Steamshistle,

Welcome to the forums.

The easiest way to enter chords is to place them in the correct bar from the start. While it's possible to add them and then insert bars, it would be time consuming. Shifting chords a half a bar, if that arises, is less straightforward.

Since you have experience to guide you, I'm pretty sure that you'll find it quite easy to place chords correctly after a little bit of practice. Here's how I do it for a song in 4/4 time...

1. With my lefthand I continuously tap groups of 4 beats with the first beat tapped harder than the rest.

It is this first beat where most of the chords will be placed. Beat 3 is also a contender for chords but much less so usually. While it's still possible, Beats 2 and 4 rarely have chords.

2. As I'm tapping, I sing/talk the words or hum the melody. Because I will know the song I'm working with, I can always hear when I'd need to enter a chord change.

3. Since each Beat 1 of my tapping represents the first beat of a bar, if I tap 3 x Beat 1 from one chord to the next chord, it means that: (a) I have the chord in the first bar; (b) 2 blank bars; and (c) the new chord in the next bar.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Noel

MY SONGS...
Audiophile BIAB 2026