Module 1: FoundationsLesson 2beginner⏱ 60 min + 5 min daily reading

Reading tablature and standard notation

Understand every symbol in this course's examples: tab lines and fret numbers, the treble staff, clef, ledger lines, accidentals and octave registers, and how to read a phrase in one position.

Why you need both

Tablature tells you where to put your fingers. Standard notation tells you what the music is: pitch, rhythm, phrasing, and what the other instruments are doing. Jazz is a reading tradition. Lead sheets, big-band parts, transcriptions and most teaching material are written on the staff, and almost none of it comes with tab. At the same time, tab is the fastest way to show a guitar fingering, which is why every example in this course shows both. By the end of this lesson you will be able to look at any example here and know which string and fret to play, what the pitch is called, and how the written note relates to the sound.

Rhythm (how long each note lasts) is its own subject and gets the next-but-one lesson. This lesson is about pitch and layout.

Tablature conventions in this course

Tab has six lines. The top line is string 1, the high E string; the bottom line is string 6, the low E. This is the view you get looking down at the guitar in playing position, which beginners find upside-down for about a week. A number on a line is the fret to play on that string; 0 means the open string. Numbers stacked vertically are played together as a chord.

\tempo 80
.
\ts 4 4
:4 0.6{txt "6"} 0.5{txt "5"} 0.4{txt "4"} 0.3{txt "3"} | :2 0.2{txt "2"} 0.1{txt "1"} |

Three further conventions you will meet:

• Fingering numbers (1 index, 2 middle, 3 ring, 4 little) appear as small figures beside the notation when a fingering matters. When none is given, use one finger per fret in the position implied by the frets.
• Text above the staff ("stretch", "shift", "swing the eighths") is an instruction from the author, not something to play.
• Chord symbols such as Dm7 or G7 above the staff tell you the harmony in force, which matters once you improvise. They are explained from Module 3 onwards; for now, read them as labels.

Every example also has a play button. Playback is rendered with straight, even eighth notes; where a caption says "swing the eighths", play it with the swing feel you will learn in Module 5, not the way the computer does.

The staff and the treble clef

Standard notation is written on five lines and four spaces; together they are the staff. Pitch goes up as the note goes up the page. The curly symbol at the left is the treble clef (or G clef): its spiral wraps around the second line from the bottom, which marks that line as the note G.

Guitar music is written in the treble clef with a convention you must know: the guitar sounds one octave lower than written. A note written on the bottom line of the staff is E, and on a piano you would play the E just above middle C; on the guitar, the note that is actually heard is the E one octave below that. Composers write it this way so that the whole range of the guitar fits on one staff without a forest of ledger lines. Some printed music shows a small 8 under the clef to mark this; most guitar music does not bother, and neither do the examples here.

Note names on the lines and spaces

From the bottom line upward, the five lines carry E G B D F, and the four spaces carry F A C E. Memorise them as two sequences, then as one alphabet climbing line–space–line–space: E F G A B C D E F. Here are the lines, with the string and fret that produces each written note on the guitar.

\tempo 72
.
\ts 4 4
:4 2.4{txt "E"} 0.3{txt "G"} 0.2{txt "B"} 3.2{txt "D"} | :2 1.1{txt "F"} r |

\tempo 72
.
\ts 4 4
:4 3.4{txt "F"} 2.3{txt "A"} 1.2{txt "C"} 0.1{txt "E"} |

Note how the written bottom-line E is the D string at fret 2, not the open high E string. The open high E string is the top space. This is the octave convention in action; the sound you hear from fret 2 on the D string is the E that a pianist would call E3, written as E4 on the staff.

Ledger lines

Notes outside the staff sit on short extra lines called ledger lines. Below the staff, the first ledger line is C (written middle C). Then, continuing down the alphabet, you reach the open low E string on the third ledger line below the staff. Above the staff, the first ledger line is A, the second C, the third E.

\tempo 72
.
\ts 4 4
:4 3.5{txt "C"} 0.5{txt "A"} 3.6{txt "G"} 0.6{txt "E"} | 5.1{txt "A"} 8.1{txt "C"} 12.1{txt "E"} 15.1{txt "G"} |

Reading ledger lines fluently takes practice; the trick is to learn a few landmarks and count from them: the open low E (three ledger lines below), the open A string (space below the second ledger line), written middle C (first ledger line below), the open high E (top space) and the A at fret 5 of the high E string (first ledger line above). Everything else is a step or two from a landmark.

