Question

I am new to this sight and know verry little about guitar tab. I looked at the songs and the tab above the song makes no sence to me. It is not the shape of the cord, Is a picking pattern or what. and what does the r in the gold circle stand for?

found out what the r was but still need explanation on the tab part

Hi, this is Paerdeveygh from the Netherlands (Europe). The horizontal lines represent the strings on the guitar, the bottomline being the thickest string (E) and the one one top the thinnest (E), (if you are left handed it works the other way round). The numbers on the lines mean what fret you should put your finger on. For example a number 3 on the top line means that it is the third fret on the first string (note:g). A zero on a line represents an open string. The rhytm is not marked here on the tabs here on this site, but it is normally inndicated by means of bars and sticks under the numbers. The "r" stands indead for root as you probably found out already.

Oh jeah, an "x" means: don't play that string!

...And if the numbers on the lines are written all on top of each other, it means you should play them all at the same time as a chord,

G major chord..
e|3
D|0
G|0
D|0
A|2
E|3

G major scale
e|-------------------
D|-------------------
G|--------------------
D|-----------2-4-5---
A|----2-3-5-----------
E|3-5------------------

see.. the chord is a group of notes played together ("on top of each other" .. verticly alligned) and the scale is played one note after another.. hence the spaceing.

all the scales here are shown in the same position ive shown, but theyre also shown on a fretboard, which just shows you all the notes and where they are.. for this you just read down the frets starting on E or as close to it as possible.