Learning a Whole Song

When to read this: after Session 5, “The Song Map” (5 minutes); after Session 27, “What You Need”, “Rule 3: The Screening Step”, “Rule 4: Make the Song Map”, “Rule 5: Choose the Day’s Section and Count Its Loads”, “Rule 6: Practise the Day’s Section”, “Rule 7: The Tempo Ladder”, “Rule 8: When the Song Has Been Through the Row” (30 minutes); after Session 27, “A Worked Example: A Made-Up Chart” (15 minutes). None of this reading is part of a session’s 50 minutes.

What You’ll Learn

This handout says how you learn a whole song. You read it in parts, as the sessions send you to them.

Session 5 sends you to “The Song Map”: what a song map is, how you make one for a tune and how you check it.
Session 27 sends you to the rest: the whole method for a song of your own, rule by rule, with its worked example. In that session you read “Rule 1: Choose the Chart” and “Rule 2: Read Four Things on the Chart” with this handout open, and use parts of the other sections; those are read whole in the session’s two readings after it.

The sections from the heading “What You Need” onwards are not used before Session 27.

The Song Map

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)

A map of a tune is made in three steps:

List the sections in the order they are played.
Beside each, write its number of measures, counted on the page.
Add them up and write the total.

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)

Count a repeated passage as often as it is played, and each ending once.

The example is the map you made in Session 5 of that session’s tune, “Amazing Grace”. It stands in Session 5, “How to Learn This Tune”, and is not printed again here.

To check a map of a tune, count the measures of each section on the page a second time and compare with the map. Pass: the 2 counts of every section are the same and add up to the map’s total. If not: make the map again by its three steps. For “Amazing Grace” this check is self-check question 4 of Session 5.

For a song, the map also gives the tuning, the key and the capo fret: Session 7 takes this up.

What You Need

What follows is the method for a song of your own choice, from a published chart you own: eight rules, for the row “A song of your own” of the week’s practice plan, 5 minutes a day in the weeks of Sessions 27 to 32; nothing of your song is printed in this handout, and you make nothing up.

You need: one published chart of a song, which you own; the song’s recording; this course’s chord chart (Chord Chart); your capo, tuner and metronome; your phone, to record a run; a pencil and a sheet of paper for the song map.

Rule 1: Choose the Chart

Rule 1. Choose the chart, and a second one if you can. A published chart is “a chord chart of a song made by someone other than this course, such as a page of a songbook you own”. Use a page of a printed or bought songbook if you have one. A chart posted by a user of a website is the weakest kind and may be wrong.

The chart must show measures. Choose a chart that shows measures: boxes or bar lines. A sheet of words with chord names above them can be mapped by rule 4 and no more: the song waits for a chart with measures.
The chart must print its time signature, and it must be one this course uses: 4/4, 3/4, 2/4 or 6/8. Rules 5 to 7 need it. If the chart prints none, or another one, the song waits for a chart that prints one of these four.
A second chart. If you can get a second chart of the same song from another maker, compare the two section by section and keep only what both give: a section whose chords or their order differ between the two charts waits. Two pages with the same layout, or the same mistake, or the same words: count them as one. Charts in different keys cannot be compared here, and neither can a chart with a capo line and a chart without one: use one of them and write “one chart, not compared”.
With one chart only, write “one chart, not compared” at the top of your map.

Rule 2: Read Four Things on the Chart

Rule 2. Read four things on the chart before you play: how it is tuned, its key, its capo line and the names of its sections. Write the first three at the top of a new sheet: that sheet becomes your song map.

Tuning. Standard tuning (E A D G B E), or no tuning named: go on. Every string lowered by the same amount (“tune down a half step”, “tune down a whole step”): stay in standard tuning and go on; the shapes are the same, but “The recording is tuned lower than your guitar, so you cannot play along with it.” Any other tuning (one string changed, or an open tuning): the song waits. This course never retunes.
Key. Copy it as the chart prints it. If the chart prints none, write “key not stated on the chart”; do not guess.
Capo line. If the chart has one, put your capo where it says: the chord names on such a chart are the names of shapes, and you screen them as they are printed. In this course a capo goes no higher than fret 4: if the line names fret 5 or higher, the song waits.
Section names. Read them as the chart prints them: rule 4 writes them on the map, under the time signature, in the order they are played. If the chart names none, number its blocks of lines in the order they are printed, “Part 1”, “Part 2” and so on: a block ends where the chart leaves an empty line. With no empty line, the whole chart is “Part 1”.
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)
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)

