Single Note Picking
And ReadingTAB

You already played single notes in the chapters entitled Starting To Play and How To Tune A Guitar, so you know how to place the tip of your first finger close to the first fret on the first string ...etc ...(Right? ... Right.)

Now, how are you gonna read and play this stuff all at the same time? I could spend months writing a program on how to read standard music notation for the guitar, of which nine out of ten guitarists would scratch their head for a few hours then totally give up, or I could use guitar tablature (TAB for short), a system of writing music just for the guitar which is universally accepted by all guitar music publishers today, and is much easier to read but sadly falls down because of it's lack of timing information, or I could use a hybrid system of guitar tablature with rhythm notation to show how long to hold each note ....... What a brilliant idea!

Exercise 20 Have a look at the diagram below. This exercise is written in guitar tablature (TAB). It's easy to read. The six horizontal lines represent the six guitar strings. Everything is upside down like a chord diagram. The first string (the thin one) is on the top and the sixth string (the thick one) is on the bottom. The numbers simply represent the fret numbers. (0 means open string, 1 means first fret, 2 means second fret, etc.) Everything else you've seen before. (The time signature, bar lines, down stroke symbols, and rhythm notation symbols.) The TAB tells us to play the open first string four times, then the first fret first string four times etc. Listen to Exercise 20 sound file * and then have a go yourself. NO WAIT ... I forgot to tell you which left hand fingers to use... Use the same finger as fret number (ie. first fret= first finger, second fret= second finger etc)... Now have a go.

Exercise 21 Here's something a bit more challenging. This is a good warm up exercise for single note playing. You're using all the strings, starting from the sixth ( the thick one) and working your way down to the first string (the thin one). Every two bars is a repetition of the last two, only on the adjacent string. Listen to Exercise 21 sound file * then try to play it on your guitar. Now come back the other way like this: You've probably found this exercise pretty tricky with your right hand. Picking single notes on the guitar is generally more demanding with your right hand (because of the accuracy needed to strike only one string), and physically less demanding with your left hand (less pressure to hold one finger down than two or three).

Try going through exercise 21 again, this time GO SLOW, make sure you use down strokes with your right hand, and keep your left hand fingers standing upright (use the tips only) next to the fret. Like I said before, this is a good warm up for any single note playing, so you'll be doing it again later in the program. When you're bored go to the next page.

 
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Copyright ©1997 Kim Wainwright.