Song Lessons are there to help you out when you want to learn a specific song, but are not really sure how to start. The Chordify song page might just be a little intimidating when you’re just starting out, so a song lesson is the perfect place to start.
(Note: Song Lessons are currently only available on the iOS app)
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How do Song Lessons work?
The first step is to select the song you want to learn. We have an ever-growing database of songs for you to pick from, organized by skill level. Once you select the song you want to learn, you’ll notice a couple of things:
- Each lesson is cut up into different sections (verse, chorus, bridge, etc.), so you can learn the song section by section instead of learning it all in one go. Each section shows how many lessons are within that section, and as you go, it’ll show your progress.
- You’ll also see if you need a capo to play the song, what tuning the song is in and the tempo/BPM of the song. This is important information to know before you start playing, so you’ll know whether you’ll need a capo or to detune your guitar. If you need to detune your guitar, you’ll find the tuner in the top right corner of your screen.
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You will also find your progress on the entire song you’re learning in this overview.
Chords, transitions and strumming pattern
Once you select the section you want to practice, you can see the different lesson categories. We divided the process into learning the chords, learning the transitions and learning the strumming pattern of this section. We recommend starting from the beginning.
You can also practice the transitions between chords to make sure you’re ready to play along to the song after the lesson. If playing to the tempo is still a little difficult, you can also practice individual transitions between two chords to get more comfortable with the transitions.
Play along with Chordify
When you know all the chords, have practiced the transitions and mastered the strumming pattern, you are ready to play along with the song on Chordify. On the overview page of the song, you will find ‘Play along with Chordify’. Click the play button and you’ll see the Chordify song page.
Chord Lessons
When you start the chord lesson, you’ll see a chord diagram of the chord you’ll be practicing. If you are unfamiliar with reading chord diagrams, you can read up on how to read a chord diagram.
How we help you learn
During the Chord lesson, we will listen to you play so that we can give you instant feedback. If you play the chord correctly three times, you will complete the lesson. If the lesson isn’t going as smoothly as you’d hoped, there are a couple of things that might be causing this:
Too much muting
When you’re playing a chord, make sure that your fingers are arched in a way where you’re not touching the other strings. If your fingers are too flat, you might accidentally mute another string you did not intend to hit. You can always check whether your fingers are in the correct position by playing all the notes of your chord one by one.
Too little muting
Some chords have muted strings. For example, the low (thickest) E-string is muted in the C chord. If you don’t mute this string, the chord might not register as correct during the lesson. It will also not sound like a correct C chord. Make sure the strings are muted by playing the notes one by one and skipping the muted strings in doing so.
Strumming hand is not hitting all the strings
If all your fingers are placed on the right strings, you might miss some of the strings if you’re not strumming them correctly. For example, if you’re playing a chord, but you’re missing the high (thinnest) E-string, the chord will not register as correct. Make sure you’re hitting all the strings that are necessary to play the chord. If you’re not entirely sure how to strum your guitar, you can read up on how to strum.
Tuning or capo
If the chords don’t register as correct, your guitar might be out of tune or you might not be using a capo when the song needs one. You can tune your guitar through Chordify’s tuner, which you can find in the top right corner of your screen in your song lesson overview and section overview page. On these same pages you’ll also find the information on capo use for the song. You will find it by the capo icon underneath the progress bar.
Here is an article guide on using our capo.
And here is an article guide on using our tuner.
Chord Transitions
During the Chord Transition lessons, you will practice how to play the transition from one chord to another. You can choose to start small and learn the transition between two chords, or jump right in and practice the whole chord sequence at once. These sequence transitions are played with the metronome, to get you up to speed on the correct tempo. Feel free to slow down the tempo to a more comfortable pace for you. You can adjust the tempo by clicking the metronome icon.
In the metronome menu, you can adjust the tempo by clicking the arrows next to the percentage. 100% is the accurate tempo for the song, 50% is half time and 200% is double time. This way you can practice the transitions at the speed that works best for you.
Tips and tricks
We have a couple of tips and tricks from our guitar teacher to help you out with the transition lessons:
Look for notes where your finger can stay on the same fret
A great example of this is the transition between the Am and C chords. Between these chords you only need to move your ring finger (finger 3) to play the correct chords. The rest of your fingers can stay in the same position as they were with the Am chord. By figuring out which finger(s) move between the transitions, you only have to focus on moving the one finger instead of having to re-set all fingers.
Don’t lift your fingers too far from the fretboard
In order to quickly and efficiently transition to the next chord, it’s easier to keep your fingers closer to the fretboard. This way you have a much shorter distance to cover, which means that your transitions will be faster and smoother.
Practice your transition without a strumming pattern first
If you’re struggling with the transition or sequence, it’s easiest to start practicing the transitions without the tempo/metronome. We have individual transitions you can practice as well. Once you feel comfortable with the transitions, you can start practicing with the metronome. Only strum the first beat of the chord instead of using a strumming pattern to master the movement of your fingers on the fretboard. When the transitions feel natural, you can try strumming to practice a faster transition. If you want to learn the correct strumming pattern, you’ll find the song’s strumming pattern in the next step of your lessons.
Check the next section for our guide on how to strum.
Strumming Patterns
The strumming pattern lesson
In the strumming pattern lesson, you will see and hear the strumming pattern played with only one chord. The pattern consists of upstrokes, downstrokes and rests. You can slow down the tempo of the song and slowly build up to the actual tempo when the strumming pattern feels more natural to you.
Due to technical constraints we cannot give you feedback on your playing in this lesson. However, you can compare your playing to the audio provided in the lesson.
Below are some helpful pages with additional information about the strumming pattern lesson.
Explaining the symbols
A strumming pattern consists of upstrokes (up arrow), downstrokes (down arrow) and rests (dot). When you strum down, you first hit the thickest strings and move down to the thinnest strings. With an upstroke, you strum from the bottom; thinnest strings up to the thicker strings. When you see the rest symbol, you don’t play any of the strings.
When the arrow is white and has a background that isn’t white, it means that you’re currently supposed to play this motion. For example, in the image above, you’re currently supposed to play a downstroke.
You can create many different sounding patterns through these three options: up, down and rest.
Pro tip from our guitar teacher
Keeping your arm in a consistent up and down motion while playing a strumming pattern usually works best for keeping a steady rhythm. So even when you see a rest in the pattern, you keep your arm moving to the rhythm. You will just deliberately miss the strings.
Learning and practicing
Listen to the strumming pattern within the lesson a couple of times before starting to play it yourself. In this lesson, the main goal is for you to get familiar with the strumming pattern of this song. The best way to do so is to start with just one chord and let your strumming hand do the work.
If you’re struggling to keep up, try to slow down the tempo of the song. It usually takes a bit of time to get into the right groove and allow your strumming hand to find the right pattern, but once you’ve got it, it will be much easier to play to the correct tempo.
There are a couple of different ways to strum during a rest (the dot icon). For example, you can stop your hand completely and continue when the pattern calls for it. Or you can keep the motion of going up and down with the pattern, but simply not hit the strings when getting to the rest in the pattern. You can also make the rest audible by muting all strings with your strumming hand.