If you play with a church group or the occasional amateur band, you will use chord charts. Jazz bands use charts and The Real Book is a famous compendium of standard charts. My band, The Regeneration Jazz Band, draws from this volume regularly. Most chord charts are rather simple and created on the fly. I have made hundreds for myself and others. There is a better way.
The Voluntary Musician
As I have mentioned in one of my previous posts, volunteering to play for various events is an excellent way to find opportunities to get with other musicians. The question quickly becomes: What are we going to play? Sharing music and notes suddenly takes center stage. I have books of saved charts from years of playing to draw from. Charts that have unique arrangements or notes are invaluable. It is amazing how a common song can have so many variations. This is mainly due to various artists popularizing their unique take on a song such that it becomes the version for a generation.
So, you’ve got variations on a theme and years of notes about dynamics and instrumentation to deal with. How do you do it with the simple chart style of just words and chords? Let me show you the way 😉
The Radcliffe Method
Named for my good friend and the bass player for over 30 years at Chaplegate Presbyterian Church. Scott Radcliffe developed this format years ago as a way to record the various notes and instrumentation cues used in the worship music over the years. With any church music, there is a rotating set of familiar hymns and songs punctuated by special music and the occasional addition of new material. In the past when an oldie but a goody would come around, the inevitable question would get asked: “Does anybody remember how we did this the last time?” Our drummer is typically the store of musical history for us but he isn’t always there and he doesn’t remember all of the details regarding vocals every time. This is how we do it.
Chord Charts Format A-Z
First, the overall form is a table two columns wide with as many rows as needed to accommodate each verse and chorus. Each row contains an entire verse or an entire chorus.
Second, column one contains the words for the verses and choruses. The second column contains the notes for that part of the song. To cue in the instruments, set the instruction at the same line where you would like them to enter. To be even more precise, use an asterisk. This is particularly helpful if the instruments are to enter in the middle of a line.
Third, map out the entire song even if you are repeating verses and choruses. This will allow for specific instruction on repeats and avoid confusion. You could say something like, “Quiet first time, louder second time” with an indication that this section will be repeated but it can get cumbersome and prone to mistakes if taken too far.
Finally, use the outline format for the table so the rows and columns are clearly delineated. This is more of a personal preference but it does make it easier to find your place if/when you look away and come back. There is nothing more disrupting to your groove than to look back at your music and not know where you are!
The chord chart details make the difference
Font choice should be simple. I prefer sans serif fonts such as Arial, Calibri and Helvetica. Again, when I look away and come back, I find I can resume where I left off much easier. The page does not look so busy – simpler is better.
Font size should be at least 14 point, in my opinion. The smaller the font, the closer I need to have the music to read it comfortably. Larger and less music fits on a page forcing me to flip pages more often. These days with tablet computers (e.g. iPads) and Bluetooth page flippers, it’s not that big of a problem but keep it simple! I have pedals for my guitar and managing yet another pedal can get overwhelming. With some apps, you can link tablets together and flipping pages can be the responsibility of one person. More on that in another post.
Intros and outros should get their own rows. These parts are typically scribbled in somewhere or left as a note. They are easily forgotten and are there to set the tone going into and leaving a song. If you link one song to another, this can be a significant detail. Again, the question will arise: How did we do this the last time?
Lastly, get the format down and save it as a template for future use. You could reuse an old chart file but you risk accidentally overwriting your work. Yikes! Better to store away a solid template that you can pull up any time.
Now you have it! Just 2 Play Guitar will have a class on preparing chord charts in the near future. Don’t forget to register above to get notified and sign up for the newsletter!