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faith83
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Joined: 04/23/20
Posts: 416
faith83
Full Access
Joined: 04/23/20
Posts: 416
12/28/2020 4:23 pm

You feel it and hear it. That probably sounds vague and unhelpful, but I'm not sure there's a better answer.

On a more practical note, chords on good charts are noted at the point where they change. So for example, here's a few lines of Prisoners (JD), just because that's what I happen to have up at the moment: (the dotted line is not standard, it's just to maintain the spacing which the GT forum won't do without actual characters in the field)

D [br]Josie works the counter at the downtown five and dime,[br]------G ---------------------------------------D[br]anything at all to help her pass the time.[br]-------D---------------------------------- D[br]Her mama keeps the baby and grandpa rambles on[br] G---------------------------------------------- D[br]about the good times playing in his mind.

Chord changes usually (though by no means always) happen at the beginning of a measure. Sometimes they happen on the third beat of a measure (assuming 4/4/time), in which case it's a split measure. There are lots of variations to this, but for simple songs, this will mostly cover it.

So in the example above, the First D chord covers the first two measures, and the change to the G chord comes just where it shows -- at the beginning of the next line on the word "Anything" (more specifically on "thing", which is the accented part of anything in the song, where the first beat of the next measure falls). Then a full measure later, a change back to the D chord right where it shows, on the word "time."

Sometimes a chart will be a bit more imprecise, but it's still likely that the chord change is on the first beat of a measure (or as discussed, on the third beat).

But mostly, you can hear it. Pick your favorite song (something simple -- Ultimate Guitar is a good website for reliable chord charts, on the whole). Then just listen to it while following along with the chords, and see if you can start to hear the changes. Then play it, using the chords lined up with the words as described above, and see if you can start to feel it.

I hope that helps. I know sometimes the simplest things are the hardest to describe in writing.


"I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk."