Musical Notation of the Guitar
Guitar Notes (Treble clef)
When playing notes on the guitar, you read the treble clef. In the picture below, the treble clef is the one on top.
Bass Notes (Bass clef)
When playing notes on the bass, you read the bass clef. In the picture above, the bass clef is the one on bottom. The bass actually sounds one octave lower than notated so that there aren't too many ledger lines. (Ledger lines are lines below the regular musical staff.)
Guitar Tablature
Guitar tablature has six lines, each line representing a string on the guitar. The line on the bottom represents the low E string on the guitar, then the fifth represents the A string, and so on D, G, B, and E strings. On the lines are numbers, which mean the number of the fret you are supposed to play. For example, if the number 5 is on the fourth line, that means that on the D string you play the fifth fret.
Bass Tablature
Bass tablature is similar to guitar tablature, the only difference being the number of lines. The lines represent the same strings as guitar (E,A,D, and G) but without the B or high E string. Bass tab can also have five strings if the bass has five strings, but the most common bass tablature has four.
Chords
A guitar chord is when more than one note is strummed all at the same time. The picture above shows some basic/common chords used. Many songs are played with only three chords: A, D, and E.
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