Your first notes in tab

The 30-second refresher

Six lines, highest string on top; a number is a fret; you read left to right. All the details, symbols included, are on the How to read tab page.

How to work out a tab

1. Listen first to the whole example: the tab tells you where to play, your ear tells you when.
2. Spot which strings are used and put your hand in the right place before you start.
3. Play it note by note, slowly, reading three or four notes at a time.
4. Play it again with the rhythm of the example.

Melody 1: Au clair de la lune

A classic French nursery tune with just three notes, on the B and high E strings: C (B string, 1st fret), D (B string, 3rd fret) and E (open high E). The longer notes get a little more room in the recording.

e|---------0-----0-------|
B|-1-1-1-3---3-1---3-3-1-|
G|-----------------------|
D|-----------------------|
A|-----------------------|
E|-----------------------|

Fingering: index for the 1st fret, ring finger for the 3rd.

Melody 2: Frère Jacques

Better known in English as “Are You Sleeping?” It adds two notes on the high E string: F (1st fret) and G (3rd fret). The melody moves from one string to the other—that’s the whole point of the exercise.

e|-----0-------0---0-1-3-0-1-3-|
B|-1-3---1-1-3---1-------------|
G|-----------------------------|
D|-----------------------------|
A|-----------------------------|
E|-----------------------------|

You’ve got it when…

• You play Au clair de la lune reading only the tab
• You play Frère Jacques moving from the B string to the high E without stopping
• For each number, you can say which string and which fret to play