Comments

• pdaigle Montreal, QCNew

  March 2009 Posts: 233

  Basically, each chord box represents 4 beats. If the box contains only one chord, you play 4 beats of that chord. When the box is split in half, you play two beats of the chord in the top triangle and two beats of the chord in the bottom triangle.
• jamie New

  March 2009 Posts: 4

  Thanks!...how about a box that is blank, or has a % or a - symbol??
• pdaigle Montreal, QCNew

  March 2009 Posts: 233

  Blank or a % or a dash ( - ) means you have to repeat the same chord as the preceding box (i.e. stay on it for 4 more beats).
  
  In the following example you would start with 8 beats of D (one box containing D for 4 beats and the following blank box for 4 beats) then 8 beats of E7 followed by 4 beats of Em7 then 4 beats of A7, etc...
  
  
• jamie New

  March 2009 Posts: 4

  Got it! Thank you very much! I'm just a stringband/bluegrass girl trying expand my musical horizons and really like what I hear when I listen to Gypsy Jazz.....thanks again..
• Samuel New

  July 2009 Posts: 46

  another question about grills or chord charts...
  
  If you have something that has a chord followed by several /'s in the same "box", what do the slashes mean?
  
  like if something goes [C / / / ]
  
  and similarly, if you have something like: [Bb-7 / Eb7], is that just a way of saying you can play either of those chords? Since in the same chart I see parts where two chords are noted in the same "box" and it's obvious they mean you to play one after the other, but in the example above, it doesn't seem to fit the song to play one after another
• JazzDawg New

  July 2009 Posts: 264

  Samuel,
  
  Not sure if you are referring to grilles or chord charts. Mostly when I see a Cm7 / / / type of example, it's from a chord chart. In that case, it means play the Cm7 chord for 4 beats. If you see Dm7 / G7 it means play the Dm7 2 beats and G7 for 2 beats. I've not see that kind of notation in grilles though.
  
  Here's a link to a site that I've used, which has a sample 'All of Me' where you can get a better view of how to read grilles. http://djangosolos.com/transcriptions.php
  
  Hope that helps, you might want to include an actual example of a chart or grille you are having trouble, and maybe we can pinpoint the solution for you.
  
  Stay tuned...
• Samuel New

  July 2009 Posts: 46

  Yeah I was looking at the Robin Nolan gig book and how they notate things and it seems kind of confusing. I'll see if I can put a picture up of what I'm talking about
  
  edit: if anyone has the gig book, Nuages is an example of what I'm talking about. The first part of the chords says [Bb-7 / Eb7 /] and then the next thing says [A-7b5 D7] (note the lack of /'s)
  
  So I'm not sure what the difference between the two designations is
  
  Looking at a grill of Nuages, it seems like you'd do 4 beats of Eb7 and then 2 of A-7b5 and then two of D7 before going on to a G chord. So I'm not sure what the Bb-7 of the example I gave is supposed to do...just a different chord you can play? What a second guitar could play? Or do they really want several beats of Bb-7 before going to Eb7
• Jack western Massachusetts✭✭✭✭

  July 2009 Posts: 1,752

  Samuel wrote:

  Yeah I was looking at the Robin Nolan gig book and how they notate things and it seems kind of confusing. I'll see if I can put a picture up of what I'm talking about
  
  edit: if anyone has the gig book, Nuages is an example of what I'm talking about. The first part of the chords says [Bb-7 / Eb7 /] and then the next thing says [A-7b5 D7] (note the lack of /'s)
  
  So I'm not sure what the difference between the two designations is
  
  Looking at a grill of Nuages, it seems like you'd do 4 beats of Eb7 and then 2 of A-7b5 and then two of D7 before going on to a G chord. So I'm not sure what the Bb-7 of the example I gave is supposed to do...just a different chord you can play? What a second guitar could play? Or do they really want several beats of Bb-7 before going to Eb7

  
  yeah, both are ii-V ideas, so 2 beats of Bbm7, 2 of Eb7, etc--in this case there's really only one note that's changing, but using the Bbm7 gives it a hipper sound.
  
  The example you give uses the slash for beat markings, just don't confuse it with something like A13/Bb, which is an A chord with the b9 in the bass, or Am/F# (F# in the bass) etc...
  
  best,
  Jack.
• Samuel New

  July 2009 Posts: 46

  Thanks, I think I see why I was confused. They just use the slashes in the first "measure" to designate how many beats, but then don't use them after that
  
  Thanks for helping me clear that up