Hi Ian,

It sounds like the SGU file's creator has used what music theorists call pedal point. What the (P4) is indicating is that you have a bass note set for 4 bars.

This is accomplished by right-clicking on the chord sheet and selecting "Chord Settings" from the pop-up menu (ALT+F5 is the shortcut).

Here's an example.



You can see that bar 1 has C/E(P4).

Opening the "Chord settings" dialogue shows that the bass note for the chord has been set to E (#2) and that it lasts for 4 bars (#3). This note E is set to be played on beats 2 & 4 (#4). Because of this setting, whatever chords I put in the first 4 bars, the bass will always play 'E' (even if "/bass note" is not used).

If you want to clear these, simply click on the "Clear all bars" button (#5).

Pedal point is an excellent way of creating musical tension.

Hope this helps,
Noel

P.S. In my recent song "Fly, Angel, Fly" presently in the User Showcase forum, I use this pedal point setting in exiting the bridge and entering the chorus. I have the bass line playing on E for the last two bars of the bridge while the chords change (2 per bar) "E A | Bm E9sus". Because my pedal point is only 2 bars long, I have (P2) on my BIAB chord sheet.

MY SONGS...
Audiophile BIAB 2025