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Location: Marlton, NJ | I'm playing guitar at our church services and once in awhile the leader will hand out a song sheet with no chords. Any advice on the best way to try and figure out the chords? The best idea I could come up with so far is to record the melody while I play it and then try and figure out the chords based upon the starting notes in each measure.
The problem is we have one practice a week and we go through each song once. I've also tried looking the chords up online but that was fairly frustrating as there were numerous diffferent versions of each song.
Thanks,
Mike |
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Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | Well, a starting point would be the old I-IV-V. Whatever key the song is in, let's say G, it's a good bet that the IVth (C) and Vth (D) are in there. CFG, DGA, EAB, FBbC, ADE, etc. You should be able to pick out from the melody what parts are minor. Usually the VIth is minor, ie in C you'll have an Am, in G you'll have an Em, etc. Another good hint, get tight with the bass player. He's probably playing the root, or at least some note in the chord. For example if he's playing an F, ask yourself what possible chords contain F. Try the chords F, Fm, G7, Dm, Bb, Bbm, etc. If all else fails, just keep your pre-amp turned down real low and look like you know what you're doing.
Dave |
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Location: Marlton, NJ | Dave - believe me... I've mastered the last bit of advice!
I'll give the others a shot. |
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Location: PDX | Interestingly only about 20% of the music i play follows the I IV V progression. Most follows the ii V I. But it is a good bet the Tup's advice will hold.
I would suggest you write out the notes of each signature. Most chord changes will occur at the beginning of a bar, especially for waltzs. You will come across 2 beat changes, usually in the turnaround.
With the signatures written out, and knowing the notes in a bar you should be able to figure out the chord from them. The third and the seventh really define the chord. As an example, most arpegios i play over a chord rarely hit the root.
Not a full explanation, but a little more info. Hope it helps.
_____
gh1 |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Hey Dave/Tup-- I typed-up this advice:
"G - D - C - Em; Works with everything, just changed the tempo."
...But then didn't send it, cuz I figured that it was too early to be a wise-ass. Then you gave the same advice, only in more technical terms! |
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Location: big island | Check with the keyboard player/pianist. If they read music, they can tell you the general and/or defined chord arrangement. Have a pencil in hand and write 'em in on your copy. |
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Location: Whitecourt, Ab | I find with most songs any key will work, depending on your voice. If you have a deep voice,EAB works well,or CFG. A higher voice works better in DGA, or ADE. A good practice to this is echords.com, you can find a song you know well, and automatically change the key right on their site to test out your voicing.
Ed |
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Location: Utah | If there is a tab or chord version available online, you might be able to figure it out from there. I've been doing exactly that today on some Christmas carols. Sometimes it takes 3 different versions before figuring out which key each is really in. Then it's pretty straightforward to transpose the chords into the key that the rest have sheet music for. |
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Location: Cherry Hill, NJ | I've had that problem in the past. Usually the keyboard player would write out the chords for me. Or during practice, I would write them in each measure, from the keyboard players changes. The other methods work too, depending on the arrangement. |
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Location: SoCal | If you're only meeting once a week and only going thru each tune once, then I'd try and get the music director fired. You can't learn tunes going thru them so quickly. We meet once a week and spend about 1 1/2 hours going thru tunes. I still wish we had more time..... |
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Location: Midland, MI | Originally posted by gh1:
Interestingly only about 20% of the music i play follows the I IV V progression. Most follows the ii V I. But it is a good bet the Tup's advice will hold. If it's ii/V/I, it must be.....JAZZ! ;) |
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Location: NJ | look at the key signature of the tune. that will give you the key. (many tunes start on the tonic or the first note of the scale.)
follow the melody for shifts or modulations in the tune to change chords. they can fall into some of the familiar patterns mentioned or NOT.
good luck |
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Location: Midland, MI | Originally posted by alpep:
look at the key signature of the tune. that will give you the key. (many tunes start on the tonic or the first note of the scale.) I seem to recall my piano teacher telling me that most songs end on the root, as well. So, if you look at the end of the piece, you can determine the key it is in pretty quickly.
