Read It Cold

Reading a chart in the key you studied it in proves nothing. Every round below is set in a key that page never showed you, which is the only version of the test that counts.

There is a particular kind of false fluency that comes from studying one chart in one key. The numbers stop being numbers and turn into a memory of six chord shapes in a row, and the memory works perfectly right up until somebody calls a different key and the whole thing evaporates. The only cure is to read the same page somewhere it has never been read before.

So each round below takes one of the four charts and sets it in a key that chart's own page never uses. Read the bars, name every chord out loud, and only then open the answer. Getting one wrong is not the failure state — taking four seconds over it is, because on a session floor you get about one.

Round 1: Bare Numbers, in E

Eight bars, ten numbers, no other mark on the page. 4 beats to the bar. Name every chord before you open the answer.

  1. 1
  2. 1
  3. 4
  4. 1
  5. 5
  6. 4
  7. 1
  8. 57
The answer in E
  1. 1 → E (bar 1)
  2. 1 → E (bar 2)
  3. 4 → A (bar 3)
  4. 1 → E (bar 4)
  5. 5 → B (bar 5)
  6. 4 → A (bar 6)
  7. 1 → E (bar 7)
  8. 57 → B7 (bar 8)

Round 2: Split Bars, in B

Two chords in one bar, and the beats that say which one gets more of it. 4 beats to the bar. Name every chord before you open the answer.

  1. 1
  2. 45
  3. 6-
  4. 45
  5. 1
  6. 2-757
  7. 1
  8. 1
The answer in B
  1. 1 → B (bar 1)
  2. 4 5 → E F# (bar 2)
  3. 6- → G#m (bar 3)
  4. 4 5 → E F# (bar 4)
  5. 1 → B (bar 5)
  6. 2-7 57 → C#m7 F#7 (bar 6)
  7. 1 → B (bar 7)
  8. 1 → B (bar 8)

Round 3: Pushes and Holds, in F

Where the chord arrives, and where the band stops counting. 4 beats to the bar. Name every chord before you open the answer.

  1. 1
  2. <4
  3. 1
  4. <5
  5. 4
  6. 45sus
  7. 57
  8. ◇1
The answer in F
  1. 1 → F (bar 1)
  2. <4 → A# (bar 2)
  3. 1 → F (bar 3)
  4. <5 → C (bar 4)
  5. 4 → A# (bar 5)
  6. 4 5sus → A# Csus4 (bar 6)
  7. 57 → C7 (bar 7)
  8. ◇1 → F (bar 8)

Round 4: Minors and Slashes, in A

The minus, a bass note of its own, and a degree the key does not contain. 3 beats to the bar. Name every chord before you open the answer.

  1. 1
  2. 1/3
  3. 4
  4. 6-
  5. 2-7
  6. b7
  7. 5sus5
  8. ◇1
The answer in A
  1. 1 → A (bar 1)
  2. 1/3 → A/C# (bar 2)
  3. 4 → D (bar 3)
  4. 6- → F#m (bar 4)
  5. 2-7 → Bm7 (bar 5)
  6. b7 → G (bar 6)
  7. 5sus 5 → Esus4 E (bar 7)
  8. ◇1 → A (bar 8)

Getting faster at this

Two habits do most of the work. The first is fixing the 1 before anything else: the moment a key is called, put the tonic somewhere physical — an open string, a hand position, a spot on the keyboard — and let every other number arrive relative to it rather than being looked up from scratch. The second is reading a bar ahead. A chart is not a score; nobody is tracking your eyes, and the whole reason a guitarist can play from one is that they saw bar five while playing bar four.

When these four stop being hard, the useful next step is not a harder chart — it is the same four charts in the five keys that need an accidental somewhere, which is where the grid earns its keep. Fluency in the seven easy keys is most of the job; fluency in the other five is what separates a reader from somebody who has memorised a lot of songs.