Reading a Chord Chart

When to read this: after Session 2, “What a Chord Chart Shows”, “Repeat Signs” (5 minutes); after Session 27, “A Published Chart” (5 minutes); after Session 27 (optional), “First and Second Endings”, “The Capo Line”, “Strumming a Chart You Have Not Seen” (10 minutes). None of this reading is part of a session’s 50 minutes.

What You’ll Learn

This handout says how a chord chart is read. You read it in parts, each after the session that sends you to it.

After Session 2: what a chord chart shows, and its repeat signs.
After Session 27: first and second endings, the capo line, what to read on a published chart, and strumming a chart you have not seen.

Every section below ends with the questions for your theory cards.

How a theory card is written is in Seventh Chords, the section “Your First Theory Cards”.

What a Chord Chart Shows

Chord chart — Rows of measures that show which chord to play in each measure of a piece, with a bar line between measures. The reference sheet of chord diagrams has the same name. (Session 2)

Key: G major        Time: 4/4 (four beats in a measure)

Example, 4 measures:

| G  | Em | C  | D  |

The example shows four things:

The Key and Time line stands first: this chart is in G major and in 4/4, four beats in a measure.
The line “Example, 4 measures:” names the section and counts its measures.
Each measure holds one chord name, the chord you play in that measure: G, Em, C, then D.
The upright strokes are the bar lines: one stands between two measures, and one at each end of the row.

Theory cards: two questions. The answer printed after each is the back of its card.

What stands between two bar lines of a chord chart? Answer: One measure, with the chord to play in it.
What does the line directly above a chart’s measures tell you? Answer: The section’s name and its number of measures.

Repeat Signs

Repeat sign — One of the two marks |: and :| in a chord chart, which stand where a bar line would. Play the measures between them twice. (Session 2)

|: opens a repeated passage and :| closes it. The first time you reach :| go back to |: and play the passage once more; the second time, go on.

Copy of Session 2: the repeat-sign example

Key: A major        Time: 4/4 (four beats in a measure)

Example, 4 measures, 8 as played:

|:  A7    |   D7    |   A7    |   E7   :|

In this course’s charts the heading of a repeated passage gives both lengths, as in the example: 4 measures, 8 as played; an unseen chart, in a session or an assessment, gives its written length only.

The pieces of this course write a repeat out in words at the foot of the chart: the signs are taught for reading published charts.

On your guitar: with no metronome, strum the example from the page, one strum to a measure, and count 1 2 3 4 aloud in every measure. That is 8 strums, one for each of the 8 measures as played. No chord in it holds a barre.

Theory cards: two questions. The answer printed after each is the back of its card.

What do the two signs |: and :| tell you to do? Answer: Play the measures between them twice.
How many measures does a four-measure passage between repeat signs last as played? Answer: 8 measures.

First and Second Endings

First ending, second ending — Two different last parts for a repeated passage, marked 1. and 2. directly after the bar line that begins each. The first time, play the first ending and go back to the sign |: and play again; the second time, leave out the first ending and play the second. (Session 5)

1. marks the first ending and 2. the second. The first time through, play the first ending and go back to |:. The second time, leave the first ending out and go straight to 2.

Copy of Session 5: the endings example

Key: G major        Time: 4/4 (four beats in a measure)

Example, 8 measures, 14 as played:

|:  G     |   Em    |   C     |   D7    |
|   G     |   Em    |1. D7   :|2. G     |

An ending runs from its number to the next repeat sign, or to the end of the chart where no repeat sign follows.

In this example each ending is one measure.

Time through	Measures played
First time	Measures 1 to 6 and the first ending (measure 7): G, Em, C, D7, G, Em, D7
Second time	Measures 1 to 6 and the second ending (measure 8): G, Em, C, D7, G, Em, G

That is 7 measures each time through: 14 measures as played.

On your guitar: with no metronome, strum the example from the page, one strum to a measure, counting aloud. On each beat 1, say the number of the measure as played in place of “1”: “1 2 3 4, 2 2 3 4, 3 2 3 4”, and so on to 14. No chord in it holds a barre.

Theory cards: two questions. The answer printed after each is the back of its card.

With a first and a second ending, what do you play the first time through, and what the second time? Answer: The first time, play the first ending and go back to the sign |: and play again; the second time, leave out the first ending and play the second.
Where does an ending begin, and where does it end? Answer: It begins at its number and ends at the next repeat sign, or at the end of the chart where no repeat sign follows.

