Music Composition DUMmIES

You might see the same chord written out something like Figure 19-6.

Writing tab like Figure 19-6 would mean you want your guitarist to strum the

chord, but more slowly, with each individual string plucked, starting at the

bottom string and ending at the top.

Most modern tablature doesn’t show note values, but as a general rule the

horizontal spacing of the numbers on the tab should tell you which notes are

the long ones, and which are the short and fast ones. As an example, Figure

19-7 shows the first few notes of “The Star-Spangled Banner” in tab. As you

can see, the different spacings correspond to the different note lengths.

To show technical markings in tab, the standard practice is to write extra

letters or symbols between notes to indicate how to play them, such as the

example in Figure 19-8, which indicates a hammer-on (playing the note by

simply bringing the finger down on the fret, without plucking the note). In

that example you would play the open E twice, then hit the A string at the

fifth fret and hammer on to the seventh fret.

0

1

2

1

0

0 4 20

1 3

0

E B G D A E

Figure 19-7:
The spacing
in “The Star-
Spangled
Banner” tab
indicates
roughly how
long to play
each note.

3

5

5

4

3

E 3

B

G

D

A

E

Figure 19-6:
A G barre
chord again,
this time
played in
arpeggio.

Chapter 19: Composing for Other Musicians 245