Rule 3: The Screening Step

Rule 3. The screening step. Write down every different chord name on the chart, once each. A box that holds something other than chord names (the letters N.C., a sign such as %, a line of TAB, or nothing) is not screened: the section it stands in waits. First read each name as this course writes it:

A published chart does not use this course’s words in brackets: read F as F (simplified) and Bm as Bm (four strings).
A name that is a letter, with its sharp or flat, and a 5 and nothing more (G5, C#5, Eb5) is a power chord: find it in the table “Power chords by root”. It counts as a chord of the chord chart, but not on a chart with a capo line: a power chord is never played with a capo, so such a chart waits. For the roots E, A and D you may use the open two-string E5, A5 and D5 of the beginner course in place of the three-string shape.
For a name with a slash (D/F#), drop the slash and what follows it, and screen what is left (D).
Every other name must equal a name in the course’s chord chart letter for letter: Dsus4 is not D, and Em7 is not Em.
With a capo on, a chord that holds a barre does not count as in the chord chart: of the names a published chart prints, that is F and Dm7. This holds for a capo the chart’s own capo line asks for and for a capo that question 2 finds. A barre above a capo is not played.

Then decide for the whole chart. Ask these four questions in this order, and stop at the first one that tells you how to play: the way that asks least of your hand comes first.

Is every chord in the course’s chord chart so far? “So far” means: taught in a session you have finished. On a chart with a capo line, F and Dm7 do not count: they hold a barre. If yes, tick each name and play the chart as it is printed. If your book draws another fingering for a chord you know, keep this course’s shape.
If not: does a capo bring every chord into the chord chart? Ask this only if the chart has no capo line of its own and names no power chord. Try capo fret 1, then 2, then 3, then 4, and no higher. For capo fret N, move the root of every chord on the chart N places down the ladder of the twelve notes (below), keep the rest of each name as it is, and read the new names as above. A fret at which a new name is F or Dm7 does not work: those two hold a barre. At the first fret at which every chord is in the chord chart, stop: write Capo: fret N at the top of your map, write the new names over the old ones, and play the new names as shapes.
If not: replace each chord that is not in the chord chart by the power chord on its root. The root is the letter at the start of the name, with its sharp or flat. Find it in the table “Power chords by root” and write that power chord’s name over the chord; for the roots E, A and D you may write the open E5, A5 or D5 instead, as above. A power chord is never played with a capo, so this question is not for a chart with a capo line. And no power chord may take the place of a chord whose name has dim, aug, +, the degree sign ° or the half-diminished sign ø in it, or has b5, #5 or -5 after a 7 or an m.
If a chord still fails, the song waits. Write its title and the chord that stopped it on a waiting list, and choose another song. No chord a published chart names is taught after Session 27: a song on the list waits until after the course.

The ladder of the twelve notes, upwards (after B it begins again at C): C, C# or Db, D, D# or Eb, E, F, F# or Gb, G, G# or Ab, A, A# or Bb, B. A note with two names is one note: where the table “Power chords by root” uses the other name, look under that one.

The table that this rule names is in Chord Chart, the section “Power chords by root”.

Rule 4: Make the Song Map

Rule 4. Make the song map. A song map is “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.”

Under the three lines of rule 2, write the chart’s time signature. Then list the sections in the order they are played, by the names the chart gives them.
Beside each, write its number of measures, counted on the chart: one box, or the space from one bar line to the next, is one measure, and a repeated passage is counted as often as it is played, each ending once. If the chart has no bar lines, leave the number empty.
Check the map against the recording. Set the metronome to the chart’s tempo and tap eight clicks with the recording. (If the chart prints no tempo, tap eight beats with the recording without the metronome.) Then listen through twice, counting the measures of each section. The map passes when the counts are the same on both of the 2 listens and add up to your map. If the recording is tuned lower, or sounds between two notes, this still works: you are counting, not playing.
Fill the empty numbers from the two listens. A section whose count differs between the two listens is counted a third time, and the number that comes twice is kept; if all three counts differ, count that section again on another day. If the two listens agree with each other and not with the chart, do not choose between them: write both numbers on the map (“chart 8, recording 10”). The map has then not passed. The row goes on all the same: you practise the chart’s sections with the metronome, never with the recording. For the Phase 5 checkpoint you need one map that has passed; it may be of another song.

