internet chord charts

[tinnitus]

Not an original bone in my body, I play covers - by ear - in bar bands and acoustic duos. Thus I'm often in a position to round up lyric sheets with the chord names (positioned on the line above the words) when taking on new tunes.

I find that I've had to "vet" probably 90% of what I filch from various sites online as they are often simplistic attempts by well-meaning noobs.

- Skipped chords
- Majors and minors, #/b, 7ths and 9ths
- Wrong chords or wrong key altogether
- Misplaced changes or wrong words (some are funny)
- Copied and pasted verbatim (with all the errors) from another site that's wrong too

Not saying I'm awesome because I am certainly not. I've just been doing this for a long time, and if I'm going to share a cover tune with the band - or with a pal who's just learning - I feel a huge sense of responsibility to make sure it's right, at least as far as I can tell.

Kudos to the mentors here who challenge their students to analyze and fix errant chord sheets. Develop those young ears (of all ages).

Bottom line? I think all the various lyric/chord sites are a wonderful and useful resource - keeping in mind that "you gets what you pays for."

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BTW, I love this other website for identifying names to chord shapes that work (but I don't have names for them). For instance, I guess D/F# is the more correct name for "D with a thumb-wrap."
https://www.oolimo.com/de/gitarrenakkorde/analysieren

[Jeffreykip]

[QUOTE=tinnitus;7257947]
Bottom line? I think all the various lyric/chord sites are a wonderful and useful resource - keeping in mind that "you gets what you pays for."

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I agree. wholeheartedly. I have to guess the songwriters would be rolling their eyes and thinking, “Well, you could buy my songbook, get the right chords, and I’d get paid for my work.” I’m not saying I’m against sharing music online, but it’s free and generally they clearly state it’s idea sharing not official publication of the music. Looking at Ultimate Guitar, it seems they share unedited versions for free and the corrected version for subscribers, which seems fair.

That said, I find they’re usually pretty accurate for an internet free-for-all, and if I find one that’s off, I can usually skim around and cobble together a decent version. I play in open tunings, change the key for my voice, and capo all over the place anyway so I’m not that bothered.