Reference guide
Every common guitar technique, how it's written in tab, and how audio2guitar detects it automatically when you upload audio.
All techniques
Bends
A bend is a guitar technique where you push or pull a string sideways across the fret to raise the pitch without moving your finger to a new fret.
Hammer-ons and Pull-offs
Hammer-ons and pull-offs (collectively called 'legato' or 'slurs') let you sound consecutive notes on one string without picking each one, using just the fretting hand.
Palm Muting
Palm muting is a technique where the edge of the picking hand rests lightly on the strings near the bridge, producing the chunky, percussive sound that defines rock and metal rhythm guitar.
Slides
A slide is a guitar technique where you move a fretted finger along the string to a new fret without lifting it, producing a smooth continuous pitch transition.
Vibrato
Vibrato is a small, periodic variation in pitch applied to a sustained note. On guitar it's produced by rapidly bending and releasing the string in small increments.
Tremolo Picking
Tremolo picking is the technique of rapidly alternating downstrokes and upstrokes on a single note or chord to produce a sustained, rapidly-repeating sound.
Sweep Picking
Sweep picking is a guitar technique where you use a single fluid pick motion across multiple strings, sounding each note in sequence with the fretting hand changing between notes.
Tapping
Tapping is a guitar technique where the picking-hand fingers strike notes directly onto the fretboard, allowing wide interval jumps and fast passages that would be impossible with conventional fretting.
Fingerpicking
Fingerpicking uses the picking-hand thumb and fingers to pluck individual strings instead of a pick, allowing simultaneous bass-line and melody-line playing on a single guitar.
Power Chords
A power chord is a two- or three-note chord made of just the root and the perfect fifth (and sometimes the octave). It is the foundational chord shape of rock and metal rhythm guitar.
Pinch Harmonics
A pinch harmonic (sometimes called a squeal) is a guitar technique where the pick and the picking-hand thumb both contact the string at the moment of attack, suppressing the fundamental and emphasizing a high overtone.
Alternate Picking
Alternate picking is a picking-hand technique where downstrokes and upstrokes strictly alternate, allowing fast and even single-note runs across one or more strings.
Technique #1
A bend is a guitar technique where you push or pull a string sideways across the fret to raise the pitch without moving your finger to a new fret.
Bends are how guitar produces the expressive vocal-like quality that defines blues, rock, and country lead playing. A full-step bend raises the pitch by two frets worth of pitch, a half-step bend by one, and a quarter-step bend produces the bluesy in-between notes that don't exist on a piano. Bend amount, attack speed, and release timing all carry musical meaning and are part of what makes one player's vibrato and bending sound different from another's.
In standard guitar tab, bends are written with a 'b' or an upward arrow after the fret number, often with the target pitch in parentheses: 7b9 means bend the 7th fret note up to sound the same as the 9th fret. Half bends use 'b' alone; full bends are sometimes written 'bf'; pre-bends start with the string already bent then attacked.
Bend detection requires per-frame pitch tracking, not just note onset detection. The audio2guitar pipeline tracks instantaneous fundamental frequency through each sustained note and identifies bends when the pitch drifts smoothly above the resting frequency. Bend amount is computed in cents and snapped to the nearest quarter, half, or whole step.
Will the tab show how much I should bend?
Yes. The tab marks the bend amount (half-step, full-step, or 1.5 step) and indicates whether the bend is held, released, or pre-bent.
Technique #2
Hammer-ons and pull-offs (collectively called 'legato' or 'slurs') let you sound consecutive notes on one string without picking each one, using just the fretting hand.
A hammer-on adds a note by sharply pressing a higher fret onto an already-ringing string. A pull-off removes the fretting finger to expose a lower note on the same string. Together they produce smooth, fluid passages that would sound choppy if every note were picked. Legato runs are central to rock and blues soloing, fingerstyle ornamentation, and Celtic and folk styles.
