History of Praise and  Worship TABS

F or those who would like to know how we got Praise and Worship TABS, here's a brief history. Tablature has been around for hundreds of years. It was a popular form of notation during the Middle, Renaisance and Baroque Ages. Click here for a brief history of Praise and Worship TABS.

How to read Praise and Worship TABS

A s shown in the diagram below, tablature has six lines. Each line represents one string. The top string represents the first string on the guitar. The bottom string represents the 6th string. For a bass guitar, the praise and worship TABS would have just four lines, representing the four strings.

T he frets for praise and worship tabs are represented with numbers. 0 is no fret, or the open string. 1 is the first fret, 2 is the second fret, etc.

E- - - - - -3- 3 - 5- 5- -3 - - -
B- -1- 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - -
G- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
D- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
E- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

D o you recognize this tune? It starts on the second string, first fret. Play it twice than jump up to the first string, third fret. Like a book, tablature reads from right to left. This first example was a single note melody. For chords, you just stack the numbers.

Do you recognize this chord? It's a D chord, a common one in praise and worship tabs.

There are other symbols that you could encounter in praise and worship tab. Two are the hammer on, h, and pull off, p. These are both made with the left hand, or hand holding down the strings.

A hammer on is when you pluck the initial note with your left hand, but make the next note sound by hammering on it with a finger from your left hand. Here's a blues scale with hammer ons.

BLUES SCALE...

E- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0h3- - - - -
B- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -0h3- - - - - - - -
G- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0h2- - - - - - - - - - - - -
D- - - - - - - - - - - -0h2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A- - - - - - -0h2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
E- - 0h3- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Pluck the 6th string open, then with all your strength hammer it with the 3rd finger of your left hand, hit the third fret, etc.

Pull offs are just the reverse. Again plug the note using your right hand, but then plug it with the finger you're using to hold the note, on the left hand. You'll see both these symbols in praise and worship tabs.

Here's that scale in reverse, using pull offs.

E- - 3p0- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
B- - - - - - 3p0- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
G- - - - - - - - - - - 2p0- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
D- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -2p0 - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2p0- - - - - - - - -
E- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 3p0- - - -

Bends, b, and returns, r, work best on electric guitars. If you see, for example 11b13. That means to pluck the 11th fret, then bend it to the pitch that would sound on the 13th fret. That's easy on electric guitars because the strings are so thin. Not as easy on higher tension acoustic guitar strings. The r stand for releasing the bend.

Slides are written with either an s or a slash, / or \\\\. A slide is again where  you pluck the first note with your right hand, but get to the next note by  keeping the weight down with your left hand and literally sliding it to the next  note. You'll hear all the notes between them. 5/8 would mean to pluck the 5th  fret, then slide up to the 8th fret with the finger holding the string down.

A v stands for vibrato, shaking the note with your left hand. A t stands for tap.  You tap with the strumming hand. And the x stands for a muted string.

Resources for Praise and Worship Tabs

T ablature is a system of notating music as described above. In modern usage, people will often refer to songs with chords at tablature. There is a blending of praise and worship tabs with praise and worship chords. That said...here are praise and worship tabs links.

Christian Guitar Network This site was originally called Jars of Christian Guitar Tabs. Now the site is a complete archive with praise and worship tabs from different archives on the web. There are over 100 praise and worship tabs and lessons done personally by Brian Germer that are exclusive to this site.

Christian Guitar The largest resource for praise and worship tabs. You  can find 7,416 guitar tabs here. Because of copyright laws, they had to remove  most of the lyrics of the songs, but you can still see the chord progressions.  There are also praise and worship tabs for the bass guitar

Christian Praise Tabs and Music This is home to over 300 Christian praise and worship tabs, matching standardized overheads, powerpoint slides for your projector. Very nice site!