Rule 5: Choose the Day’s Section and Count Its Loads

Barre work: no more than 5 minutes a day in total. Pain rule: tender fingertips are normal. Pain in the wrist, forearm, thumb joint or knuckles, numbness or tingling, any sharp pain, or pain that lasts into the next day means stop. The full rule is in START HERE.

Three-string power-chord work: no more than 5 minutes a day in total.

Rule 5. Choose the day’s section and count its loads. One section a day. A section longer than 16 measures of 4/4 (24 measures of 3/4, 12 measures of 6/8, 32 measures of 2/4) is cut where lines of the chart end, into parts no longer than that, and each part is a day’s section. Before you play it, count two things in it.

Barre measures. A measure is a barre measure if any chord in it is F (simplified), Dm7, A (four strings) or A (full barre): these four hold a barre and no other chord of the course does. In the weeks of Sessions 27 to 32 the rule is the row’s: a section with any barre measure waits, because the day’s barre minutes are already planned; if every section has one, choose another song for now. A section with a barre in more than half its measures always waits. In place of waiting you may give a barre chord the power chord on its root, from the table “Power chords by root”: its measures are then power-chord measures and are counted as the next line says. (A song played with a capo has no barre chord in it: rule 3 has already made such a song wait, or passed over that fret.)
Three-string power-chord measures. A measure counts if any chord in it is a three-string power chord (F5, Bb5, Ab5, Db5, or one named with its string in brackets). The open E5, A5 and D5 do not count. The week’s other rows already use part of the day’s 5 minutes of three-string power-chord work, so each week has its own sentence, and the row of the week’s plan prints it:

In the week of Session	The row’s sentence	How to check it
27 or 28	”Count the measures of the section that hold a three-string power chord: this week they may be at most 4 in every 5. In a section that holds more, play a three-string power chord in your own song as its root note alone, or let that section wait.”	Multiply the power-chord measures by 5 and the section’s measures by 4. If the first product is the larger, the section holds more
30 or 31	”Count the measures of the section that hold a three-string power chord: this week they may be at most 2 in every 5. In a section that holds more, play a three-string power chord in your own song as its root note alone, or let that section wait.”	Multiply the power-chord measures by 5 and the section’s measures by 2. If the first product is the larger, the section holds more
29 or 32	”This week the section may hold no three-string power chord: play a three-string power chord in your own song as its root note alone, or let that section wait.”	Nothing to multiply: one three-string power chord is already more than the week has room for

In every week the row goes on: “The open E5, A5 and D5 do not count. If no section fits, choose another song for now.” The rule is the same in every week: in a section that holds more three-string power chords than the week has room for, every one of them is played as its root note alone, so that there is nothing to choose; or the section waits for a week in which it fits. The root note is the one note under finger 1: the table “Power chords by root” gives its string and its fret. Play that one note where the chord stands.

After the course the daily limits still hold: all your barre playing in a day stays within 5 minutes, and so does all your three-string power-chord playing.

The pain rule holds in this row as in every other.

Rule 6: Practise the Day’s Section

Rule 6. Practise the day’s section, never a run-through of the song. In the 5 minutes:

One minute: place each chord of the section once, in order, and say its name. No metronome.
Four minutes: play the section in the form rule 7 gives it (the first form, until the section has passed), with one counted measure before each run. Aim at three clean runs in a row.

A run is clean when every note or chord lands on its count, every string that should sound rings, and you do not stop.

A section of 16 measures in 4/4 at 60 BPM, with its counted measure, is 68 beats, 1 minute 8 seconds; three runs are 3 minutes 24 seconds. So a day’s section fits its row at 60 BPM or faster.

In this row you do not play along with the recording. The recording is for listening and for counting; playing along is for after the course.

Rule 7: The Tempo Ladder

Rule 7. The tempo ladder.

