The chord sheet: sections and repeats, then the chords

Open Hej sokoły and switch the view to Chord sheet (“kwit” in the app). Do not play yet. Spend a minute tracing the headings with a finger: Verse, Chorus and Chorus 2. If you know what follows the first chorus, half the reading is already done.

Draw the section route

A chord sheet is a map of the song, not a writing of every note: it shows sections, chords and how long they last. It does not decide fingering, a bass line or the exact stroke, because those choices belong to the player.

Write the route of the open page alone: Verse, Chorus, Chorus 2. On a fuller sheet, “Ch.” sends you back to a section you already know, and “Link as Intro” repeats a layout you have already read. You do not have to hunt every chord again.

Colour and heading do different jobs. Colour lets you tell a verse from a chorus at a glance, and the heading says what actually starts here. When the screen is black and white, or the page has been printed, the headings still suffice. Put small numbers 1, 2, 3 beside them, instead of dragging a finger through the whole lyric.

Count the bars

Each bar has its own time. One chord in a bar lasts for that whole time. Two chords share it in two parts, unless the writing shows otherwise. A slash in the classic writing means one beat, so four slashes in 4/4 fill four equal parts of the bar.

mark	move on the page
||: ... :||	go back to the start of the repeat, or to the start of the section if there is no left-hand mark
1. / 2.	the first time play ending 1; after the return skip it and take 2
%	repeat the previous bar
D.C. al Fine	go back to the start and finish at Fine
D.S.	go back to the segno sign

Brackets 1. and 2. are the easiest place to lose a bar, because the first ending belongs to the first pass and sends you back. The second time, skip everything under bracket 1 and go straight into 2. They are two different exits from the same section, not extra choruses.

D.C., D.S. and coda are needed only when they appear on the page, so do not memorise them before you play. At the sign write one pencil command: “start”, “sign” or “end”. The chord sheet saves space, and your note can save a take.

Mark changes only

Do not read the chord letters on every beat. Circle the places where the name changes. A chord holds from that place until the next name, even when the lyric moves to a new line.

Walk the route without the guitar. Say only section and chord names: “Verse, Am, E, Am; Chorus, C, G...”. If you have to stop the finger, the problem is navigation on the page, not the grip.

The lyric under the bars helps you land in the right place, but it does not replace counting. A change may fall inside a word, and a new lyric line need not start a new bar. Lead the eye along the bars first, then use a syllable as a landmark.

One join without stopping

Play the last two bars of the verse, the whole chorus and the first two bars of Chorus 2. That place checks the grip change, the move on the map and the pulse. A mistake in the chorus does not require starting the song from the top.

Tab answers where to put a finger, the stave when and how long a note sounds, and the chord sheet where the song goes. On this page you mainly need the third answer.