Tab notation uses 'h' between fret numbers for hammer-ons and 'p' for pull-offs. A slur arc above or below the numbers is also common. Example: 5h7p5 means pick the 5th fret, hammer-on to 7, pull-off back to 5, all on one pick stroke.
The transcription pipeline detects legato by identifying note transitions with attack amplitudes below the picked-note threshold. When two consecutive notes on the same string share a single picking transient, the second is labeled as a hammer-on or pull-off depending on whether the pitch ascends or descends.
How does the tab know whether a note was picked or hammered?
The pipeline compares the attack envelope of each note. Hammer-ons and pull-offs have softer, faster attacks than picked notes. Threshold tuning is genre-aware.
Technique #3
Palm muting is a technique where the edge of the picking hand rests lightly on the strings near the bridge, producing the chunky, percussive sound that defines rock and metal rhythm guitar.
Palm muting shortens the natural sustain of each note and emphasizes the attack. It is most recognizable on power chords in punk, hardcore, and metal, but is also used in funk, country, and pop guitar for rhythmic effect. The depth of the mute (how much hand pressure is applied) varies the sound from a tight chug to a fully damped click.
Tab notation marks palm-muted passages with a 'PM' above the staff, often followed by a dotted line spanning the muted region. Some tab editors use a 'M' or a bracket notation instead.
Palm-muted notes have a shorter sustain envelope and a brighter, more transient-dominant spectral profile than open notes. The pipeline detects palm muting by analyzing the decay rate and harmonic content of each sustained note and marking regions where the decay is significantly faster than expected for the inferred string.
Will the tab show how heavy the palm mute is?
The pipeline distinguishes light palm muting from full mutes when the decay envelope difference is clear, but does not currently grade depth on a continuous scale.
Technique #4
A slide is a guitar technique where you move a fretted finger along the string to a new fret without lifting it, producing a smooth continuous pitch transition.
Slides come in two main flavors: legato slides (where only the first note is picked) and shift slides (where both notes are picked, with the slide between them). They're foundational in blues, rock, country, and slide-guitar styles where the player uses a glass or metal slide bar instead of the bare finger. Slide direction (up or down) and slide length carry expressive content.
Tab notation uses '/' for an ascending slide and '\' for a descending slide between fret numbers. Example: 5/7 means slide from the 5th fret up to the 7th. A line without a leading pick indicates a legato slide; a separately-picked note before the slide indicates a shift slide.
The pipeline detects slides by tracking continuous pitch changes that span more than a quarter-step over a smooth trajectory, with no intermediate picking transients. Slide direction is inferred from the pitch slope; slide endpoints are snapped to the nearest fret.
Are slide-guitar (bottleneck) recordings handled differently?
Yes. The pipeline recognizes when an entire passage uses sliding rather than fretted notes, and adjusts the fingering suggestions accordingly.
Technique #5
Vibrato is a small, periodic variation in pitch applied to a sustained note. On guitar it's produced by rapidly bending and releasing the string in small increments.
Vibrato is one of the most personal expressive choices a guitarist makes. Two players can play the same note with very different vibrato width (how far above and below the resting pitch the note travels) and speed. Wide, slow vibrato is associated with blues and classic rock; tight, fast vibrato is common in shred and metal. Some players add vibrato to almost every sustained note; others use it sparingly for emphasis.
Tab notation shows vibrato with a wavy line (~~~) above the fret number for the duration of the vibrato. Some systems mark width as 'wide vib.' or with a labeled bracket.
The pipeline detects vibrato by analyzing periodic pitch oscillation around a sustained fundamental. Vibrato is marked when the oscillation amplitude and frequency fall within the typical guitar range (roughly 5-10 Hz oscillation, ±20-50 cents).
Will the tab show vibrato width or speed?
Vibrato is marked as present or absent on each sustained note. Width and speed annotation is a future improvement; the wavy-line notation in the rendered tab follows standard convention.
Technique #6
Tremolo picking is the technique of rapidly alternating downstrokes and upstrokes on a single note or chord to produce a sustained, rapidly-repeating sound.
