Hello all - Iām finishing up Beginner 2 and would like to begin using chord charts with lyrics. Any suggestions for this, particularly when the printed chart doesnāt give the strum pattern, measures, or beats per minute?
Thanks!
Doug C.
2 Likes
Doug @DougC_Prov356
Good question, I raised a similar point about non Justin material Making sense of basic Chord Sheets
Justin with his song lessons and app gives what you need. The problem I found was that a lot of other sources is that they only show when the chord changes, not the bars between. Strumming patterns seem to be only occasionally given. I suppose it is a bit like Justinās song lessons where he gives different patterns depending on your ability. In terms of tempo there are sites that give this for most songs.
I am currently having a try with Ultimate Guitar for the songs that Justin has not done (yet)
It will be interesting to see what others have to say.
.Michael 
Ultimate guitar is my go to for chord sheets and as youāve found many are not as nice as Justinās own books/chord sheets in giving you everything you need (some might not even be that good).
Personally I think itās part of the learning process to start figuring some of these things outā¦so when that chord changes (and whether itās 1, 2 or 3 bars of music) you should be able to work out by listening to the songā¦similarly from a BPM perspective you can listen to the original OR just google song title and BPM to find it. Most of all listen to the song and use your ears to tell you what sounds right.
Youtube is another great resource for tutorials on songs or just watching how others play them. Particularly useful if you are looking for ideas for strumming patterns etc.
5 Likes
i regularly grab song sheets from ultimate guitar. Itās a great resource. The quality of the song sheets varies greatly. Iāve had a small number that are dead wrong. One of them had a chord typo (should have been a D/F# and instead was showing as F#/D).
Often it wonāt tell you how many bars/measures a chord is played for and often the position of where the chord change is made is out.
Donāt let that discourage you, just treat the song sheets as suggestions. Itās useful looking at multiple versions of the song sheet for the same song as youāll often get ideas on how to embellish or simplify the song.
@tony
Tony
You are quite right music should not really be mechanical, it should have feeling. I think my training as an engineer makes me used to have everything set out, need break out from that I think.
Michael 
I come from a software engineering background. And often when I ask others what a particular strumming pattern is they say they donāt know, they worked it out by the feel of it. That has never worked for me. I need to know how itās set out and the feel comes for me later. We all learn in different ways and that changes over time.
2 Likes
Thanks everyone! Iāve joined Ultimate guitar as well. It sounds like Iām on the right track. Just need to get out of my own head. I fight engineering think as wellš.
1 Like
This is because you are use your eyes to learn music not your ears. Justin say it over and over you need to listen to a song at least 5 times in a row
Hereās a great video about mind full listening
4 Likes
This is very true, but, we also need to be a bit self-indulgent here, as we are all very different and what I can say for myself is that one also needs to grow confident in his/her earsā ability and that for me it was very difficult at the beginning. I learnt to use my ears and that was the direct consequence of hours of practice on Justinās Rhythm Book, just tapping Rhythms on the table along with the metronome and following the booksā exercises.
Iāll never emphasize enough how beneficial that has been for meā¦from that point on my listening started being really mindful, I could connect more to what I was listening and it was like Melody and Rhythm were more together. The book is called something like Rhythm Reading, but itās not only about reading, itās about learning to better feel the Rhythm.
3 Likes
Itās a great video, have watched it multiple times before. And practiced it. We all learn different ways.
1 Like
This is exactly what Iām trying to say. 
People always come here looking for tab and strumming patterns but nobody ever asks for a good version of a song they could listen to to get the feel for a song. If doesnāt matter what method a person uses to learn to listen just as long as they try and it take practice.
Iām glad you figured this out, it has made you a better musician you have great timing for it.
I just went back and watched your video with your Ukulele and you are passing your sense of timing to the kids in you class. Kids know how to listen and keep time.
2 Likes
Hey Mat,
Ultimate guitar is a great resource. Pro version will give you more detail, with timing etc often included. Also, Iāve found just about any song has a suggested strumming pattern and chord boxes in one of the versions. As you may have found out, some versions are better than others, but thats a good learning experience in itself.
And yep, I find Youtube great too for both tricky areas, and to get a general feel for how others approach it.
Cheers, Shane
Shane @sclay
Signed up for the full version of UG a couple of weeks ago and just in the process of exploring it. The only disappointing thing is that they had a Halloween sale at half the cost I paid!!!
Michael
Pity you missed the sale. For the full price of AUS$25 year though, theyāre basically giving it away.All the best
Cheers, Shane
1 Like
What do you get in a paid sub to Ultimate Guitar that you donāt get with the free membership? Iām getting everything I need for free from them.
Basically you get access to the Pro and Official tabs for songs, including the following:
- Guitar Pro-style tab notation with time signatures and sight reading elements
- Multiple instrument parts, often including bass, synth, vocals, and drums
- Fretboard view for multiple instruments
- Chords-only versions of the songs
- Printable
- Tonebridge compatibility and other misc features
Iāve found the Official and Pro tabs highly accurate mostly, and particularly great for learning things like lead lines and solos accurately. Overall, it gives a much fuller insight into a song and all it elements.
Cheers, Shane
1 Like
Maybe someday Iāll care about lead lines and solo parts. I know I donāt care about other instruments. I only use it for chord charts, and I can either save and print it as PDF, or copy and paste into Word.
Thank you for letting me know your thoughts about my Uke playing, itās very much appreciated 
I totally agree on your points
it is sometimes difficult when one is self- taught, to work out what works best, one needs to be able to read his/her own experience and individual needs. Justin gives a 365 degrees perspective @DougC_Prov356, whatever materials you choose to use keep in mind that perspective, even if something only sounds very inspiring, but you canāt get the whole meaningā¦along the way I found myself going like āyeah! This is exactly as Teacher says!ā
FWIW I import Ultimate Guitar tabs/chord sheets into Songbook Pro.
That enables me to easily amend any errors be they lyrics or chords. Keeps my playlists all in one place, its portable and not reliant on a browser. Easy to create set lists and more compact than my old A5 journal where I used to write everything up.
There are a few similar products out there. I think @stitch uses Songbook which is similar. Setlist Helper is another but I found SB Pro more user friendly. Especially as the web song search function pulls the tab directly into the app.
2 Likes