The first form: one downstroke on each chord, on the count where the chart puts it, and let it ring. A box with one chord: on count 1. A box with two chords and no counts marked: the second chord comes on count 3 in 4/4, on count 2 in 2/4 and on count 4 in 6/8. A section that has a box with two chords in 3/4, or a box with three chords or more, waits. The metronome at 60: in 4/4, 3/4 and 2/4 it clicks the beat; in 6/8 it clicks eighth notes, one count to a click.
Passed: A section has passed in its first form when you have played three clean runs in a row at 60, recorded the third and heard no late chord.
A step is 5, taken only after three clean runs in a row. In one week, take two steps at most; in a lighter week, one. The first form never goes above 80. In 6/8 it goes to an eighth-note click of 90 at most.
A strumming pattern is added only after the section has passed in its first form. Use a pattern of the table below that a session you have finished has taught, in the song’s own time signature. In a section where a box holds two chords, do not use the D D U U D U pattern: it has no stroke on count 3, where the second chord comes. In the week you add it, start 10 below the figure that pattern has in the table, or at 60 if that is lower, and take no step. With the plain sixteenth-note pattern or the pushed pattern a run is at most the first 8 measures of the day’s section: at their slower start, three longer runs do not fit in the four minutes.
The ceiling: never above the figure the pattern has in the table. The recording’s tempo is never a target.

Pattern	Taught in	For a song in	Its figure: never above	Start, in the week you add it
the D D U U D U pattern	the beginner course	4/4	90 BPM	60
the down-up strum	the beginner course	4/4	80 BPM	60
the waltz strum	the beginner course	3/4	70 BPM	60
the plain sixteenth-note pattern	Session 8	4/4	50 BPM	40
the pushed pattern, on F5, Bb5, Ab5 and Db5 only	Session 29	4/4	45 BPM	35
the 6/8 pattern	Session 26	6/8	an eighth-note click of 90	an eighth-note click of 60

No pattern of the table is in 2/4: a song in 2/4 stays in its first form.

Rule 8: When the Song Has Been Through the Row

Rule 8. When the song has been through the row. When every section that may be played has passed in its first form, write under the map which sections wait and why (a barre chord; no room for three-string power chords; the two charts differ). The song is then ready to be taken further after the course. Keep the map: the Phase 5 checkpoint and the end-of-course assessment ask for it.

A Worked Example: A Made-Up Chart

This chart was made up for this handout; it is not a song, and nobody is asked to learn it: Session 27 plays its verse only on a day when your own chart is not ready. The week of the example is that of Session 27.

Made-up example chart - not a real song

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

Verse, 8 measures:

| C  | Am | C  | G  |
| C  | Am | G  | C  |

Chorus, 8 measures:

| C  | Bb | F  | C  |
| C  | Bb | F  | G  |

Tuning: standard. Order: verse, chorus, verse, chorus.

Rule 1. The chart shows measures, as boxes, and prints its time, 4/4: go on. There is no second chart to compare. The map is headed “one chart, not compared”.

Rule 2. Tuning: the chart says standard: go on. Key: C major, from its key line. Capo line: none. Section names: two, “Verse” and “Chorus”; the chart’s last line gives the order they are played in.

Rule 3, the screening step. Five different chord names: C, Am, G, Bb, F. None is a power chord and none has a slash. F is read as F (simplified).

Chord on the chart	Read as	In the chord chart so far?
C	`C`	yes: the beginner course
Am	`Am`	yes: the beginner course
G	`G`	yes: the beginner course
Bb	`Bb`	no
F	`F (simplified)`	yes: the beginner course

Question 1. Not every chord is in the chord chart: Bb is not. Go on.

Question 2. The chart has no capo line and names no power chord, so the capo is tried, fret by fret. Each name’s root moves that many places down the ladder.

Capo fret	C becomes	Am becomes	G becomes	Bb becomes	F becomes	Every chord in the chord chart?
1	B	G#m	F#	A	E	no: B, G#m and F# are not
2	Bb	Gm	F	Ab	Eb	no: Bb, Gm, Ab and Eb are not, and F holds a barre, which does not count with a capo on
3	A	F#m	E	G	D	no: F#m is not
4	Ab	Fm	Eb	Gb	Db	no: none of the five is

No fret from 1 to 4 works. Go on.

Question 3. No capo. The one chord that is not in the chord chart is Bb. Its root is B flat, and the table “Power chords by root” gives Bb5, finger 1 on string 5 at fret 1. The name Bb has none of the marks that forbid a power chord. Bb5 is written over every Bb.

Question 4 is not needed: no chord fails, and the song does not go on the waiting list.

What is played: C, Am, G, F (simplified) and Bb5, with no capo.

Rule 4, the song map.


Chart	one chart, not compared
Tuning	standard
Key	C major
Capo	none
Time	4/4
Section 1	Verse: 8 measures
Section 2	Chorus: 8 measures
Section 3	Verse: 8 measures
Section 4	Chorus: 8 measures
In all	32 measures

A made-up chart has no recording, so step 3 of rule 4 cannot be done on it. With a song it is done here: eight clicks tapped with the recording, then two listens, counting. The map above would pass if both listens gave the map’s own counts, section by section, and 32 measures in all.

