Q & A
Music Notation - Questions And Answers
Question
I have one question about TAB, why is it written in the opposite order of the strings on the guitar? Meaning, the 1st string on the guitar is the bottom E, and the 1st string in TAB is the top string? Why is that? Isn't that confusing? - Adam
Answer
In a word — yes. I’ll try to explain, but first we need to clear up some often confusing guitar terminology. The “1st string” on the guitar (the thinnest one — the high E) is considered at the “top.” The 6th string (the fattest, wound one — the low E) is considered at the “bottom.” This has to due with pitch. The lower pitched notes are considered on the bottom and the higher pitched notes are considered on the top.
But you are correct, when you are holding the guitar, the low E (6th) string is “in relation to the physical world” on the top and the high E (1st) string is “in relation to the physical world” on the bottom.
So why is the Guitar TAB staff upside-down? I think the reasoning behind this is due to standard notation, where the lower pitch notes are notated on the bottom of the staff, and as the notes move up the staff they get higher in pitch. So the low notes are on the bottom and the high notes are on the top. I think they just took that method and applied it to the guitar TAB: the lower pitch strings are on the “bottom” and the higher ones are on “top.” It really has nothing to do with the physical world.
You just have to adjust your thinking... Think of the bottom TAB line as the 6th string (low, wound E) and then the next line up as the 5th string, and so forth. It won’t take long to get used to it.
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