Or, maybe I hallucinated that. |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I'd go with asking the keyboard player. But the leader should do some leadership. |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | Hey RedEddie,next time U mention a website ,please write it correctly,I typed as U wrote it,got onto some pornsite and a virus attacked my computer,my system held up,but it was n `t a funny experience.....should `ve been e chords ( notice there`s a space between E and CHORDS ) thanks " buddie"... :mad: |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | You're always better off asking the keyboard player than going to a porn site! |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Originally posted by Enfant Terrible aka V-Elite:
Hey RedEddie,next time U mention a website ,please write it correctly,I typed as U wrote it, ... This is a joke, right ??? |
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Location: Marlton, NJ | Well the keyboard player is the leader so we may have to fire both of them! When I was doing this as a teen we had a nun running the group... we were like a well oiled machine! Sister Cleopha... I still get chills!
Thanks for all of the advice... I should be able to muddle my way through. |
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Location: Marlton, NJ | Oh and BTW - the same thing happened to me with a porn site... I was rewiring my house for telephone/cable/internet and I was trying to find a company that made the wall box... OnQ it was called.. I ended up at a gay porn site...ouch! No viruses in that case... or any other kinds of diseases for that matter! |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | No Tupperware,NO Joke...(notice the " mad" face that accompanied my post)...but I suppose it was an honest mistake soo.. :rolleyes:
:cool:
Vic |
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Location: GA USA | I supose one of us could see if it's really a porn site, but I'm not gonna be the one to try it.
Our keyboard player is very helpful and passes out great chord sheets and even writes in directions for us for the solos and such. The bass player and I act dumb so that we get a little extra hand holding. |
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Location: St. Petersburg, FL USA | Mike, you have hit on a MAJOR pet peeve of mine. I have led a worship group in the recent past, and currently I'm in one (not leading, just playing guitar). The leader of the group, whether he/she likes it or not, is responsible to provide AT LEAST songsheets with correct chords. For most piano players, that isn't even enough.
If I were you, I would find a way to encourage this person to meet that standard. Maybe someone else needs to volunteer to be in charge of songsheets, and hopefully store them on computer for printout the next time you all do the song. If the leader has poor computer skills, it might explain why you find this happening from time to time. This might take a huge burden off this person, and be a blessing to someone else - maybe even you. That way, the songs would be figured out - especially for guitar - before practice.
There are various websites with chords/tabs, but the problem is that you don't know if the knucklehead who uploaded the chords got it right - usually they don't. They'll throw in a D instead of Bm, yadda yadda yadda. And, it probably will vary a little from the way your band does it. But it does get you "in the zip code."
Here's a couple of sites I have found helpful to me:
http://www.gospelmusic.org.uk/
http://www.worshiparchive.com/worship_chord_sheet.asp
Good luck with this. It's hard enough to play well enough to not be a distraction even when you have everything you need right in front of you. I definitely know what it feels like to be struggling through, playing a little air guitar for stuff that you have no music for.
Let us know how this works out... |
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Location: Houston, Texas | Originally posted by Enfant Terrible aka V-Elite:
Hey RedEddie,next time U mention a website ,please write it correctly,I typed as U wrote it,got onto some pornsite and a virus attacked my computer,my system held up,but it was n `t a funny experience.....should `ve been e chords ( notice there`s a space between E and CHORDS ) thanks " buddie"... :mad: I checked this out by googling echords.com and there does appear to be problems with that site.
However, if you want to "write it correctly", its e-chords.com with a dash, not a space.
e-chords.com |
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Location: Whitecourt, Ab | I'm so sorry for any trouble I accidently caused. I have it on my bookmarks,and never have to type it in.I should have typed: E-Chords.com. I sincerely appologize to anyone who went to a porn site, because of my stupidity. Ed |
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Location: Upper Left USA | I've gotta use my "been there" chuckle. When sourcing parts or services for a Lifting & Handling group you use a lot of terms like shackle, ropes and chain in your searches. It can pull up some interesting ( :eek: ) results.
And if you want to see how Dubya is doing it is www.whitehouse.gov and not .com! |
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Advice on figuring out chords...