Octave registers

To talk about which E we mean, musicians number octaves. Each octave number runs from C up to the B above it, and middle C on the piano is C4. The guitar's open low E is E2 (sounding), the open D string is D3, the C at fret 1 on the B string is C4 (middle C), the open high E is E4, and the highest note on a 22-fret guitar is D6. Written pitch is one octave higher than each of these: the open low E is written E3, and so on. In this course, when we name a pitch with a number we mean the sounding pitch unless the text says "written".

\tempo 72
.
\ts 4 4
:4 0.6{txt "E2"} 0.4{txt "D3"} 1.2{txt "C4"} 0.1{txt "E4"} |

The fretboard lesson shows where every pitch class lives on the neck; combine it with the octave numbers and you can name any note in the course exactly.

Accidentals

A sharp (♯) raises a note by a half step, one fret. A flat (♭) lowers it by one fret. A natural (♮) cancels a previous sharp or flat. Two rules govern how they are read:

1. An accidental applies to that note for the rest of the bar, in the same octave. The bar line cancels it. A courtesy accidental in brackets sometimes reminds you of that.
2. In a piece with a key signature (sharps or flats printed just after the clef), those accidentals apply to every note of that name in every octave for the whole piece unless cancelled. Module 2 covers key signatures; the examples in this module have none.

\tempo 72
.
\ts 4 4
:4 3.5{txt "C"} 4.5{txt "C#"} 5.5{txt "D"} 6.5{txt "D#"} | 7.5{txt "E"} 6.5{txt "Eb"} 5.5{txt "D"} 4.5{txt "Db"} | :1 3.5{txt "C"} |

A fret that has two names (C♯ and D♭ are the same fret on the A string) is called enharmonic. Jazz charts lean towards flats, because so many standards are in flat keys, but a rising chromatic line is usually spelled with sharps and a falling one with flats, as above. Which spelling is "correct" depends on the key and the chord, and Module 2 explains the rules; for reading purposes, you only need to find the fret.

How the examples are laid out

Every example in the course can appear in three forms. This phrase is shown three times: notation only, tab only, and the default combined view.

\tempo 90
.
\ts 4 4
:4 1.2{ch "C"} 3.2 1.2 0.3 | 0.2{ch "G7"} 3.2 1.1 3.2 | :8 1.1{ch "G7"} 3.2 0.2 3.2 :4 0.3 0.2 | :1 1.2{ch "C"} |

\tempo 90
.
\ts 4 4
:4 1.2{ch "C"} 3.2 1.2 0.3 | 0.2{ch "G7"} 3.2 1.1 3.2 | :8 1.1{ch "G7"} 3.2 0.2 3.2 :4 0.3 0.2 | :1 1.2{ch "C"} |

\tempo 90
.
\ts 4 4
:4 1.2{ch "C"} 3.2 1.2 0.3 | 0.2{ch "G7"} 3.2 1.1 3.2 | :8 1.1{ch "G7"} 3.2 0.2 3.2 :4 0.3 0.2 | :1 1.2{ch "C"} |

The staff and the tab are aligned beat for beat: every note head on the staff has a fret number directly below it. When a chord is played, the note heads stack on the staff and the fret numbers stack in the tab.

Reading in one position

The reason the course teaches positions so early is reading. If you know that a passage sits in position II (index finger at fret 2, one finger per fret up to fret 5), then every written note has exactly one place under your hand and you do not need to search the neck. The phrase above is in open position: open strings plus frets 1–3, which is where most beginners' reading starts. Here is the method for reading any phrase in a position:

1. Find the position from the tab (the lowest fretted number is usually the index finger) or from the instruction in the caption.
2. Read the staff by interval, not by naming every note: a note on the next line up is a third higher; the next space up is a second. Steps stay on the same string or move to the next; skips often cross strings.
3. Keep your eyes on the staff, not your hands. Look ahead one beat.
4. Play slowly enough that you never stop. Reading is like walking: a steady slow pace is reading; stop-and-start is decoding.

\tempo 72
.
\ts 4 4
:4 3.6 5.6 2.5 3.5 | 5.5 2.4 4.4 5.4 | 2.3 4.3 5.3 3.2 | 5.2 2.1 3.1 2.1 | :2 3.2 2.3 | :1 5.4 |

This drill happens to walk through the G major scale, which you will learn properly in the scale lesson; for now it is simply a set of notes that fit under the hand in one position.

Daily reading habit

Five minutes a day is enough, as long as it is daily. Take any example in this module, cover the tab, and read the staff aloud: say the letter names in rhythm before you play. Then play it with the metronome at a tempo slow enough that you never stop. Then uncover the tab and check. After two weeks, start covering the tab in the examples of later modules as well. Reading is the skill that makes every book, chart and transcription in the world available to you.

Quiz