READING MUSIC IN THIS BOOK This book uses tablature (TAB) because its the easiest and quickest way to lear how to play guitar. Learning to read standard notation, or staff, is also a very important skill and if you really want to take ‘your music as far as you can, you should lear staff. However, that is beyond the scope of this book. ‘number which Tablature isa system of reading music that describes notes by giving the string and f is to be played. Frets Strings ad one rah Ss tee | Sth String ‘The fingers of the left hand are numbered: index finger - 1 middle finger - 2 ing finger - 3 little finger - 4 ‘These fingering numbers appear below each tab line and tell you which left hand finger you should use to play a note. ‘The tablature system described above denotes the pitches of notes, where they are to be found on the neck of the guitar, and what finger to use, However, there is another aspect of musical notes that is {just as important, and thatis the time value of the notes—when to play them and how long they last. ‘This aspect is described by rhythm notation, which will be introduced in Chapter Two. Until then, just copy the rhythms “by ear” from the examples on the cassette or CD.