guitar tab staff has 6 horizontal lines, each representing a string of the instrument. The bottom line with a staff that represents your lowest "E" string, the second row from the bottom represents your "A" string, etc. quite easy to read, right?

Notice that there are numbers located smack dab in the middle of the line (aka a string). The numbers simply represent the fret the tab is telling you to play. For example, in the illustration above, the tab tells you to play the third string (third line) seventh fret.

Note: If the number "0" is used in tablature, this indicates that the open string should be played.

This is the concept of reading tab, at the most basic things. Now we examine some of the more advanced aspects of reading tablature notation, including how to read chords in tab.
 
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