The Unfortunate Challenges of Acquiring Song Charts: A Perspective from Music Professionals

In the music industry, aspiring musicians often rely heavily on acquiring chords to their favourite tracks to hone their performance repertoire. While diving into the music world may sound fairly straightforward, musicians often face unforeseen difficulties in their path. This article explores a persisting issue with acquiring song chords and offers potential solutions to work around it.

The Problem with Ultimate Guitar

Enthusiastic cover band members often use ultimate-guitar.com as their primary source for reliable chords. However, often serious roadblocks are encountered when looking up chords for specific songs. Not all songs or artists are equally accessible on this platform. There seems to be a correlation with the unavailable songs mostly being from female pop singers.

The key issue here is that artists or their publishers sometimes prevent their work from being available on these chord platforms which deprives users of learning their music. These sites, for instance, Ultimate Guitar, generate ad revenue from site traffic. So, when a song is removed from the platform, they are myself deprived of potential income. This also shoots the artist in the foot, prohibiting avid learners from easily learning and performing their music.

If Not Ultimate Guitar, Then What?

An intrinsic skill for musicians is ear training, extremely important when encountering unavailable chords online. Musicians need to be resourceful, be able to identify chords by hearing and translate that onto their instruments. While this may seem like a harder approach initially, it not only deepens understanding of the song but also provides an edge in musicianship.

In terms of available resources, YouTube often proves useful in these scenarios. Dedicated music enthusiasts or tutors sometimes upload song tutorials, guiding musicians through the chords and melodious unraveling of many tracks. Although these tutorials may not be well-optimized, exploring these resources can often help learners to play their desired tracks.

Conclusion: The Way Forward

While a convenient chord chart from Ultimate Guitar might save you time, exploring alternative ways to learn songs can fundamentally build your music skills. The experience is also likely to make you a more adaptable musician. Meanwhile, artists and publishers must recognize that making their music’s chords easily accessible is beneficial, not detrimental. After all, it leads to increased visibility and appreciation of their tracks.

Remember, every roadblock in your learning journey encourages innovation and improvisation. Embrace these challenges, and you'll probably end up being a more proficient musician. So, keep exploring, keep learning, and most importantly, keep playing!