The Capo Line

Capo line — The line under the title of a chart or TAB that is played with a capo, in the form “Capo: fret N”. The key line under it names the shapes and what they sound as, for example “Key: A shapes (sounds in C sharp)”. (Session 9)
Chord shape and sounding chord — The shape is the finger pattern, named as it is with no capo; the sounding chord is what is heard. With a capo at fret 2 the D shape sounds as E, and the chart still calls it D. (Session 9)

A capo at fret N raises every open string by N half steps. You finger and name each chord as its shape, counting frets from the capo, and it sounds N half steps higher than its name.

A line such as Capo: fret 2 means: put the capo at fret 2 before you play. The chord names in the chart are the names of the shapes you finger; the Key line says what they sound as.

Copy of Session 9: the capo-line example

Capo: fret 2

Key: A shapes (sounds in B)        Time: 4/4 (four beats in a measure)

Example, 4 measures:

| A    | D    | E    | A    |

On a published chart the capo may be written in other words, such as “Capo 2” or “Capo on 2nd fret”: it always means the fret the capo sits at.

Theory cards: two questions. The answer printed after each is the back of its card.

On a chart with a capo line, what are the chord names the names of? Answer: The shapes you finger.
What does a capo at fret 2 do to every open string? Answer: It raises every open string by 2 half steps.

A Published Chart

Published chart — A chord chart of a song made by someone other than this course, such as a page of a songbook you own. Read four things on it before you play: how it is tuned, its key, its capo line and the names of its sections. (Session 27)
Section names — The labels a published chart gives to the parts of a song. Besides intro, verse and chorus you may meet pre-chorus (a short part that leads into the chorus), post-chorus (a short part that follows the chorus), bridge (a part with new music), interlude or instrumental (a part with no singing), solo, and outro (the ending). (Session 27)
Song chart — A chord chart of a song. It gives the chords section by section and may give the order of the sections, the strumming or picking pattern, the tempo, the key and the tuning; it prints no words and no sung melody. (Session 7)
Screening a chart — Checking a published chart before you start to learn its song. Every chord in it must be one this course has taught so far, or be replaced by the power chord on its root, or be reached with a capo; if not, the song waits. (Session 27)
Song map — A written list of the sections of a tune or song in the order they are played, with the number of measures in each. For a song it also gives the tuning, the key and the capo fret. (Session 5)

Find these four things on the page before you play. For the last three, the place given is where this course’s own charts print them.

The tuning: how the chart is tuned.
The key: in the Key line, above the first measures.
The capo line: above the Key line.
The names of the sections: on the line above each section’s measures.

A published chart may print any of the four elsewhere on its page, or leave one out: look for each before you play.

How you learn a song from a published chart is in Learning A Song, with a made-up example chart. This section leads to two sections of that handout: “Rule 2: Read Four Things on the Chart” and “Rule 3: The Screening Step”.

Theory cards: three questions. The answer printed after each is the back of its card.

Which four things do you read on a published chart before you play? Answer: How it is tuned, its key, its capo line and the names of its sections.
What are a pre-chorus, a bridge and an outro? Answer: A pre-chorus is a short part that leads into the chorus; a bridge is a part with new music; an outro is the ending.
What does screening a chart check? Answer: That every chord in it is one this course has taught so far, or can be replaced by the power chord on its root, or can be reached with a capo. If not, the song waits.

Strumming a Chart You Have Not Seen

Unseen — Written music you have not seen before a test: an unseen TAB passage, an unseen chart or unseen staff measures. You study it for 30 seconds and then play it; another name for this is sight-reading. (Session 6)

A measure with one chord:

Strum on beat 1 and let it ring; move during beats 3 and 4.

A measure with two chords, the second on beat 3:

Let each chord ring for one beat and move during the next.

The unseen chart routine: (1) Set the metronome to 65 BPM. (2) Study the chart for 30 seconds without playing: its Key and Time line, each chord, any measure that holds two chords, and any repeat signs or endings. (3) Start the recording. (4) Count one measure aloud. (5) Strum the chart once, to the end, without stopping, one strum on each chord. (6) Follow the recording on the chart and count the chords that do not fall in their measure.

This figure goes up in later weeks: set the figure that the session, the week’s row or the assessment gives for its chart.

The pass mark the routine works towards is that of exit criterion E18: no stop, and every chord falls in its measure, in all 8 measures.

If a note or a chord goes wrong, keep the count and play the next one in time: never go back.

No unseen chart is printed in this handout. The charts are in the sessions and assessments that test them, so that you see each one for the first time there.

Theory cards: one question. The answer printed after it is the back of its card.

What do you look at in the 30 seconds before you strum an unseen chart? Answer: Its Key and Time line, each chord, any measure that holds two chords, and any repeat signs or endings.