I want to create a chord chart from songs in the App to help see the patterns & learn them better. How do I structure them on paper?

I am about to complete Grade1. At the end of Module 7, Justin says we should have memorized at least 5 songs. I use the app and the chords keeps scrolling and it is challenging to find the pattern to memorize.
When I try to write it down to decode (Tried Wish you were here - Pink Floyd) the pattern I am not sure where to break them down. Is it like every fifth chord change I write in the next line? Can someone help me here :slight_smile:

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My approach to this was to slow the song right down to allow me to easily write it down. I’d write it out basically as it was in the app initially and I’d mark things like the start of the chorus and each verse. Once you’ve got those things noted it should start to become easier to spot repeating patterns. Often each of the verses will feature the same chords, and likewise the chorus will be a slightly different set of chords. After that you might able write out a song in a simple format as my example below (note these are just random chords not specific to your song

VERSE - A D E A D E
CHORUS - E E D D A A
VERSE2 - as VERSE 1
CHORUS x2
OUTRO - A D E

I don’t know if this helps at all?

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@Floydianpsyche

I have moved your question to its own topic with a meaningful (albeit long) title.

It’s a good and important question for an essential (imho) task.

Most music has chord progressions that repear every 4 or 8 bars so start with 4 bars per row and look for structure and sequence there.

See here for an example of 8 bars per row.

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The best thing you can do is 1) to write down which chords are used, 2) print the needed amount of chordboxes, 3) draw the chords in the boxes.
This means you’ll have to dissect the chords that are used, but will give you the advantage of seeing the shapes of the chords.
I’m not using the app (oldschool paper and pen user here), so i wouldn’t know what it looks like.

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Thanks for the quick reply. I get the idea. But I don’t know enough to identify what is the chorus, verse outro. Can someone pardon my nativety and help me please.

Thanks Richard for articulating my question and making it a separate thread :slight_smile:

Here I noted the chords of Wish you were here from song APP. Can someone help how to group this and memorize. I am having a hard time to find the pattern.
Em G Em G

Em A Em A

G G Em G

Em G Em A

Em A G C

D Am G D

C Am G C

D Am G D

C Am G Em

G Em G Em

A Em A G

C D Am G

D C Am G

Em G Em G

Em A Em A

G G Em G

Em G Em A

Em A G G

Em G Em G

Em A Em A

G G Em x

@Floydianpsyche, Wish you were here doesn’t have a chorus - it’s intro - verse 1 - verse 2 - interlude - verse 3 - outro.

I would advise you to take a look at this song on Ultimate Guitar (take the website, not the app - the adds are horrendous in the app). Choose the version with >25.000 likes. Then at the bottom of your screen, click on ‘simplify’. Now look at the song. You’ll find the same chords as in Justin’s app, but the different parts (intro, verse, …) are indicated, so the structure will become clear (I hope).

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Intro/solo
Em G
Em G
Em A
Em A
G G

Verse
C D
Am G
D C
Am G

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Hate to be a stickler here but with the beginner courseware you won’t be learning songs, you will be focused on playing songs by rote. That is perfectly OK to a point, in that you learn aspects of playing something musical. The difference is analogous to painting by numbers verses learning the nuances of shading, texture and such.

So yeah, in this context “learned a song” means being able to play it by rote as presented in the courseware.

On the website in his song lesson for Wish You Were Here (1/4) Justin has the Intro as:

Em7 G Em7 G

Em7 A7sus4 Em7 A7sus4

G G

Em7 G Em7 G

Em7 A7sus4 Em7 A7sus4

G

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Often what he has written in the “tab” section on the website song lessons differs from elsewhere. What you put here is what I started writing out for the song lesson video into Guitar Pro with all of the detail he describes in that video.

Looks like what Floydian wrote out from the app is a simplified “easy strum” version of sorts.

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The post is from a Grade 1 beginner who is struggling with song notation. I don’t see that mixing in more complicated chords is helpful, even if they are “correct”

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Thanks :slight_smile: How Simple, why I did not see that :sweat_smile:

Yes. Exactly

No worries. I’m glad to help out.

This will not be the last time in your guitar learning that something that seems really confusing and complicated suddenly looks simple once you see it.

Keep having fun and know that for every frustration you encounter there will eventually be an “Aha! moment” that makes it worthwhile.

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Break it down into chunks as small as it takes for you to learn. Go measure by measure if you have to. The app presents songs in its own way that doesn’t necessarily translate exactly to the way you might see the song written out elsewhere.

Sometimes it helps to see things presented in “song sheet” format (aka chords and lyrics) where the lyrics can help you time chord changes and see patterns within the song (whether you actually sing or not). It’s an imperfect method because it relies on you knowing the song first, and it simply serves as a quick reference guide to help prompt your memory. It took me awhile to start getting comfortable using these because nobody bothered to really teach this to me as a raw beginner.

Justin’s app was a definite helpful link to me wrapping my head around that idea. So seeing a song sheet while you’ve got the app playing might help, too.

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I don’t have the app so I don’t know what chords Justin has in there for that song. I was simply saying that in Grade 1 Module 6 those are the chords that Justin has suggested.

https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/wish-you-were-here-riff-for-beginners-b2-808

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IMO, learning to play a simple song (by “rote” as you like to say) is much more of an accomplishment than painting by numbers, which really doesn’t take any skill at all. I would instead liken it to making a recognizable copy of a famous painting.

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No. It is memorizing a (hopefully) recognizable facsimile. I will repeat, this is perfectly OK to a point.