The Three Key Phases of a Sing-Along Song [Part 4/5] 🎶 · The School of Guitar

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The Three Key Phases of a Sing-Along Song [Part 4/5] 🎶

So far this week I've been sharing some singalong stories, as well as how I got into playing at music sessions, without knowing much chords or rhythm at all.

..and then there was the singalong chord cheatsheet I shared yesterday..

Today I wanted to share with ye about the the phases of joining in with ONE singalong song..

Let's jump in!

1️⃣ "The Before"

Before the song starts try and gleam as more info as you can from the person who's about to start playing the song..

Here are some quick questions you can ask, that won't overload the person, draw too much attention on you YET give you just enough info to join the dots.

"What key are you in?" <pretty musical lingo> ..some players might not know the answer to this..so instead ask:
"What are the main chords are you using?" ..this keeps it high-level, because this way, they might answer "G D A Bm"..instead of feeling obligated to show you everything in the song, and holding up the singalong.
"Whats the first few chords you play in this?"..again, this is high-level but it gives you the first line or two of chords the person will play, because odds are, this is what they are currently reminding themselves of!

🗣️ You ask: "What key are you in?"

🎶 OUTCOME 1: They answer: "Key of G"

📋 You think of our chord cheatsheet from yesterday, and now you've a couple of chords to be aiming towards.

🎶 OUTCOME 2: They answer: "dunno"

Then You Ask: "no prob, whats your first few chords?"

..then you'll probably see them play them real quick in order to remember them..

Pro-tip: if you see them do this, they'll probably play the chords in the order they are meant to go in..

2️⃣ "The During"

So..song STARTS....

You are now equipped with one or more chords from step 1..

Now, this part of the song is ALL about where you direct your focus, gaze and attention..

When I played at my first few singalongs, I soon began to realise the importance of locating the PTF.

👉👉👉 PTF is a Person - To - Follow.

This is the person who's chord hand you watch like a hawk..

Forget about the rhythm, just do all downs, or if you cop on that it is a familiar sounding rhythm, give it a go, but seriously, starting out of the blocks, you wanna lock in on the chords and chord progressions in this song.

Lower any expectations of playing the song at the same level or quality of the person leading it..

They've probably played it a ton of times, and here you are joining in for fun.

Let them lead, you just blend in, playing quietly.

Get louder as you get more of a grip on the song.

And remember a song isn't a one-time event..

It's broken up into song sections like:

INTRO

VERSE

PRE-CHORUS

BRIDGE

..and some of these sections happen multiple times in a song, let's say you've played the first verse and made it through, well, you'll have a better idea of the second verse when it comes round!

And you know the way that groups of chords tend to be played 4 times in a row?

.. (Em C G D)x4 kind of thing

Well, it's at the END of the 4th time you play a bunch of chords that it's time to really get your spidey senses tingling because..if a new song section is coming up, then this is the place chords could change drastically...

..or maybe they won't... you know those songs that have 4 chords in a loop the whole way through? ..yeah those ones ;)

Ok so that's the info gathering before you start, playing the song the best you can, being aware of chord changes in different song sections..

Song finishes, now what?

3️⃣ "The Debrief"

In those early days I realised that unless I went off and learnt some of the songs that the others were playing at the singalongs, then I'd be forever lost..

My goal wasn't to play everything all the time, perfectly, with no mistakes.

My goal was simply to do more singalongs and play better more times than I didn't. And to be ok with not joining in on everything.

Honestly, I was amazed too when I realised just how little attention anyone at the session paid to what I was playing, sometimes the sound was so loud, I could barely hear what I was playing myself.

But in order to do something different, you must know what to do..

So I would chat with my friend at the end of each session..

He was way more experienced than me, was playing most of the time during the session, and always seemed to know what to do, even when something went wrong.

I'd ask him things like:

whats that chord you played during that queen song?
that toto song was insane, what's it called?
which of these songs do the crew play often?
Whats the strum pattern of that Mary Black song?

And I would make lists of the songs the others played, go off and get more of a grip on them..

..I wouldn't try and master the song, just be a bit more aware of how it went..

Because I don't know if you've noticed but we all play some songs just a "little" different.

And you don't want to rigidly learn songs, you want to get the outline of them and invest more of your time keeping an open mind and open eyes at a music session...

..because things change and this post today has been about trying to figure out enough things as possible to have some "controllables" in the middle of the unpredictability of a singalong.

So that's about it, the before, during and after of a singalong..

And it's a process, a practice, a bit of fun...

So what was your biggest takeaway from this?

I'd love to hear below..and what would you want to try the next time you sit in on a session?

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