Acoustic Guitar Tabs for Beginners

The acoustic guitar is pretty easy to play with the help of regular practice and patient hard work. Many people now-a-days pick up an acoustic guitar, and randomly start playing and strumming it without actually realizing the importance of notations and the beauty that every single notation, scale and chord represents. The following are some of the easy acoustic tabs for beginners that you can use to gain mastery over the guitar tabs. Before you begin with the guitar chords, here are some simple tips and tricks that can help you to master the acoustic guitar.

Knowing Your Instrument
Knowing the instrument is an absolute necessity, even before you undertake any of the guitar lessons. The acoustic guitar has 6 strings placed in descending order according to the scale and pitch. It means that from the resonance and scale point of view, the first string from the top is the 'lowest' note that can be played on the acoustic guitar and on the other hand the bottom most string is the 'highest' string that can be played. It is also important that you study the parts of the acoustic guitar while learning the acoustic guitar tabs for beginners, especially the neck and the sound hole. The strings of the guitar when played 'open' (without pressing any fret), would give you the notions e, A, D, G, B, E.

Exploring the Fret Board
If you take a look at the fret board, you would notice that the frets on the fret board become smaller and smaller ascendantly, towards the body of the guitar. It means that broader the fret, lower is the note, and smaller the fret higher is the note. The strings as mentioned give the notation e, A, D, G, B, E when played open. The next step is to figure out which fret would give you which note. The following diagram would help you to figure out the fret board. Note that the guitar tabs are written in similar manner and the first string in the diagram is the lower most string that is E (higher E) on the actual guitar.

Fret No

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

open E

F

F#

G

G#

A

A#

B

C

C#

D

D#

E

open B

C

C#

D

D#

E

F

F#

G

G#

A

A#

B

open G

G#

A

A#

B

C

C#

D

D#

E

F

F#

G

open D

D#

E

F

F#

G

G#

A

A#

B

C

C#

D

open A

A#

B

C

C#

D

D#

E

F

F#

G

G#

A

open e

F

F#

G

G#

A

A#

B

C

C#

D

D#

E

Developing Your Fingering
One of the key aspects that is to be studied very sincerely, is the development of your fingers. The development of your fingers can be classified into 3 types namely the development of fret pressing, alternate fret playing and criss-cross fret playing. The following are easy acoustic guitar tabs for beginners for finger development.

Fret Pressing
The following is a fret pressing exercise, in the form of an acoustic guitar tab that would help you to develop your grip over the neck of the guitar. It is necessary to practice this exercise as frequently and regularly as possible. Practicing these acoustic guitar tabs in a disciplined timing and rhythm is also important. For that you can also put to use a metronome.

e--------------------------------------------------------1-2-3-4-|
B---------------------------------------------1-2-3-4-----------|
G-----------------------------------1-2-3-4---------------------|
D-------------------------1-2-3-4-------------------------------|
A---------------1-2-3-4-----------------------------------------|
E-----1-2-3-4---------------------------------------------------|

e--------------------------------------------------------5-6-7-8-|
B---------------------------------------------5-6-7-8-----------|
G-----------------------------------5-6-7-8---------------------|
D-------------------------5-6-7-8-------------------------------|
A---------------5-6-7-8-----------------------------------------|
E-----5-6-7-8---------------------------------------------------|

The numbers indicate the fret number. You may also try out the same exercise for higher frets i.e. the ones that proceed fret no. 8 and also for all the strings.

Alternate Fret Pressing
Alternate fret pressing is another very important exercise. The following are the acoustic guitar tabs for beginners for alternate fret pressing.

e--------------------------------------------2--4----|
B------------------------------------1--3-----------|
G-----------------------------2--4------------------|
D----------------------1--3-------------------------|
A---------------2--4--------------------------------|
E-------1---3---------------------------------------|

e----------------------------------------2--4-----|
B--------------------------------1--3-----1--3---|
G---------------------2--4----2--4--------------|
D-------------1--3-----1--3---------------------|
A------2--4----2--4-----------------------------|
E----1--3----------------------------------------|

Cris Cross Fret Playing
The second exercise is that of Cris Cross fret playing. This exercise would help you to co-ordinate motion of all your four fingers.

e----------------------------|
B----------------------------|
G-------------4-4----------|
D-----------3-----3--------|
A--------2----------2------|
E------1---------------1---|

e------1--------------1--|
B--------2---------2-----|
G----------3-----3-------|
D------------4-4---------|
A--------------------------|
E--------------------------|

Cris Cross fret pressing is an extremely important exercise, due to the fact that it helps you to develop a coordination between all you fingers and the fingers of your right hand and left hand.

Once you have developed a reasonable amount of strength in your fingers, you can proceed to the acoustic guitar tab chords and scales. While playing the chords and scales you may refer to the notation chart that has been given above. For exploration of the fret board and for developing the sense of scales you can also do some exercises such as playing all the C#'s or F's on the fretboard. This exercise is a highly effective one as sound of the note is registered by your ear. No matter which acoustic guitar tabs for beginners you refer to, developing your ear for the tune is extremely important.

To know more about guitar tabs for beginners you may refer to:

• Guitar Tabs for Beginners
• Easy Guitar Tabs

The last tips that I wish to give you is feel every scale and chord that you play because each and every notation that is present in there, is full of life!