Rule 5, the day’s section and its loads.

The verse. 8 measures of 4/4: not longer than 16, so it is one day’s section. Barre measures: none, because C, Am and G hold no barre. Three-string power-chord measures: none. The verse may be played in every one of the six weeks.
The chorus as it stands. 8 measures: one day’s section. F (simplified) stands in the third box of each of its two lines: 2 barre measures of 8, which is not more than half. But in the weeks of Sessions 27 to 32 a section with any barre measure waits: the chorus waits.
The chorus with a power chord in place of the barre chord. The song has no capo, so F may take the power chord on its root: F5, finger 1 on string 6 at fret 1. Then no measure holds a barre, and the three-string power-chord measures are the second and third boxes of each line (Bb5 and F5): 4 of 8.
- In the weeks of Sessions 27 and 28 (at most 4 in every 5): 4 × 5 = 20 and 8 × 4 = 32. 20 is not the larger: the chorus may be played, with Bb5 and F5.
- In the weeks of Sessions 30 and 31 (at most 2 in every 5): 4 × 5 = 20 and 8 × 2 = 16. 20 is the larger, so the chorus holds more than the week has room for: Bb5 and F5 are each played as the root note alone, B flat on string 5 at fret 1 and F on string 6 at fret 1, or the chorus waits.
- In the weeks of Sessions 29 and 32 no three-string power chord may be played. The rule is the same: each is played as its root note alone, or the chorus waits.

So in the week of Session 27 the verse is one day’s section and the chorus, with Bb5 and F5, the next day’s.

Rule 6, the five minutes, for the verse. One minute: C, Am, C, G, C, Am, G, C, each placed once and named. Four minutes: the 8 measures in the first form with a counted measure before each run. One run is 9 measures, 36 beats, 36 seconds at 60 BPM; three runs are 1 minute 48 seconds.

Rule 7, the ladder, for the verse. First form at 60 BPM, the click on the beat: each box holds one chord, so it is one downstroke on count 1 of each measure. When three runs in a row are clean, the third is recorded; if no chord is late on the recording, the verse has passed. After that the first form may take a step, to 65; the week of Session 27 is a lighter week, so it takes one step at most. Or a pattern is added. The song is in 4/4, and the D D U U D U pattern is the beginner course’s: its figure in the table is 90, 10 below that is 80, and 60 is lower, so it starts at 60 and takes no step that week. In later weeks it climbs by the steps of rule 7 and never goes above 90.

Rule 8. When the verse and the chorus have passed in the first form, this line goes under the map: “Chorus: played with F5 in place of F. With F as printed it waits: a barre chord.” The map is kept.

What rule 3 says for other names

These are names only, from no song.

The chart names	Question 1	Question 2	Question 3	The end
G, C, D, Em	yes			play it as printed
D, D/F#, G, A	yes: D/F# is read as D			play it as printed, with D in place of D/F#
Eb5, Bb5, F5	yes: all three are power chords, found in the table as `Eb5 (string 5)`, `Bb5` and `F5`			play it as printed; every measure is a three-string power-chord measure in rule 5
Bb, Eb, F	no: Bb and Eb are not	capo fret 1: A, D and E, all in the chord chart		`Capo: fret 1`; play A, D and E. No barre and no power chord
Am, Bdim, E	no: Bdim is not	no fret from 1 to 4 works	not allowed for Bdim: its name has `dim`	the song waits
`Capo: fret 2` over G, Cadd9, D	no: Cadd9 is not	not asked: the chart has a capo line	not asked: the chart has a capo line	the song waits
`Capo: fret 2` over Am, F, C, G	no: F holds a barre, and a capo is on	not asked: the chart has a capo line	not asked: the chart has a capo line	the song waits
Ab, Db, Gb	no: none of the three is	capo fret 1 gives G, C and F: F holds a barre, so no; frets 2 and 3 fail; capo fret 4: E, A and D, all in the chord chart		`Capo: fret 4`; play E, A and D. No barre and no power chord

In the fourth line the capo is found before any power chord is thought of: without it the same three chords would be Bb5, Eb5 (string 5) and F (simplified), two three-string power chords and a barre chord. If that chart’s key line says B flat major, the map’s key line with the capo may be written as a capo line’s key line is: Key: A shapes (sounds in B flat).