Tremolo picking is heard in surf rock, metal (especially black and death metal), classical mandolin and bouzouki crossover styles, and ambient guitar work where it creates sustained, droning textures. The picking speed typically ranges from 8 to 16 notes per beat depending on tempo, and the technique requires forearm relaxation and a controlled wrist motion to sustain for more than a few bars.
Tab notation uses three slashes through the note stem to indicate tremolo picking (in standard notation) or 'trem.' written above the tab measure. Some tab editors also use a wavy line distinct from the vibrato line.
The pipeline detects tremolo picking by identifying sustained sequences of repeated identical notes with attack rates above the threshold for normal picking (typically 12+ notes per second on a single pitch). The detection avoids false positives from genuine tremolo machine effects by analyzing the attack-envelope shape.
Is tremolo picking shown as individual notes or as a single sustained note?
The tab shows it as a single notated note with the tremolo marker, not as dozens of duplicated note heads. This matches standard tab convention and stays readable.
Technique #7
Sweep picking is a guitar technique where you use a single fluid pick motion across multiple strings, sounding each note in sequence with the fretting hand changing between notes.
Sweep picking lets guitarists play fast arpeggios that would be impossible at the same tempo using alternate picking. It is a defining feature of neoclassical metal, shred guitar, and progressive rock. The technique requires precise synchronization between picking and fretting hands so that each string sounds individually rather than as a strummed chord.
Tab notation marks sweep-picked passages with a curved arrow indicating the sweep direction, or with 'sw.' or 'sweep' written above the affected notes. The notes themselves appear as a standard arpeggio sequence with the sweep indicator separating them from normal alternate picking.
Sweep picking produces a characteristic attack pattern: consecutive notes on different strings with very tight inter-onset intervals and unified pick direction. The pipeline identifies these patterns by analyzing both timing and per-string attack envelopes.
How does sweep picking show up differently from arpeggios?
An arpeggio is a chord played one note at a time. Sweep picking is one execution method for arpeggios that uses a single pick motion. The tab shows the arpeggio shape and adds a sweep marker when the timing and pick direction indicate it.
Technique #8
Tapping is a guitar technique where the picking-hand fingers strike notes directly onto the fretboard, allowing wide interval jumps and fast passages that would be impossible with conventional fretting.
Tapping became widely associated with rock guitar in the late 1970s and is now a standard part of rock, metal, and progressive guitar vocabulary. Two-hand tapping combines hammer-ons, pull-offs, and tapped notes from the picking hand to produce flowing patterns across the fretboard. Some players tap with one finger; others use multiple picking-hand fingers for chord-like tapping.
Tab notation uses 't' or '+' to mark tapped notes, often combined with 'h' and 'p' for the legato passages between taps. A common pattern looks like: t12 p5 h7 — tap the 12th fret, pull off to 5, hammer back to 7.
Tapped notes have a distinct attack envelope: the strike is more percussive and shorter than a hammer-on, with a sharper transient. The pipeline identifies tapping by combining this envelope signature with the typical patterns (large interval jumps, repeated tap-pull-hammer sequences) seen in tap-heavy passages.
Will the tab show which hand is doing each tap?
Tap notation marks tapped notes but does not currently distinguish picking-hand taps from fretting-hand taps. Most tablature conventions assume taps are picking-hand and hammers/pulls are fretting-hand.
Technique #9
Fingerpicking uses the picking-hand thumb and fingers to pluck individual strings instead of a pick, allowing simultaneous bass-line and melody-line playing on a single guitar.
Fingerpicking patterns are central to folk, country, blues, classical guitar, and acoustic singer-songwriter styles. Travis picking (alternating bass with treble melody) and clawhammer are the most common patterns in American folk. Classical fingerstyle uses the thumb (p), index (i), middle (m), and ring (a) fingers in named patterns. Modern percussive fingerstyle adds tapping the guitar body for rhythm.
Tab notation shows fingerpicking as separate note stems on different strings played simultaneously or in tight sequence. Picking-hand fingering letters (p, i, m, a) may appear above the tab to indicate which finger plucks each note.
