Many beginning guitar approach me and question for advice how to play guitar ‘quick’. I inevitably question them whether they already play guitar, and just want to be quicker on the fretboard, or whether they’re “newbies” who want a fasttrack to basic proficiency.

This got me wondering whether there might be a connection between the two. It seemed far-fetched; but, the more I thought about it, the more parallels I saw between these two seemingly different levels of training.

So, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that:

1. You can learn guitar quicker by studying the techniques involved making your overall playing ability ‘quicker’, and..

2. You can become a ‘quicker’ guitar player by re-focusing your practice sessions on the basic concepts and techniques taught to every beginner.

The reasons for this overlap and can be summed up in a handy acronym: M.O.S.T. — or, “Memorization, Observation and Strength Training.” Let’s cover each one to clarify the point.

Memorization

One of the things that slows down both beginning and intermediate guitar players, no matter how excellent of an ‘ear’ for music they have, is a failure to memorize:

1. All of the notes on the fretboard

2. Chords and scales for the Major and Minor Keys

It doesn’t matter whether you’re just starting out, or have a few year’s playing experience already. The reality is that ‘hunting and pecking’ for the needed chord or note will slow you down.

You don’t have time in the middle of a song to stop so you can figure out if a Dbminor chord will work in the key of B, and then figure out where that chord is relative to your current position on the fretboard.

If you’re a beginner, then memorizing your fretboard is the place to start. This will make it simpler for you to memorize chords and scale patterns, as well as know the relationship between them in music theory.

If you’re already playing the guitar, then you should focus on increasing your knowledge in both of these areas. You probably have a excellent part of your fretboard memorized already, but can you jump to any note or chord automatically?

Observation

Your senses of touch, sight and sound are all involved in playing guitar. As you play, you will no doubt feel the development of ‘muscle memory’ as your fingers play across familiar chords and scales. You will see patterns and relationships on the fretboard. You will hear what you’re playing and come to connect it with all of the above.

Memorization is the foundation for observation, and observation is the key to training your mind and hands to work in concert automatically.

If you want the ability to play anything you hear ‘in your head’ the moment your fingers reach the fretboard, then you must wed memorization with observation when you practice.

Strength Training

No, I’m not suggesting you lift weights at the gym! Strength training, which really includes ‘dexterity’ training, is part and parcel of everything we’ve covered so far.

Beginning guitarists often struggle to hold down chords, and to play scales with all four fingers. This is simply a matter of building strength, muscle memory and dexterity through consistent and right practice.

Intermediate players who want to get quicker on the fretboard must realize that the most likely culprit(s) behind issues with ‘speed’ will be a deficiency in strength, dexterity, right techqnie or all three.

Newbies should focus on strength building exercises and on performing those exercises consistently and perfectly. If you’re given an exercise that requires you to hit a note with your pinky, but you choose to ‘cheat’ by using your ring finger, know that your playing will hit a wall down the line.

Likewise, players who can’t seem to exceed their current speed on the guitar should examine their own technique. Have you stopped working on your strength training because the exercises are dull? Is your technique ‘sloppy’?

There are some things you simply can’t get away with at 160 bmp (beats per minute) the way you can at 120 bmp.

In conclusion, the key to learning guitar quicker – as well as playing it quicker – rests in following the M.O.S.T. formula. It really is all about getting the basics right from the start!

Guitar tabs are simple to read when you know all of the different symbols and ‘markers’ used to represent what to play and how to play it. In fact, it’s not usually the ‘notes’ that trip people up when they try to read guitar tabs. It’s all of the other dots, dashes and slashes that are confusing!

So, let’s talk about the most vital part first – how to read which notes to play and where – because it is also the simplest.

When you look at a song in tabbed notation, what you are looking at is an ‘aerial’ view of the fretboard. In other words, imagine that you have your guitar laid flat in your lap and you’re looking down at the fretboard.

Your sixth (lowest in pitch) string will be closest to you, right? Now, imagine that you pick up your guitar and hold it out in front of you. Your sixth string is closest to the floor, while your first string is closest to the ceiling.

This is what you’re looking at with tabs. There are 6 lines in a ‘measure’ of tab, one for each string of the guitar. The top line is your 1st string (high E) and the bottom line is your 6th string (low E).

The next thing you’ll notice is that these ‘strings’ will have numbers on them. For example, you might see a ’0′ on the 3rd string, followed by a 2, and then a 3 on the 1st string.

What these numbers represent is the fret position of the note you need to play on that string.

From the example above, you would play an ‘open G’ by picking the 3rd string, then play an ‘A’ by picking the 3rd string again while holding your finger on the second fret. Finally, you would play another ‘G’ by placing your finger on the 3rd fret of the first string. Make sense?

Although you’ll see ‘fret-like’ dividers on guitar tab, these divisions do not represent frets. They’re more like the bars that divide measures. If a series of note or chords is meant to be played sequentially, they will be spaced apart from one another on the tab.

Also, if you are to play a chord, an interval or anything involving multiple notes that sound simultaneously, these will be stacked vertically in the notation.

Now, let’s go onto the other signs and symbols you’ll come across in tabs. The simplest thing here is to just give you a reference ‘table’:

x = Mute. This is seen most often in tabs for songs where a lot of palm-muting is used on chords to make a percussive sound.

h = hammer-on. Let’s say you’re supposed to perform a ‘hammer-on’ from open ‘E’ up to G on the first string. This will be written on the top line of the tab as “0h3”.

p= pull-off. Let’s say that your hammer-on was follow by a pull from G back to E. It will be written, again, on the top line of the tab as “3p0”

b = bend. When you see a ‘b’ between two notes – e.g., 7b9, it means that you should bend the first note up until it reaches the same pitch as the second note indicated by the tab.

/ = When you see a forward slash connecting a series of notes, this indicates that you should slide from the first set of notes up to the second.

= When you see a backslash connection a series of notes, it indicates that you should slide down from the first set of notes to the second.

The above represents the most frequently used symbols in tab, but is not all-inclusive. Other symbols for things like “gliss” and arpeggio use special characters which can’t be accurately represented here as they aren’t included in the character set of a standard computer keyboard.

Hopefully, though, this quick lesson has given you just enough to get started using tab to learn most of your favorite songs!