So you want to know how to read tabs and play them with your guitar, huh? I bet you can even guess some basic things, like the 6 lines representing the 6 strings, and numbers on the lines represent the frets you press. And maybe you already know how to play guitar tabs, and just looking for some clarifications.
In any case, I think I can help you. I’m gonna assume that you have little to no experience in playing the guitar and\or reading guitar tabs. Please stay with me on this one, all of you more experienced folks out there reading my blog, I promise I’ll be frank.
Let’s start with the most basic terminology, the guitar “slang”. Take a look at your guitar. It probably has 6 strings(unless you have a bass guitar, which happens to have 4 strings), and around 20-24 vertical metal things under the string. The metal things are called frets, and they reside on the fretboard.
The thinnest string is usually called the first string, while the thickest is the sixth\last string. Each string is tuned to a particular note. From the first to the last string: E, B, G, D, A, E. In most of the guitar tabs you will notice that before each string representing a line there is a note. There are different alternative tunings for guitars, each one makes it easier to play a particular style of music, but we will not dive into that, because it’s a topic on its own.
Tabs are read left-to-right, all strings simultaneously. That might seem obvious for some, but I’ve seen beginners with guitars that tried to play first the first string, then the second, etc. The numbers on the strings in the tabs indicate at which fret you should be pressing the string – and this is one of the advantages of the tabs before the standard notes – you don’t have to learn all the notes to play something simple. 0 means you play the string open, without pressing it to the fret.
One of the things tabs does not provide, is the standard and clear way of representing the length of notes. I mean, you basically can figure out the basic rhythm by looking at the distance between the numbers, but it isn’t as clear as it is in standard notation. This is one of the weak sides of tabs. Note: sometimes the numbers appear to be without any intervals, indicating non-existing frets, like 666 or 77788. Most of the times it is just compressed one-digit numbers without spaces. Play them as 6-7-8.
Sometimes you see X’s instead of numbers. This indicates palm muting. Palm muting is when you play the note while slightly muting the string with your palm, so it sounds a little percussive. It is a frequent technique in rock\metal guitar tabs. ‘h’ between the fret numbers indicates a hammer-on — you “hammer” the string to the fret with one of your fingers on the left hand(reverse it if you are a leftie). ‘p’ stands for pull-off, and is also found between the fret numbers, but instead of hammering the string to the fret, you actually quickly release the finger on the fret specified on the left while holding the fret specified on the right. The tab most of the times does not indicate which fingers hold which frets on which strings, so you will have to experiment to find the best combination for you. Also, you don’t pick the string with your right hand when you hammer-on or pull-off, since each one of these adds a little energy to the string, so you can actually pick only the first note in the sequence and play the others only with your left hand, as in this sequence: 1h3p1h3p1h3p1h3p1
These are the most basic things you need to keep in mind to know how to play guitar tabs. Playing guitar good isn’t easy, and as most of the skills out there requires practice. In order to play some of the simplest tabs you won’t need much practice, but to tackle the intermediate ones you will have to repeat and repeat and repeat, until it finally goes well. When I was just starting to play the guitar I was fascinated by my progress. As I practised more and more, I began to notice that I’m actually playing better than I did before, and this realization always boosted my enthusiasm for practising. When you are a beginner and just trying out to play some of the more intermediate tabs, it probably won’t even sound like the original at all. But the more you practise, the more you will progress. So keep strumming those strings! 
