Easy Guitar Tabs

Without beating around the bush, I will come straight to the point. Guitar tabs are nothing but a tabular and visual representation of the chords and leads of a particular melody, song or piece of music. It is a type of notation that is used by fellow guitarists to understand the sequence and the progression of notes and chords in a particular song. In this article, we will have a look at some basic guitar chords followed by a few easy guitar tabs.

Basic Guitar Chords
We will have a look at some basic guitar chords and the fingering involved before we move on to a couple of easy guitar tabs for beginners.

C Major
The following is the guitar tab for the chord 'C major'.
e ------------------------O
B ----1-------------------
G ------------------------O
D ---------2--------------
A ---------------3--------
E -------------------------X

The letters e, B, G, D, A and E represent the six guitar strings of an acoustic guitar with 'e' being the thinnest string and 'E' being the thickest. The symbol 'X' when written in front of a string means that, that particular string is not to be played in that particular tab. The symbol 'O' stands for an open string i.e., the string is to be played without pressing any of that string's frets. The numbers 1, 2 and 3 that are written in front of the strings 'B', 'D' and 'A' respectively represent the fret positions for those respective strings. Therefore, the above tab for C major should be read as: "C major involves the strings e, B, G, D and A. Do not play 'E'. 'G' and 'e' are open strings. Fret positions for 'B', 'D' and 'A' are 1, 2 and 3 respectively." In this manner, here are a few more guitar chord tabs.

A Major
The following is the tab for the chord 'A major'.
e ----------------
B -----2----------
G -----2----------
D -----2----------
A ----------------
E-----------------
In this case, 'e', 'A' and 'E' are open strings whereas 2 is the fret position for 'B', 'G' as well as 'D'.

A Minor
Here is the guitar tab for 'A minor'.
e ---------------------
B ---1-----------------
G ------2--------------
D ------2--------------
A ---------------------O
E ---------------------X
In this case, 'E' is not to be played, 'A' and 'e' are open strings, whereas 1, 2 and 2 are the fret positions for 'B', 'G' and 'D' respectively.

F Major
The following is the notation for 'F major'.
e ----1----------------
B ----1----------------
G --------2------------
D ------------3--------
A ------------3--------
E ----------------------X
As you can see, 1 is the fret position for both 'e' and 'B', 2 is the fret position for 'G', whereas 3 is the fret position for both 'D' and 'A'. 'E' is not to be played.

G Major
The fingering for G major is the same as that for F major with one exception. The entire set has to be moved 2 frets down. Therefore, you have 3 as the fret position for both 'e' and 'B', 4 as the fret position for 'G', and 5 as the fret position for both 'D' and 'A'.

D Major
Here is the guitar tab for 'D major'.
e -----2-------------
B -----------3-------
G -----2-------------
D -------------------
A -------------------X
E -------------------X
Strings 'A' and 'E' are not to be played. 'D' is an open string. 2 is the fret position for 'e' and 'G' whereas 3 is the fret position for string 'B'.

E Major
The following is the tab for 'E major'.
e ----------------
B ----------------
G ---1-----------
D -------2-------
A -------2-------
E ----------------
'e', 'B' and 'E' are open strings whereas 1 is the fret position for 'G' and 2 is the fret position for both 'D' and 'A'.

Easy to Play Guitar Tabs
Now that you are aware of the fingering for the above-mentioned guitar chords, let us have a look at a couple of easy-to-learn guitar tabs involving the above chords.

Pattern #1
Here is a strumming pattern that makes use of the chords C, F, G and A minor. A_m is the symbol for A minor.
C - F - G - G
A_m - E - A_m - A_m
You can have a variety of strumming patterns for the above chord progression. For starters, you may begin with a 'down up down up down' type of strumming pattern.

Pattern #2
Here is another strumming pattern that makes use of the chords D, A_m and G.
D - D - D - D
A_m - A_m - A_m - A_m
G - G - G - G
D - D - D - D

These were a few easy guitar tabs for guitar newbies. Once you are comfortable with the different finger positions and the shifting of chords, you can move on to some higher level guitar lessons which involve advanced guitar tabs and chords.