Today, I am going to teach
you how to play from a lead
sheet. If you do not know what I
am talking about, a lead sheet
is music notation that includes
the melody line, the lyrics, and
chord symbols.
At the present time, you do
not see many lead sheets in
church music. They are
very common in popular music,
especially jazz. You may
have heard of fake books.
Fake books are simply books of
lead sheets. By the way,
there is nothing fake about
playing out of a fake book--in
fact, you are about to learn it
requires a great amount of
skill.
So why do I want you to learn
how to play a lead sheet?
There are a few reasons:
It is going to introduce
you to the chords I
personally use and the
chords I want to teach you.
Once you start playing and
hearing them, you will
eventually play them
instinctively.
It forces you to improve
your theory. You will
have to know the notes in
the chord and learn how to
voice them so they sound
good.
Even though you will not
see many lead sheets in a
church setting, many songs
you play will have chord
symbols. If you know
how to play lead sheets, you
can play in lead sheet style
which comes in very handy at
times (such as when
you are asked to sight read
something very hard). I do this
all of the time.
Transposing is much
easier to do when you are
playing in lead sheet mode.
When you stop to think about
it, improvising from a lead
sheet may be easier than
improvising from something like
a 4 part harmony in a hymnal.
After all, you don't have to
analyze the chords to
determine what they are--the
chord is given to you in a lead
sheet. I
am confident that though you
will find it difficult at first,
you will be able to learn to
play this way.
Now, let's talk about chord
symbols. Everyone uses
different symbols, but here are
the ones I am going to use
(hopefully consistently).
I am going to give all the
chords you will see along with
an example.
Major
C
Minor
Cmin
Dominant
C7
Major 7th
CMaj7
Minor 7th
Cmin7
Diminished
Cdim
Half diminished
Cmin7(b5)
I have not talked about
diminished or half diminished
chords yet, so let me do that
now.
A diminished chord is simply
a chord made up of four notes
where there is a minor third
between each one. Here is
an example:
Don't be confused by the way
it is written. If you play
the notes in the order of C, D#,
F#, and A, you will see the
three minor thirds.
A half diminished chord is a
chord made up of four notes
where the first three notes are
separated by minor thirds and
the fourth note is a major third
higher than the third note.
Here is an example:
Again, the actual order of
these notes in the chord is C,
D#, F#, Bb. So why do I write a
C half diminished chord as Cmin7(b5)?
Examine the chord above again
and see if this is not a good
description. Making a
chord minor means that there is
a minor third between the first
two notes. Lowering the
fifth makes the interval between
the 2nd and 3rd notes a minor
third. The distance
between a lowered fifth and the
7th is a major third. So,
Cmin7(b5) is an
accurate way to label a half
diminished chord.
You may be thinking that I am
missing chords from the table
above. There are numerous
variations of those chords,
but these are the basic ones you
need to know.
If you are wondering about the
augmented chord, that is a
variation of a major
chord (raised 5th). I
would write it as C(#5)
or if it is a dominant, C7(#5).
I do want to talk about the
major 6th chords because you are
about to see some. A major
6th chord is simply a major
chord with the 6th in it.
In a C chord, that would be an
A. Here is an example of a
C6 chord.
Don't worry about where we
will actually use each of these
chords yet. I will go into
much more detail later. I
am giving you just enough
information so that you can play
a lead sheet.
Now here is a lead sheet for
a simple hymn.
You may notice that these
chords are far more complex than
what you would see in a hymnal.
When you finish learning this
song, you are going to be
surprised at how good it sounds.
Note that there are few color
notes specified in the chords.
Those are for you to find and
add on your own. Lead
sheets typically leave these
notes out unless the melody
itself is a color note. In
this lead sheet, the major 6th
chords are written that way
because the 6th is the melody
note. Otherwise, I would
not have labeled them that way.
I have included the Bb/C
slash chords in this example to
help you find some great color
notes. This is a very
versatile chord that you will
grow to love. Just know
that I am labeling it that way
to keep things simple, and
normally, I would label it
differently. All the other
slash chords are inversions.
You might be wondering if
these are the chords I would use
on this hymn. The answer
is yes (at least some of the
time--if I played the song ten
times, I would probably use some
different chords each time).
However, the biggest difference
between this lead sheet harmony
and the harmony I would play
would be the color notes I add.
Now, let me give you a few
steps to get you started practicing
this lead sheet.
Play the melody as
the top note in your right
hand.
Play the chord root as
the bottom note in the left
hand (unless it is an
inversion).
Fill in the other notes
of the chord in between the
melody and bass note.
Try to use each note only
once. If you are going
to double a note, double the
melody note. Try to
spread the notes out fairly
evenly.
Try to add color notes
(notes outside the chord).
For example, if you are
playing a dominant chord,
possible color notes are the
flat 9th, 9th, sharp 9th,
11th, sharp 11th, flat 13th,
and 13th.
For the time being, just play
the chords very simply.
Don't play arpeggios in either
hand and keep your hands close
together.
Don't expect to learn all of
this in a day, a week, or even a
month. This week, just try
to apply steps 1-3 to one song.
I am going to cover step 4 in
much more detail in the next
lesson.
Practice strategy:
Practice steps 1-3 on "Take
My Life and Let It Be."
Don't get frustrated--take
it slow. If you get
very comfortable, go ahead
and start trying to add a
color note or two to each
chord.
