tab lyrics, how to figure out the tempo/words per bar

[jasperguitar]

I cut out lyrics, tab off of chordie, etc.

Problem is : how to figure out the words per bar, beat ?

the : / / / /

do any of you struggle with this and do you have a method which will
help break up words into measures, bars

...

so frustrating

[jseth]

Jasper... just LISTEN to the song! Learn the thing, get the feel for it... read the lyrics, figure out what they mean, TO YOU, so you can deliver the song the way you want.

Once you've got the song firmly planted in your head, go back and check out the tab/lyric/chord sheet you printed and ALL WILL BE REVEALED...

Seems antithetical to me to try to play a song that you really don't "know how it goes", not at the level you currently are enjoying, anyway...

In all my years of playing and singing, I have never met anyone who could read lyrics and play a song without any prior knowledge of the piece and do it with any justice, at all...

I certainly know players who can pick up a lead sheet and play a tune without ever having heard it, and get it "right" the first time through... but if you're singing a song, a HUGE part of it is being able to truly deliver the "meat" of the tune...

Get to where you can sing it in your head or just out loud without hearing the recording along with it... and you'll get the rest easily enough.

[tonyo]

Originally Posted by jasperguitar

I cut out lyrics, tab off of chordie, etc.

Problem is : how to figure out the words per bar, beat ?

the : / / / /

do any of you struggle with this and do you have a method which will
help break up words into measures, bars

...

so frustrating

Yeah, I struggle with that at times. Especially in the early days. Songs that aligned their lyrics with chord changes were easy for me, those that were more syncopated much harder.

It's taken time and getting more comfortable with the songs. Learning to play along to a youtube video of the song helped as well. Some times I find the sheet music (which can be as unreliable as the chord charts, but still a useful resource) and learn more from that.

[raggedymike]

If you rely on listening to the song, it requires you to listen not only to the melody but the chord changes as well. Are they using the same chords you got off chordie? They might be using different chords and passing chords that will confuse you, especially if you are a beginner. Listening, however, is by far the best way to learn songs. The first thing you want to do is learn about chord progressions. Fred Sokolow has a good course on Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop. Then you want figure out a song just by listening to it. Start with easy folk songs. After you figure it out, go to chordie to check it. This can be time consuming, but you will be glad you did it.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by jasperguitar

I cut out lyrics, tab off of chordie, etc.

Problem is : how to figure out the words per bar, beat ?

the : / / / /

do any of you struggle with this and do you have a method which will
help break up words into measures, bars

...

so frustrating

I don't struggle, but here's what I do.
1. I copy and paste lyrics from anywhere I can find them.
2. Write out the chords, usually 4 bars per line (4 beats per bar). I'll usually mark the beats with slashes. Chord symbol beat 1, 3 slashes to fill the bar (short vertical lines for barlines).
3. Fit the words in where they fall relative to the beats. Usually this means i need to space the beats out more, and I might need to make it two bars per line if there are a lot of words and the tempo is slow.

Here's an excerpt of a song I did recently for a student (Christian Kane's 'Thinking of You'):

       |Em         /       /          /     |D       /            /     /       | 
Well, I know they say all good things, must come to some kind of ending. We were

|Em        /               /        /          |D     /     /     /         |
 so **** good, I guess we never stood a chance_____                Go on and

|Em            /          /    /             |D          /         /       /       |
|find what you've been missing, and when that highway's tired of listening, you'll

|Cadd9     /      G    /     |Asus4  /   A   /       |
 see I'm not that easy to forget______       (When a ...

That's a slow tempo, and he crams a lot of words into each bar, hence two bars per line.

Notice I've put the first words of the next line where they fall, at the end of the last bar of each line. This is the issue with "pick-ups", where the words start before beat 1 (very common).
I wouldn't always lay it out like that - I might just keep each line of words on its own line, but sometimes this arrangement makes it clearer where the bars, beats and chords lie relative to the words.