How to Read Guitar Tabs - More Tips About The "Late Nights" Guitar Tab

Here are some more tips on how to read the guitar tabs for the "Late Nights" lead solo. We will go through each of the twelve bars and compare it with the notation.

Bar 1




The first note is G - played at the third fret. (We won't mention the strings because you already now which strings are represented by the lines of the tab - right? If not, go back to the previous article.)

The note is 3 beats long starting at the second beat of the bar. Listen carefully to the song - you'll hear the one beat delay. So its represented in the tab as only the number 3. The notation shows you a half note (2 beats) and a dot. The dot lengthens the note by half (1 beat). So hold the string for 3 beats.

Bar 2


Hold the first note for 2 beats and the following notes for 1 beat each. These are quarter notes.

Bar 3

Here is a whole note. Hold it for four beats and keep holding into the next bar.

Bar 4

Hold the preceding note for 1 beat into this next bar. The next series of notes will take a bit of practise but will teach you the all important "hammer-on" technique. You play these notes with your left hand (if you strum right handed) simply by hitting the string straight down with your fingertip. The timing is also a bit trickier because the notes are 1/16th and 1/8th beats - with the additional challenge of the dot which lengthens that note by half.

Sound complicated? Getting a bit lost? Just follow the timing in the song. This is why learning how to read guitar tabs is much easier than notation - especially for a simple tune like this.

Bar 5



Keep your finger on the same note as Bar 4 but only for 1/16th beat and then slide it up to fret 4. That little line in the tabliture means to "slide" to the next note. The dot lengthens the 1/8th note by 1/16th. What does that give you? 3/16ths of a beat! Sorry for the math. If the numbers are hurting your head, just listen to the song and "feel it". That's music!

Bar 6



This is a simple bar with straight forward 1/4 notes, 1/16th and 1/8th notes. No dot to create any syncopation in this part of the tab.

Bar 7


The trick here is the third note which you hold to the end of the third beat of the bar. Its best for you to listen closely on this part of the solo, especially the last three notes.

Bar 8


This bar throws a lot of notes at you and its tough for the ear to pick them all up but because they are all ascending hammer-ons with a slide on the third (G) string its actually quite easy to do. Think of that set of 1/16th notes as representing the second beat in the bar or the second tap of your foot if you are tapping along. And the 7th note is held into the 8th note.

Bar 9


Try to emphasize the slide up to the 7th fret. It really brings it to life. Notice how the intensity rises with the higher notes and the faster pace.
Bar 10


In this bar we are starting to slow down just a bit to 1/8th notes. Its hints of an impeding resolution.

Bar 11


You are almost done. But now notice how the intensity if being lowered further as the notes are increased to 1/4 notes.

Bar 12



You're bringing 'er home now! Enjoy these last few notes and stick that last one. Practice this guitar tab with the song playing. Hopefully we have taken most if not all of the mystery out of how to read guitar tabs.

Once you have learned how to read this guitar tabulature, check out our jam track library and to use the Easylead Guitar Map to help you learn the guitar scales and note patterns with real backing music to enhance the learning experience and make it more fun.

How to read guitar tab for Late Nights solo

Here's a basic explanation of how to read guitar tab so you can get maximum value out the free guitar tabulature file for the sample "Late Nights" solo. And in case you didn't know, the tab is designed to go with the free video sample (windows media player) (quicktime version) so you can "hear it", "see it" and now hopefully "play it" with this tab.

Standard Notation

Standard musical notation is what you are probably already familiar with. It represents notes with no relation to guitar strings but it can do much more than guitar tab because it can show timing. And standard notation is universal for any musician playing any instrument - providing you know where the notes are on your instrument. Here's the notation for "Late Nights" solo...

Notice that there are five lines in the notation above. These lines do not relate to the strings on a guitar!

Guitar Tab

In or to know how read guitar tab you have to understand that it is a more visual method of writing music specifically to assist stringed instruments. Tab shows you exactly what notes to play by identifying the six strings of the guitar and then using numbers to indicate which fret to press on which string to play a particular note. Easy!

Except what you gain in ease, you lose in overall information about the musical piece. Tabs don't indicate the timing of notes or the ryhthm patterns. To figure that out you have to know or be listening to the song - which is perfect in this case because you already have the song (download it if you don't). Here's the guitar tab for the "Late Nights" solo...

Notice that there are six lines in this tabulature. These lines do represent the strings of the guitar. This is how you read the tab - starting from the bottom of the grid, the lowest string represents the lowest sounding string - the low E. Moving upward along the grid, each ascending string represents the A, D, G, B and high E respectively.

Reading guitar tab still requires you to understand how music is broken down into bars. In the notation above and the tabluature here, the song is represented in twelve bars.

A Few Final Tips on How to Read Guitar Tab

Don't forget that tabs do not indicate the tuning of the guitar. It shows you only where to put your finger on the fretboard to play the note but you still have to have your guitar tuned correctly.

Tab does not indicate which fingers to use and it also doesn't usually tell you whether to pick or strum although some tab does try to get quite elaborate with a variety of different symbols for different meanings. But for our purposes we'll keep it simple.

Remember the focus here is to help those of you who are strumming but now want to start learning lead guitar improvisation. And tons of lead solos are offered online or in guitar magazines in tab format. So you have to know how to read guitar tab if you want to take advantage of them.

So have fun learning this basic lead solo to "Late Nights". Its a good one to learn because it purposely goes up and down the main pattern boxes of the pentatonic scale. And you can see clearly which patterns in the scale are being used by looking at the Guitar Map.

If you think you have a basic handle on this, then read the next article on how to read guitar tabs where we take you through each bar of the tab side by side with the notation. Have fun!