Tab question

ironictoaster

Heyo,

I have been getting back into guitar after going on/off it for years.

I have looking at a few tabs there yesterday and I was just wondering what the numbers at the top of the tab mean? Like this one. Cheers!

Intro:


1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +

e|--3

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3---3

---

3---|
b|--3

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3---3

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3---|
g|--0

---

2---0

---

2---|
d|--0

---

0---2

---

0---|
a|--2

---

0---2

---

0---|
e|--3

---

2---0

---

2---|


1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +

e|--3

---

3---3

---

|
b|--3

---

3---3

---

|
g|--0

---

2---0

---

|
d|--0

---

0---2

---

|
a|--2

---

0---2

---

|
e|--3

---

2---0

---

|

stephenshields2

They are the different beats in every bar of the music!

Malice

It might also refer to the fingering e.g. 1 = first finger, 2 = second finger. I've come across that occasionally on bass tabs. Given that it's a guitar tab chances are stephenshields2 is probably correct.

ironictoaster

stephenshields2 wrote: »

They are the different beats in every bar of the music!

I'm sorry but, can you elaborate? I am a music noob.

Malice

ironictoaster wrote: »

I'm sorry but, can you elaborate? I am a music noob.

Okay, here's a song I was looking at yesterday because even though I love the song I'd never actually learnt to play it on the guitar . It's The Neverending Story by Limahl.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3khTntOxX-k

This part is the backing keyboard melody. Have a listen to the above video from about 0:21 to 0:28 and you should be able to hear the melody clearly. It repeats throughout the song but there's usually vocals over it. The chords are (in order) C, GSus4, G, Dm, F, Am, G.
The time signature is 4/4 which means each bar lasts for 4 beats. To ensure the music flows correctly and doesn't sound disjointed each bar must have 4 beats in it. In the notation below 'H' means half note (2 beats) and 'W' means whole note (4 beats). Doing a quick bit of maths we can work out that 1 whole note gives us 4 beats and 2 half notes will also give us 4 beats.

[PHP] W H H H H H H
E||

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|--0

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B||--5

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|--3

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3

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|--3

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1

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|--1

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3

---

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G||--5

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|--5

---

4

---

|--2

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2

---

|--2

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4

---

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D||--5

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|--5

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5

---

|--3

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3

---

|

---

5

---

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A||

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---

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---

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---

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E||

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---

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---

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|[/PHP]

To count out the beats easily you can just count strums of the chords with each strum being one beat. So you'd play something like this:
C (4 strums), GSus4 (2 strums), G (2 strums), Dm (2 strums), F (2 strums), Am (2 strums), G (2 strums).

Obviously once you get used to the timing you can change it so it fits in more with the song itself (e.g. playing the Am and G chords at end only once).

quicklickpaddy

To put it as simply as possible, if you count "One, two, three, four" along to the rhythm of a song each number is a beat. That's what those numbers are. For the pluses in between them just fit in an "And" in between each number you're counting.

(That's assuming the song is in 4/4, which the vast majority of songs will be -but if you don't understand what time signatures are just ignore everything in this bracket so as not to confuse you)

NoQuarter

an a 1 an a 2 an a 3 an a 4..... etc