Manual Introduction

Chord sheets

by FireFlyFlo.fr

Introduction

The most popular way to write song sheets for guitarists is to display the lyrics and place each chord right above the syllable where the chord change happens.

You can find literally any song written that way on ultimate-guitar.com or somewhere else in the internet.

Ultimate Guitar employs this "chords over lyrics" two-line format, where chords are written on a line above the corresponding lyrics.

While this is a very compact and well approved format it has some downsides as well.

Here are a few points to consider:

  • It is usually very small and difficult to read on small screens.
  • It makes simple songs too complicated, as the same chord progression is often repeated over and over again.
  • There is no clear visual hierarchy.
  • The arrangement of the song is difficult to decipher because it is overloaded with lyrics.
  • There are no bars.
  • Split bar changes are difficult to recognize.
  • It is of little use to musicians other than guitarists; consider drummers: “How many bars are there in the verse?”

This is not meant as a rant against UG; I often use it myself as my first port of call when creating charts for new songs. And I appreciate the effort and amount of work that people put into it.

But it doesn't work well for me, which is why I created this website.

My two most important requirements are that I need large letters and that I need four bars in a row.

Chords Only

Personally, I prefer to write the lyrics on one sheet and the chord progression on another.

The purpose of such a chord sheet is to quickly recognize and understand the underlying structure and arrangement of a song. Most songs are built with a common set of similar building blocks. These blocks typically consist of 4, 8 or 16 bars.

On a chart it is a common practice to have 4 bars in a row.

Example

Practice Lyrics And Chord Changes

If you want to actually perform a song it is absolutely mandatory that you know the lyrics, the melody and the chord changes.

Listen to the original song to learn the melody.

With the lyrics only sheet you play the changes by heart and read the lyrics.

With the chords only sheet you sing the lyrics by heart and read the changes.

Eventually you want to be able to play a song with no sheet at all.

Create a chordsheet for a song

The quick way

But be aware:

There is no easy way to any place worth going!

If you're in a hurry or are content to be a bedroom guitarist, which is perfectly fine, then simply obtain an existing chart from the most popular source, namely Ultimate Guitar.

I usually follow these steps to convert it in a propper chord chart.

  • Copy the two-row format from UG or similar
  • Paste it in the chords field of the form "Simple Edit"
  • Paste it in the lyrics field of the form "Lyrics Edit"
  • In the "Simple Edit" delete the lines with lyrics to just keep the chord letters.
  • In the "Lyrics Edit" delete the chords and keep only the lyrics. (Or it is often easier to obtain the lyrics from another source on the Internet.)
  • In the "Simple Edit" clean up the mess, add section titles, add repeats and simile symbols etc
  • Use the settings to polish up and fine-tune

The recommended way

How to create a chordsheet for a cover song.

In most cases there will be a video on YouTube which you can use as reference.

So start the new chart by just adding the title, artist and YouTube Link (or id) in the "Advanced Edit"

Step 1

Identify the parts of the song

Listen to the song and try to identify the parts of the song.

Usually you will find these:

  • Intro
  • Verse
  • Prechorus
  • Chorus
  • Bridge
  • Solo, often played on the chorus progression
  • Outro

Many popular songs follow this structure:

  • Intro
  • Verse
  • Verse
  • Prechorus
  • Chorus
  • Verse
  • Prechorus
  • Chorus
  • Bridge
  • Chorus (often played twice)
  • Outro

Here are a few practices that are quite common in arrangements:

  • At the beginning there is often a double verse.
  • The intro will often be repeated before the next verse, or somewhere else in the song as an interlude.
  • At the end of the song there is often a doubled chorus.
  • The chorus part could be raised by a semitone or a whole tone to emphasize the climax.
  • A solo will be played over the verse part.
  • A solo will be played over the chorus part.
  • Sometimes an instrumental solo will be played over just a half of the verse or chorus progression, then the vocals will kick in, or take over.
  • Quite a lot songs use the very same chord progression for the verses and the chorus.
  • The bridge introduces other musical ideas as contrast, before leading into the final (double) chorus.
  • There might be an extra bar at the end of a verse or chorus to break out of the 4-bar pattern.
  • There might be shorter bars by switching to a 2:4 or 3:4 time signature just for one bar.

Step 2

Write down the song parts.

Once you understood the elements of the arrangement you can easily just write them down as section titles.

Step 3

Recognize chord progressions - by ear.

This is a skill that every musician should practice.

It may seem impossible at first, but it gets easier with time.

Unfortunately, this is one of those basic skills that you can't just buy. Just like learning an instrument.
You need patience and a little ambition.

Here are a few general tips:

  • Use the bass as a guide; in the simplest case, it always plays the root notes.
  • But sometimes a chord is played with a different bass note. As an inversion or simply as a passing tone.
  • Depending on the genre, certain keys are used more frequently.
  • Rock bands are more likely to use guitar-friendly chords.
  • Jazz standards often use keys with flats.
  • Piano players can easily stack chords, so they may not be as easy to hear.
  • Learn some basics of music theory. You should at least know about diatonic chords, inversions, and dominants.
  • It is particularly common for rock bands to tune their instruments down a semitone. Sometimes this is only done for live recordings. This makes it easier for the singer and achieves a fuller sound.
  • Some recordings are not tuned to 440 Hz.

And most importantly: You can't go wrong with this; doing it is crucial. The only mistake is not trying in the first place.

It is perfectly acceptable to compare your incomplete results with an existing chord chart.
This will enable you to fill in some gaps and correct the parts that you were unable to figure out yourself.

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