Guitar Tab College

1. Be accurate. This is by far the most important rule. If the tablature or chords are not correct then no guitar player will learn anything from it. Play along with the song and ensure that every note is spot on. As well, be sure to include the proper information if a capo or a different tuning is required.

2. Use correct chord names. Every combination of notes has a name so make sure you find the right one for each chord. Otherwise, if the chord is used in another person's tab correctly, it will sound wrong and probably piss off the guitarist.

3. Be a fan. The reader will trust your tab(s) more if they know it is coming from someone who really enjoys the band song. The first thing in your tab after the song name and artist should be a short sentence about how much you like this song and/or artist, whether it is true or not.

4. Do not be meticulous. Guitar players do not want to be treated like babies so do not try to map out every single beat and tell them when to use upstroke/downstroke. It just becomes more confusing and frustrating to the reader. If they are trying to learn the song, then they most likely would have heard it before and understand it to a degree.

5. Tab a new song. The song does not have to be new in terms of date, but try writing tabs for a song that does not have many tabs for it on the internet. If you plan on sharing your work with the world, why not make it useful. You are not really helping anyone out by writing the 152,385th version of Stairway to Heaven. Tabbing out a lesser known song for a popular band can get noticed very quickly, and true fans will really appreciate it.

By Bryan Weinberg