Fingerpicked passages produce simultaneous attacks across multiple strings with timing offsets too tight to be flat-picked. The pipeline detects fingerpicking when multiple voices are sustained independently and the attack envelopes match finger-pluck (not pick) characteristics.
Will the tab tell me what fingerpicking pattern to use?
The tab shows which strings are played and when. The pattern (Travis, clawhammer, classical, hybrid) is implicit in the notation and recognizable to anyone familiar with fingerstyle conventions.
Technique #10
A power chord is a two- or three-note chord made of just the root and the perfect fifth (and sometimes the octave). It is the foundational chord shape of rock and metal rhythm guitar.
Power chords contain neither the major third nor the minor third, which is what gives them their tonal ambiguity and their tolerance for distortion. With heavy distortion, regular major or minor chords sound muddy because of intermodulation between the third and other notes. Power chords stay clear at any gain level, which is why distorted rock and metal rhythm guitar uses them almost exclusively.
Power chords are written either as a chord name with a '5' suffix (E5, A5, D5) or shown directly in tab as the root note and the fifth two frets and one string higher. Example: an E5 power chord at the 7th fret is 7th fret on the A string + 9th fret on the D string + (optionally) 9th fret on the G string.
Power chords have a characteristic spectral signature: strong root and fifth peaks with no detectable third. The chord recognition model distinguishes power chords (E5) from full major (E) and minor (Em) chords by analyzing the harmonic content above the fundamentals.
Will the tab show full open chords when only power chord shapes were played?
No. The chord recognition labels each chord based on the actual notes detected. If only root and fifth are present, the chord is labeled as a power chord, not a major or minor.
Technique #11
A pinch harmonic (sometimes called a squeal) is a guitar technique where the pick and the picking-hand thumb both contact the string at the moment of attack, suppressing the fundamental and emphasizing a high overtone.
Pinch harmonics are a signature sound in metal and hard rock soloing. The harmonic note that sounds is determined by where along the string the pinch occurs, so the same fretted note can produce different pinch harmonics depending on picking-hand position. Players use this as an expressive accent on long held notes or on the peak of a phrase.
Pinch harmonics are notated with 'P.H.' above the affected note in tab. Sometimes the resulting harmonic pitch is written in parentheses as the actual sounding note.
Pinch harmonics shift the perceived pitch upward by a fixed interval (an octave plus a fifth or a fourth, depending on pick position) while suppressing the fundamental. The pipeline detects pinch harmonics by identifying notes where the fundamental is unusually weak relative to the overtone series and the upper harmonic dominates.
Will the tab show the pitch I should sound, or the fret I should hold?
The tab shows the fretted fret with the P.H. marker. The actual sounding pitch is implied by the technique and is usually higher than the fret would suggest.
Technique #12
Alternate picking is a picking-hand technique where downstrokes and upstrokes strictly alternate, allowing fast and even single-note runs across one or more strings.
Alternate picking is the default picking pattern for most lead guitar styles. It gives even attack volume across all notes in a run, which matters for clarity at high tempos. Players develop alternate picking as a baseline technique and then layer other styles (economy picking, sweep picking, hybrid picking) on top of it for specific musical situations.
Tab notation may include pick-direction symbols above the staff: a down-bracket ⊓ for downstrokes and a v for upstrokes. In most tabs the alternation is implicit and not explicitly marked.
Alternate picking patterns produce slight but consistent timing asymmetries between consecutive notes because of the time it takes the pick to return for the next stroke. The pipeline does not currently mark alternate-picking as a distinct annotation; instead, notes are written as picked notes by default and only explicitly annotated when a non-alternate technique (legato, sweep, tap) is detected.
Will the tab show pick direction for every note?
By convention, no. Pick direction is left to the player unless a specific non-default pattern (sweep, downstroke-only) is detected.
See also: glossary · how to read guitar tabs · Suno, Udio, and Google Flow landing pages.