Beginners Basic Rhythm

Different Styles Of Rhythm Charts

Internet Charts or Text

The Internet is a useful tool for the modern guitarist. It is littered with hints & tips on all styles of guitar playing. Almost anyone with a guitar and a computer can find any song they want to play. A great site for Internet tablature (tab) and chords is www.olga.net/, you can find almost any song you like here.

Here is a list of popular search engines, just type the song you want with the word "tab" or "tablature" after it and you're bound to find the song you are looking for.

| www.yahoo.com | www.altavista.com | www.hotbot.com | www.excite.com |
| www.google.com | www.anzwers.com | www.metacrawler.com |
| www.webcrawler.com | searchenginewatch.com |

Below is an example of how chord songs are written for the Internet. As you can see it is a simple text format, with lyrics and the chords placed above the words where the chord changes happen. This song had a "crd" extension, so when you download it, it would look something like this on your computer "lastkiss.crd".

You would open or associate this file in a simple text editor, like Notepad or Wordpad. If you opened it in a more complex text editor like Microsoft Word or Lotus the fonts may change and the chords wont be in the correct places, this will just confuse you even more if you are new to this style of chart. If you want to use a more complex text editor then make sure you use a even spaced font like Courier New or mono.

Last Kiss
Pearl Jam

Basic Chords :G Em C D

      G                     Em
Well, where oh where can my baby be?
C                  D
The Lord took her away from me.
G                          Em
She's gone to heaven, so I got to be good,
   C                        D          G
so I can see my baby when I leave this world.

[Use your palm to drum the guitar like the song]

We were out on a date in my daddy's car.

We hadn't driven very far.

There in the road, straight ahead ...

The car was stalled, the engine was dead.

I couldn't stop, so I swerved to the right.

Never forget the sound that night ...

The screamin' tires, the bustin' glass.

The painful scream that I heard last.

Well, where oh where can my baby be?

The Lord took her away from me.

She's gone to heaven, so I got to be good,

so I can see my baby when I leave this world.

Well, when I woke up, the rain was pourin' down.

There were people standing all around.

Something warm falling through my eyes,

but somehow I found my baby that night.

I lifted her head, and she looked at me , and said,

"Hold me darling for a little while."

I held her close. I kissed her our last kiss.

I found the love that I knew I would miss.

But now she's gone, even though I hold her tight.

I lost my love ... my life, that night.

Well, where oh where can my baby be?

The Lord took her away from me.

She's gone to heaven, so I got to be good,

So I can see my baby when I leave this world.

uhh uh uh uh uhh and so on

There is nothing on this chart to help you with your rhythm speed or rhythm style. It was written with the assumption that you know your chords and know how the song sounds.

This next way of charting chords to a song is almost the same as above, only this time the chords are placed on the same line as the lyrics, but seperated by [brackets]. This style can be a little more confusing but it does save on paper space, which can be good if you have a long song with a complex chord structure.

[Bm]Travelling in a [A]friedout combie [Bm] [G] [A]
[Bm]on a hippie [A]trail head full of [Bm]zombie [G] [A]
[Bm]I met a strange [A]lady [Bm]she made me [G]nervous[A]
[Bm]She took me [A]in and gave me [Bm]breakfast [G]and she [A]said

(Chorus}
[D]"Do you come from a [A]land down under?[Bm] [G] [A]
[D]Where women [A]glow and men plun[Bm]der [G] [A]
[D]can't you hear can't you [A]hear the thunder[Bm] [G] [A]
you [D]better run you [A]better take cover"[Bm] [G] [A]

[Bm]Buying bread from from a [A]man in Bruselles[Bm] [G] [A]
He was [Bm]six-foot-four [A]and full of [Bm]muscles [G] [A]
[Bm]I said: "Do you [A]speak my language?"[Bm] [G] [A]
[Bm]He just smiled and [A]gave me a vegemite [Bm]sandwich. [G]He sai[A]d

{Chorus}
[D]"I come from a [A]land down under[Bm] [G] [A]
[D]Where beer does [A]flow and men chun[Bm]der [G] [A]
[D]can't you hear can't you [A]hear the thunder[Bm] [G] [A]
you [D]better run you [A]better take cover"[Bm] [G] [A]

[Bm]Lying in a [A]den in Bombay[Bm] [G] [A]
[Bm]With a slack [A]jaw and not much [Bm]to say[G] [A]
[Bm]I said to the [A]man: "Are you trying to [Bm]tempt me?[G] [A]
[Bm]Because I come [A]from the land of [Bm]plenty?" and [G]he [A]said

{Chorus}
[D]"Oh! do you come from a [A]land down under[Bm] [G] [A]
[D]Where women [A]glow and men plun[Bm]der [G] [A]
[D]can't you hear can't you [A]hear the thunder[Bm] [G] [A]
you [D]better run you [A]better take cover"[Bm] [G] [A]