Song Timing
Pay attention to the time signature which tells how many beats per measure. It is top number of the signature, usually 4 and sometimes 3. In a few cases, it can be 6.
There will be a chord symbol for each measure. A letter is the chord name-- A, B, C# etc. If the chord is repeated for a second measure, it will get the '/' designation, which means "keep playing the same chord."
If there is more than one chord in a measure, the symbols are displayed with a dot-- usually a dotted chord will get 2 beats in a 4-beat song. In this case, 2 dotted chords would represent one measure of music.
Strum Guidance
Most songs have one or two strums on the top of the sheet.
These are merely suggestions. There are many possibilities.
We have strum pattern examples on the website; the names are not official.
You can always try one or two strums per measure.
A single strum is shown with an exclamation point (!) in the symbol. These are usually down strums.
Song Parts and Lyric Coordination
When the vocal lyric starts on a later beat, it is displayed to the right of the chord symbol.
A chorus or refrain will be printed with blue type and indented
A bridge part will be printed in purple
Most songs have an Intro or Outro, either chords or notes in tab format