Lesson 13

Guitar Tablature is a method used for reading music for the guitar. The six horizontal lines represent the strings. The 6th string is on the bottom, the 1st string is on the top.

The numbers on the lines will tell you which fret to place your finger, on that particular string. You will read the tablature from left to right.

Numbers placed directly on top of each other will indicate a chord.

Generally you will use your 1st finger to play notes on the 1st fret, your 2nd finger will play the notes on the 2nd fret, 3rd finger - 3rd fret and 4th finger - 4th fret.

Sometimes special fretting or right hand instructions will be given. These instructions will be shown at the bottom of the tablature (beneath the 6th string).

Bass runs can be thought of as a substitute for the final beats of one measure leading into the first few beats of the next or you might think of them as notes that are used to connect chords in a chord progression.

Try playing the following chord progression by reading the tab. It is a typical I - IV - V - I progression in the key of G major.

The notes that are used to play bass runs are made up from the notes of the major diatonic scale. Once you know the scale of the key you are playing in, you can easily construct an effective bass line.

In addition to using the scale to play bass runs, the same notes can be used to construct a melody line giving you the option to play an instrumental "solo" (playing the melody) in your song arrangement. Sometimes it is just as easy to construct an instrumental "solo" as it is to construct a bass line. Let's arrange the traditional song On Top of Old Smokey in the key of G.

When putting together an arrangement of a song, first we must decide upon a key. In our example we will be working in the key of G major. Right away we know that the chords we will most likely be dealing with are G ( I ), C ( IV ), and D ( V ) or D7th ( V 7th ).

Next, we must familiarize ourselves with the notes of the G scale.

Now that you know which notes you will be using for your bass runs, go back and familiarize yourself with the melody of the song "On Top of Old Smokey" by singing it while playing a simple chord accompaniment

By knowing the notes of the scale and training our "ear" to hear the melody, we can construct an instrumental version of the melody to act as an instrumental "solo". Follow the tablature below.