The first song: practise one phrase, not the whole thing

Open Hej sokoły. The song has twenty-four bars, four grips and three sections. Do not play it from start to finish yet. Take the first phrase.

Switch to Chart and mark four bars

This card opens on Notes. Switch to Chart, the chord sheet, so you see chords above the words. Leave Notes, Tab and the backing for later.

The link does not store a selection. On the song screen mark bars 1 to 4 and turn the loop on. The button says: “Pick bars to play or loop just a fragment”.

What sits in those four bars

You hold Am for two bars, then the whole hand moves to E. The words go one line per bar.

Bar	Chord	What you sing
1	Am	Hej tam gdzieś znad
2	Am	czarnej wody
3	E	wsiada na koń
4	E	kozak młody

Slow down until the change arrives in time

You lower the tempo on the same page, without changing the pitch. If Am does not become E before the next beat one, go lower. There is no number you have to pass.

Highlighting shows which word should fall now. If the hand is late on “wsiada”, stay in the loop of those four bars. Do not start again from bar 1 of the whole song.

Then join the next phrase

When those four bars sit calmly, mark bars 1 to 8, the whole verse. Joining two phrases is a separate try: the hand likes to stop exactly on the join.

Leave the whole song until later. If the ending falls apart because you always start from the first line, take the guide on learning from the end. You then practise the last bars first. You do not play the notes backwards.