Guys, I have another opportunity to play in a band. Here’s my issue. I am sick of having to read guitar chords in order to play with guitar players.

I need something like what the guitar guys have online with lyrics and chords, EXCEPT I need the chord above the lyric to be a keyboard chord. The notes. I can’t find anything like this and thought maybe someone here would. 

Having to play using guitar tab website is just ruining my playing. I can’t believe this doesn’t exist somewhere.

Many thanks

Mike

Not sure I understand the difference between a “guitar chord” and a “keyboard chord”.  A Cmin7 is a Cmin7 whether it’s play on guitar or piano.  A I missing something here?

dmc

That should read “whether it’s PLAYED on guitar or piano.  AM I missing something here?”

I’m wondering if maybe he wants to see “C-Eb-G-Bb”, on a staff, rather than “Cmin7”.

I’ve never seen this… but that’s how I’m interpreting the original question.

Eric

maybe all they give him is the guitar tab.

but it sounds like he needs a little music theory class if he needs the notes.

wvujazzman - 24 August 2011 04:23 PM

I’m wondering if maybe he wants to see “C-Eb-G-Bb”, on a staff, rather than “Cmin7”.

I’ve never seen this… but that’s how I’m interpreting the original question.

Eric

I wanted to see those notes (actual notes of the chord) , yes.

I read music, and having the guitar tab is all I ever see. I don’t typically know what an AM7 chord is etc, but could play the chord immediately if I saw the notes. I’ve played for 30 years, but having to read these guitar tabs is just not very condusive to playing something immediately you don’t know.

So I was hoping to find a site that had “keyboard tabs” that would have the chord on a staff above the lyrics. (Outside of buying sheet music etc.

well, you’re just going to have to bo back to school and learn some basic theory. it’s not difficult at all for the style of music you seem to be involved in. just figure out what a triad is and go from there. it’s not like you’re going to have to figure out an F7#11 anytime soon.

I need something like what the guitar guys have online with lyrics and chords, EXCEPT I need the chord above the lyric to be a keyboard chord. The notes. I can’t find anything like this and thought maybe someone here would. 

Here’s some sites for you:  I play the G7 and write the chord sheets for the band, including the bass and lead guitar players.  They learn to read the piano type chords.

For lyrics, I use “eLyrics” - easy to copy and paste into Word for revisions.

Chord sites - Chordie.com - charts are reasonable and can be transposed into the desired key.  Site will give you guitar tabs and piano chords

AZ chords - same as Chordie.com

For a proper score - Sheet Music Direct and Music Notes.

YH

Just use google or another search engine.  When you do the search, type in something like “Chords for Any way you want it by Journey”.  It will generally bring you to a guitar tab site.  Some of these sites will also have keyboard chords, piano chords, or just plain chords.  You may have to check out a few sites to get what you are looking for. 

If you can’t find what chords you are looking for, try youtube.  They have people on there that will not only tell you the chords to some songs, but also show you how to play the song itself.

May I ask, what songs are you seeking chords for.  I’m relatively sure that there are individuals on this site that play just about every song known to man.  I will help if I can.

Hope this helps.

Kenny

I thought I’d pop in quietly and suggest the following:

One of the biggest “transitions” you can make as a keyboard player is to go from literal notes on a staff to what is commonly called “tablature” or sometimes also called “fake book” playing.

In other words, the chords for a popular song “Spooky” would look like this (see attached file).

The beauty of this form of music is that on ONE single page of printout you can have an entire song including lyrics and the chords (especially where they are placed) tell you WHEN to play them as well.  In other words, when the singer hits the word “everything” you should switch to the A6 chord.

The way you transition to this style of playing is to simply Google the various chords (or use the sites that these other fine folks referred you to) and find out exactly what an Em7 is.

You’ll quickly realize that an Em7 can be played in a variety of ways.  You could play octave E with the left hand (although if you’re not careful you’ll be technically stomping on the bass guitar players area of the “EQ spectrum” but that’s another story).  You could play the Em7 in the right hand by playing E - G - B - D.  The “G” makes the E chord minor and the “D” adds the “7”.  HOWEVER: you could ALSO make it even simpler and not even use your left hand at all and have your right hand play G - B - D.  Even though this LOOKS like a simple G major chord, as long as the Bass guitar player is doing their job (and the regular guitarist as well) they will “frame” the chord structure for you and your G - B - D will fit right in famously.

Regarding keyboard playing in general: IF you have a full 4-piece (drums, bass, guitar, keys) you are indeed a lucky person because as a keyboardist you can actually play LESS and still sound great.  One of the biggest complaints against keyboard players is that they sometimes play TOO much and/or TOO many notes of the chord.

So...in keeping with the previous paragraph, one of the responders of this post above suggested you learn basic “triads” (three note chords) and start learning the tab chords (e.g., Em7) by using simple three note chords.  This is excellent advice and you can always add the left hand later (and your bass player will be happy you waited because by the time you’re ready to play bass notes you either WON’T, **OR** you will be so in tune with what the bass player is doing that your bass notes will perfectly match up with his thus making a very nice bottom end to the measure). 

IF you can make this transition, you can quite literally play ANYTHING anyone throws at you because your brain will simply translate “Em7” into whichever three note triad you happen to need and your chord will “fit” into the measure.

Regarding how you play the “rhythm” of the chord, that is another story.  Basically it’s called “comping” in the jazz world and you must determine for yourself what your particular style of “comping” is.  Perhaps the simplest form would be to hit the Em7 triad (three simple notes...remember?) right on the beat of when the lyric hits and simply hold the chord.  Then wait for “...everything” and hit the A6 (A - C# - F# for example) right on “everything” and simply hold the chord.  As you get better at it, you will start to hit the chords in a more natural rhythm that isn’t quite so boring.  Similar to my caution above...LESS IS MORE!  I remember playing in college and my bandmates complained at how “busy” I played.  It has taken me almost 30 years to simplify yet still play “fat” and fill in those spaces.  Hang in there...you will get it.

Nearly all of the bands you come into contact with will use some form of tablature.  So it is in your best interest to figure it out NOW and be prepared for the future.  It’s kind of the international language of music.

Best of blessings on your adventure.  I’m 41 years into it and still lovin’ life.  What happens after you master your playing is that you start to get into arranging and determining HOW the songs will be performed.  Then life gets really fun.  But I digress.

Spooky.pdf  (File Size: 99KB - Downloads: 693)

Hi Selbilicious,

Where did you get the chart for “Spooky” from?

thanks - Yahhamm - I responded earlier to this post.

thanks - Y

I built a database to store all of our “tabs”.  This is but one example of about 50 songs in this format.  I typically find the lyrics and/or chords off the Internet and then enter them into the database in our “format” (e.g., red chords, mono spaced font so the chords line up EXACTLY where they belong, miscellaneous notes, etc.).  I store the songs not only in the database but ALSO as individual sheets up on our SharePoint site so band members can quickly grab a copy.  Brilliant I say...BRILLIANT.  Sigh.  Anything to help us old geezers with our music.

The deep irony here is that two of us (the gal singer and myself) are trying DESPERATELY to memorize all of our songs (both lyrics and chords) so we can essentially not even use the printed sheets during live performance.  I typically have a lot to do (running the drums, bass (some preprogrammed, some live) and keys), so I argue that I should at least be able to glance at the darn page from time to time.  Ultimately we’ll get there...but it’s slow going.

Anyway...there you have it.

Hi again,

Thanks for the reply. we’re doing the same thing then - getting the chord on the correct word/syllable is the important thing...and getting the song on 1 page!

YH