How To Read Tablature At fiddlehub.com

Section links: Intro Which String Which Finger Up Bow Or Down Changing Bow Direction Note Values Summary, With Slur Demo

Which string do you play, and when?

Figure 1 shows four horizontal lines. Each of these lines represents a string on your fiddle. This makes it easy to keep things straight: four strings -- four lines. As you already know, this is a major difference between tab and standard notation.

Figure 1

Tab Lines Only

The top line is the high E string (often called the 1st string);

The next line down is the A string (the 2nd string);
The next line down is the D string (the 3rd string); and
The bottom line is the low G string (the 4th string).

These four strings will always be clearly marked for you in the sheet music that I ask you to print out at the beginning of each tune lesson.

The tab method tells you which of the four strings to play by placing a number on the string. If there is no number, you leave the string alone. You play the tune from left to right, and you change strings, or not, depending on whether a string has a number on it.