Log In My Account Join Upgrade Premium VIP Beta Tester Free Trial
Menu Search Join VIP Beta Tester Premium
 

How to Recognize Chord Shapes within Guitar Tabs

Lesson #404 • Dec 14, 2021

Video lesson

Instructional PDF 2 pages

Follow along with the print-friendly PDF! It includes all of my notes for this lesson, allowing you to follow along at your own pace. You're free to download, print, and share the PDF across your devices.

Thanks for being a Premium member of Song Notes! Your support makes these lessons possible.

Download PDF

Follow along with the print-friendly PDF!

It includes all of my notes for this lesson, allowing you to follow along at your own pace. You're free to download, print, and share the PDF across your devices.

To download the PDF, upgrade to premium or log in.

Editor’s notes

Hey friends! New lesson today where I share a must-know technique when it comes to reading guitar tabs. Specifically, I’m talking about “reading tabs backwards” – which is a way to easily identify the chord shapes implied within a tabbed riff. This is tremendously helpful, as it let you know how your left hand should be positioned (i.e. playing a specific chord shape) while your right hand tackles the picked or strum notes.

I wish I knew about this when I first started guitar. Back then, I would dive into reading guitar tabs head first, memorizing the exact fret numbers and string numbers shown in any tab – but the movement of my left hand was entirely chaotic and inefficient, always scrambling to get into place for the next note. My advice to my past self? Learn how to recognize the chord shapes inferred by any tab: and use that as a guide to how your left hand should be placed.

The end result is tabs & riffs that are easier to play, which is a huge win!

Special thanks to Patreon supporter Greg, who’s recent email turned me on to a riff I’d never learned before (the 5th example I show in this video) – and when tackling this riff, it sparked the idea of sharing this incredibly helpful technique. I hope you find it helpful in all of your playing!

Thanks again to all of you for the support, it makes these lessons possible. All the best!

  • David Pots.

Unlock My Secret Stash!

Gain instant access to my library of 247 print-friendly cheat sheets! Also includes my extended video lessons, jam tracks, courses, and more.

Join Song Notes Premium

Have questions? Watch video tour »

Browse Related Lessons

Click any tag below to view other lessons I've made in that category:

Enjoy My Lessons? Show Your Support!

Most of the lessons on my website are 100% free. If you have the means, please show your support with a tip jar contribution. I put many hours into every lesson — but it only takes you a minute to make a donation. You have my thanks!

Donate

Looking for More Song Lessons?

Recently Added
Most Popular
Beginner-Friendly
Browse by Artist
Browse by Song Title
Browse by Song Year

Featured Courses

Strumming & Rhythm

While your left hand is busy learning chords, your right hand has its own job: creating a sense of rhythm with strumming! This can be tricky at first, but there's so much fun-to-be-had once you get over the hump. Here's a guide to get you started.

17 lessons

View

Fingerstyle & Travis Picking

Dive into the basics of fingerstyle guitar, with plenty of examples of riffs, exercises, and songs that put this technique to use. This includes a healthy serving of Travis Picking lessons, which feature an alternating bass note played with your right thumb.

31 lessons

View

Blues Starter Kit

A guide to must-know elements of beginner blues guitar! I'll walk you through the essential topics, showing you fun things to play along the way.

18 lessons

View

Reading Music for Guitarists

Learn to read tabs, chord charts, fretboard diagrams, strumming patterns, and more! This course explains how to understand all of these must-know notation styles.

6 lessons

View

Learning Lead Guitar

A collection of videos teaching you licks, riffs, solos, and other lead guitar techniques! Includes info on scales, CAGED shapes, and other helpful lead guitar concepts.

24 lessons

View

Beginner Chord Guide

A guide to the must-know chords you'll need when getting started with guitar! The quickest way to learn major chords, minor chords, the chords in each key, and more.

22 lessons

View

Practical Music Theory

A general overview of must-know theory concepts. The goal here is practical, easy-to-understand explanations — all of which provide clarity to your everyday guitar playing.

12 lessons

View

Using a Capo

Capos are incredibly helpful if you want to play along with your favorite artist, change a song's key, adjust things to your vocal range, and so on. In this series of videos I explain all this & more!

8 lessons

View

Fun & Helpful Tools I've Made

Fret Monster

Interactive fretboard map! See the patterns behind every scale in any key.

View

Capo Captain

An easy way to calculate key & chord combinations, for any capo location!

View

Key Master

See and hear the notes, chords, scales used in each of the most common keys.

View

Blank Tabs

Free PDF templates to download, print, and write out your own guitar tabs!

View

Coming soon is Jambox – which shows all the video jam tracks I've made. It's note quite ready for the spotlight, but check it out if you like!

Subscribe to my YouTube channel

Be sure to never miss a lesson by subscribing on YouTube. I put out 2-3 new videos every week. These include full song lessons, as well as covers, practice tips, behind-the-scenes updates. Thanks!

Recent Lessons

  • Dec 20, 2024

    Deck the Halls – Fingerstyle!

    Here's a fingerstyle arrangement of Deck the Halls for you to settle into! This is a fun, relatively short song that you should be able to get up to speed with relatively quickly.

  • Dec 19, 2024

    Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

    Check out this sing-and-strum arrangement I put together! I'll show you how to play this Christmas classic using (mostly) easy chords in the Key of G. Such a fun song to play!

  • December 13, 2024

    Gifted Memberships & Pentatonic Scale Q&A

    For those of you who've wanted to easily gift a Song Notes membership to a friend or family member, you're in luck! Plus, check out two new PDF cheat sheets I made.

  • December 6, 2024

    "Our House" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

    Let's fingerpick this classic from CSNY! While it's originally a piano-driven song, I came up with a easy-going Key of C arrangement I think you'll enjoy.

  • November 28, 2024

    Thanksgiving Roundup: Improved Search, Vidami Coupon Code, and Melody Deep-Dives

    A collection of website & lesson updates from the past couple weeks, including a 20% discount code for Vidami pedals!

  • November 15, 2024

    "Scarlet Begonias" by Grateful Dead

    Let's dive into the 1974 classic from the Dead, with an acoustic-friendly arrangement using Key of G chords! I also show how you can include the catchy riffs wherever they occur, which is great way to channel the full spirit of this song.

  • November 12, 2024

    Does CAGED Help When Learning Songs?

    A quick audience Q&A video, where I talk about how CAGED helps (or does not help) when learning songs. Featuring the main riff from Scarlet Begonias by the Grateful Dead, which I'll be teaching soon!

  • November 8, 2024

    Rhythm Deep Dive: "Guitar Town" by Steve Earle

    Watch the process of me transcribing the rhtyhm of an incredibly tricky song! All shown in real time, in writing. Featuring "Guitar Town" by Steve Earle.

Browse All Recent Lessons →

← back to homepage