That particular link is horrible for showing anybody to read anything. It is misleading in how to read tabs "Dashes mean more time, more dashes more pause", and downplays the importance and great faculty of being able to read standard music notation "Standard musical notation will get you somewhere if you are classically trained but it is a pain to read."
The first point is totally ridiculous. How are you supposed to judge how much time a dash is? And does that "time" apply to extending the note or to extending a rest? Like I said, ridiculous.
Second point, standard musical notation wont get you somewhere in music, it will get you anywhere and everywhere. Being able to read a score is one of the best ways of becoming a musician. I say one of the best because my grandfather learned to play classical guitar COMPLETELY BY EAR.
My grandfather is the man on the far left. Musical notation may have helped him become even better than he already was, but tabs would not have helped him.
This is not to discredit tabs however. A well made tab is really helpful, and the “Blues You Can Use” series is a testament to that. But tabs are not really necessary as shown in some of the exercises from “A Modern Method for Guitar” books 1, 2 and 3; and in some of the exercises from “The Christopher Parkening Guitar Method” books 1 and 2.
Both of these books are read in standard notation, but have position marks and different notations to show what fingerings to use and on what strings to use them.
