When a section is defined and there are no chords beside its name tag, that usually means one of two things:

  1. Either its chords are the same as the first section, which is usually the [Intro] section
  2. Or its chords are the same as those of another section

When its chords are the same as the first section

In that case, there won’t be any mention of the first section inside the name tag. This is actually a very common example, hence the importance of the [Intro] section!

In the example below, the chords for both the [Verse] and [Chorus] sections, as well as for the second Verse, are all the same as the chords attached to the [Intro] section (in red). The only section that doesn’t use the same chords is the [Bridge] section (in green).

When its chords are the same as those of another section

In that case, the name of that other section will be referred to inside the name tag. For instance, [Link - Chorus] means that the chords of the [Link] section are the same as the ones attached to the [Chorus] section.

Check out this one-pager for instance. The chords for the [Outro] section are the same as the chords of the [Chorus] section, i.e. G#m7 F#m7 F#m7 F#m7 - B7 C#m7 C#m7 C#m7

The name of the referred section can be on the next line

Sometimes, the name of the referred section is not separated by a - but is instead on the next line. This basically means exactly the same, as long as the names of both sections are enclosed within the same tag.

In this example, the [Instru] section defined at the end (in red) shares the same chords as the [Outro] section (in green) and it should be played twice.

A rare case worth mentioning: when the chords of a section are attached elsewhere

In some one-pagers, you may find a section whose name tag starts with a * (e.g. [*Intro]) with some chords attached to it. This means these are the chords of the corresponding section (e.g. [Intro]). The reason is there was simply no space available where the section is defined to attached these chords.

Let’s have a look at an example:

  • The [Outro] section is defined at the end of the page (in green), meaning that this is where it should be played
  • The chords for the [Outro] section are attached to the placeholder section [*Outro] (in red)
    • As mentioned above, you shouldn’t actually play that section in red—i.e. there’s nothing to play in between the last Verse and the last Chorus