BETTER BY SUNDAY w/ PCO
CLEAR IS GOOD | Ed Kerr
I’ve focused on Planning Center Online’s In my earlier articles I mentioned that if you To further clarify timing of chords in interludes,
ChordPro feature in a couple of articles here. surround a chord’s name with these brackets [ you can create barlines to represent measures
There’s another use of ChordPro I want to and ], that chord will appear above lyrics they’re in the song. Use shift of the “\” key on most
focus on here to show you how it can help you positioned by. To make slashes appear like you keyboards to create the “|”.
communicate clearly with your band. see above in my rhythm chart example from Typing this: | [Bm]/ / / [A/C#] / |
Finale, just type however many slashes you
In my years as a musician I’ve played from lots
need by your bracketed chords.
Results in this in ChordPro:
of different kinds of charts. Handwritten ones.
Lead sheets with chords penciled in. Number For example, if I want three beats of
charts quickly jotted down in a studio. Napkins B minor followed by a beat of A/C#,
with chords penciled in (seriously). Chord I type [Bm]/ / / [A/C#]/.
Bm
| / /
A/C#
/ / |
charts like the ones CCLI makes available
on SongSelect. And I’ve played from rhythm
Nice. Clear. Accurate.
The result will be something like this:
charts, also known as slash charts. In this
type of chart the beats in each measure are
represented by slashes.
Fig. 1 shows an example of a rhythm chart
Bm
/ /
A/C#
/ /
If I have an intro, bridge or instrumental section
that repeats, I can just place a colon within the
vertical lines that start and end the measures
involved. Look at the result in Fig. 2.
showing some chord changes. The slashes
make it clear just where chords move. Some The more you work with ChordPro the more As I stressed in a previous article, part of the
land on the downbeat, some are played on you’ll see that to achieve even chord spacing wonder that is ChordPro comes when you
beat three. Some are played on beat 4. Clear. above a bracket like I’ve done will require you need to transpose a chart. You might want to
This rhythm chart was created in Finale, the to place some spaces between your bracketed have a female vocalist lead a song that’s usually
industry music chord and the first slash after it. No slash was lead by a male. It’s doubtful that the same key
transcription. It’s an expensive program with needed after the bracketed Bm, but a space works for both of the singers, so you’ll likely
a fairly steep learning curve and more features was needed after the bracketed A/C# to center need to transpose the chart. Once you specify
than you or I need to create only rhythm charts. it above its slash. Experiment with spacing and the desired key in Planning Center Online for
So, thank you Planning Center Online for you’ll soon find you’re creating chord charts the new chart, ChordPro makes the process
integrating ChordPro into their website. that make the timing of chords clear. effortless for you by presenting all of the chords
standard
for
professional
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Bm
|: / /
106
A/C# D
/ / | /
April 2019
/
A/C#
/ / :|
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