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FAQ - How do I read Tabs?

Advanced Tab Reading
Reading basic tabs is fairly easy but there are variations that can
make you a much better guitar player. Some of these variations include:

Hammer On's
Pull Off's
Slides
Mutes

Hammer On's are fairly easy to do. They usually start off with
one finger on a fret. You play that note and then with another
finger, hit the next indicated note. On the tab staff, it looks
like this(watch video also):
E:-2h3--
B:-3----
G:-3----
D:-0----
A:------
E:------
   2_4

The h indicates that you hammer onto the 3rd Fret with your
4th finger, after you strum the d-chord where your 2nd finger is
on the 2nd Fret. The Dreaming Tree Intro shows how we indicate
a hammer on when you start on no note(watch video also):
E:-----0h2-----2-------0h2------2--
B:----------0---------------0------
G:-2---------------2---------------
D:---------------------------------
A:---------------------------------
E:---------------------------------
   2   (3)     3   2   (3)      2

The number in the parenthesis indicates what finger you are to hammer
on with(there is no starting finger becuase you play the string open).

Pull Off's are the same thing as the hammer but reveresed. You
start with a finger on a note and then pull that finger off
while another finger is already on a note ready to be played.
The following shows a pull off(watch video also):
E:-------
B:-------
G:-------
D:-------
A:--3p1--
E:-------
    4_1

It should be pretty apparent how to read this but you start
with your 4th finger on the 3rd fret while your 1st finger
is on the 1st fret. You strike the string and then pull
your finger off the 4th fret and the new note will sound.

Slides are a very important aspect of playing DMB songs.There are
MANY songs where Dave slides his fingers along the strings to get
that sound. There are two different types of slides. There is a
Slide Up and a Slide Down. A Slide Up is indicated by a Backslash(/).
This is because the Backslash starts(from left) low and goes up.
Similarly, the Slide Down is indicated by a Forward Slash(\). Here is
how slides are indicated on the tabs(Watch video also):
E:----------------
B:----------------
G:----------------
D:----------------
A:-----------5\2--
E:--3/6-----------
    (2)      (1)

Mutes are a simple way of hit the strings without playing a
specific note. Here is the Minarets Intro:
E:-x--
B:-x--
G:-x--
D:-x--
A:-x--
E:-x--

All you do is lay your fingers on the strings without pressing
down and play. When a chord shows an X in it, it means that
that string is to be muted. Here is an example:
E:----
B:----
G:-7--
D:-x--
A:-5--
E:-7--

This is a commonly used Dave chord where the D string is not
fretted but muted and also played.

At this point you should be fairly adept to reading tablature and
hopefully you check out my Dave Style Lessons to get the full
effect of the site.

If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at
jkanter@dmbtabs.com.

ENJOY AND KEEP AT IT, YOU'LL LEARN BUT IT TAKES TIME!!!

>> Understanding tabs      >> Basic Tab Reading      Advanced Tab Reading

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