Naming Your Fingers When we communicate about playing the guitar, it’s important that we are clear about which fingers to use. The fingers on the fretting hand (your left hand if you are right handed) are given the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4. Your index finger is finger one, your middle finger is finger two, and so on. The thumb is rarely used to fret a note as it is normally planted on the back of the neck, but when it is, it is referred to as T. On your picking hand, (your right hand if you are right handed) the fingers are called after their Span- ish names, but these are always abbreviated to P, I, M, and A. The little finger is so rarely used you'll probably never see it written unless you get deep into Flamenco guitar, but for reference, it is given the letter C. The thumb is P (pulgar), the index is I (indice), the middle is M (medio), and the ring finger is A ly ye Cr I will tell you which fingers to use when it’s impor- tant and you will find the numbers written on the music notation above the tablature.Reading Guitar Tablature The basics of reading tab are very simple. The tab- lature stave or staff contains six lines and each line represents one string of the guitar. The easiest way to tell which one is which is to remember that the lowest (bass) string of the guitar is the lowest written line of tab. If you lay the book flat on a table, the closest line to you is the closest string to you. The highest pitched string of the guitar (high E) is the highest line on the tab. On paper, it’s the furthest line away from you and also the furthest string away from you on the guitar. You can now easily see how the lines relate to the strings on the guitar. Often in guitar tab you will see the note names of the strings written to the left of the tab stave, and the word TAB written on the strings themselves. Another handy way to remember which string is which is to look at the word TAB and see that the B (for bass) is on the lowest line and the T (for treble is on the highest line) (" | 1 i | | As with standard notation and written English, we read music from left to right. To indicate that a specific fret should be played ona particular string, we simply write the required fret number on the relevant line. Example 1a tells you to,Play the 3rd fret on the lowest (sixth) string. Play the 5th fret on the highest (first) string. Play the 2nd fret on the second (B) string. Play the 7th fret on the fourth (D) string. Play through the following example and listen to the audio track to check you're doing it right. Example 1a et iF ie is 1 i . : = | Bo To indicate that a string should be played open without any fretted note, we simply write a0 on the required string. Example 1b ey 5 iy d le r 1 & ; If we need to play two or more notes at once, the fret numbers are stacked vertically on top of each other. Remember, we read from left to right, so notes that are written vertically are played simulta- neously. Pick or strum the following example. Example 1c ae pay Som CBEIn the previous example, you may have recognised the final chord of D Major. Normally, when a full chord is notated in tablature we add the chord grid and symbol above it to make the music easier to read. Example 1d G18 oi dae HES NL oy To test yourself, play the following melody on your guitar. Example 1e ===) 4 A 8 Fe Finally, it’s possible to play a note on the guitar which doesn’t have any pitch at all. This is called a mute and it’s normally performed in one of two ways. The first way is to gently press on the string with the fretting hand, making sure you don’t push the string all the way down to the fret. The second way is to mute the string as you play it with your fretting hand. When you pick a muted note it should sound dead and percussive. It definitely shouldn't sustain.Single notes and whole chords can be muted. However you play it, a muted note is shown by an X on the string instead of a number. Example 1f gi oT Irs \ A ‘s B x