenever there is a "0" in the tablature.
Now that we have gone over some basic steps lets discus s some more advanced steps to reading guitar tablature including learning cords.

Step 3:
When the tablature has a series of numbers stacked vertically it is specifying that it wants you to play all these notes at the same time in their respective frets.

Step 4:
Once all the strings are pressed; strum all six strings at one with your other hand.   Often the tablature will include a chord name to help the guitarist recognize the chord more quickly.

Step 5:
When the tablature has a series of number in a diagonal formation over the lines means that you will play those chords separately.   How far apart do you play them separately is a good question.  This leads into some fundamental flaws of guitar tab.

Rhythmic notation is the biggest flaw of guitar tab.  Most guitar tab does not include rhythm, so if you haven't heard the music played you have no way of knowing how long to play a chord.   Some guitar tab does include rhythms by adding stems to the numbers to indicate if it is a quarter or an eight note, but then that brings another question.  Why not just write the whole thing in standard notation.  Another issue is only guitarist can read it.

Tips:

1. Here are some additional details that you will want to know to fully understand how to read tablature.  First is Hammer ones & Pull offs.  It is common to see a letter h representing a hammer on, located in the tablature between the original, and the hammered on fret (eg. 7h9).  The letter p is used to represent a pull off, also found in the same location (eg 9p7). 
2. String Bends are represented with a b.  Slides are represented as / and \.
3. This should help you get started on reading and understanding guitar tablature.  If you decide to start learning it would be a good idea to learn standard notation as well as guitar tablature.