That, probably, is the exact rationale behind the invention of guitar tablatures, more commonly known as guitar tabs. Before, if you did not study music, it would be extra difficult for you to learn a song as you may need to listen over and over again to the tune and try to imitate it based on your own knowledge on how each string sounds like. It could have been a long process. Worse, guitarists who did not have formal music education would not have the capability to record their compositions in written form for others to be played. In that case, you have to listen and imitate ad nauseam. How exhausting can that get?

Thank guitar gods for guitar tabs! Guitarists and wanna-bes alike now have a method to share, teach and learn how to play music even if you don’t know how to read standard notes. For those who are new with guitars, guitar tabs would make it easy for you to start learning a few chords and play those "Living on a Jet Plane" in an instant.

Guitar tabs are also useful with advance guitarists and composers as it is the simplest and easiest way to write and share your output. The major downside, however, is the fact that only guitarists would know how to read guitar tabs. So if you want to share your composition with your band’s pianist, you might experience something like a language barrier. Fortunately, it would be a rare case to meet a pianist or any other musician who does not know how to read guitar tabs. It has become widely used nowadays when musicians are starting to learn how to play their instruments on their own.

Another flaw of guitar tabs is the fact that it would be hard to notate the rhythm. The reason is that tablatures are usually customized so each and every guitar tab writer has their own way to write their tablature. It can be solved by providing legends to help out the reader but it would look a little cumbersome for most. That is why, most self-taught guitarists never underestimate the power of listening to the music while reading guitar tabs. That is the best way to make sure that you are playing the song the right way.