A lead sheet is form of music notation the describes the melody, lyrics and harmony of a popular song. The melody is written in traditional music notation, the lyric is written as text below the staff and the harmony is described by chord symbols above the staff. Music notation is a system of writing for music. ... Look up melody in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Lyric can have a number of meanings. ... Harmony is the use and study of pitch simultaneity, and therefore chords, actual or implied, in music. ... Popular music is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and are disseminated by one or more of the mass media. ... Music notation is a system of writing for music. ... In musical notation, the staff or stave is a set of five horizontal lines on which note symbols are placed to indicate pitch and time. ... In music a chord symbol is an abbreviated notation for chord names and qualities, using letters, numbers, and other symbols. ...

A lead sheet captures the essence of a popular song. All information about a particular arrangement or performance of a song has been removed. For this reason, a lead sheet is usually the form of a song to which copyright is applied. In music, an arrangement refers either to a rewriting of a piece of existing music with additional new material or to a fleshing-out of a compositional sketch, such as a lead sheet. ... Copyright symbol Copyright is a set of exclusive rights regulating the use of a particular expression of an idea or information. ...

It is often the only form of written music used by a small jazz ensemble. One or more musicians will play the melody while the rest of the group improvises an appropriate accompaniment based on the chord progression given in the chord symbols, followed by an improvised solo also based on the chord progression. Similarly, a sufficiently skilled jazz pianist should be able to accompany a singer and perform a song by himself using only a lead sheet. Jazz is a musical art form that originated in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States around the start of the 20th century. ... A chord progression (also chord sequence and harmonic progression or sequence), as its name implies, is a series of chords played in order. ... In music a chord symbol is an abbreviated notation for chord names and qualities, using letters, numbers, and other symbols. ... A chord progression (also chord sequence and harmonic progression or sequence), as its name implies, is a series of chords played in order. ... Jazz is a musical art form that originated in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States around the start of the 20th century. ... Pianist Claudio Arrau, Carnegie Hall, 1954. ...

Collections of lead sheets are called "fakebooks," as in the old cliche "I don't know the song but if you hum a few bars I can fake it." The most famous fakebook is called, ironically, "The Real Book" A fake book is a collection of simplified sheet music (sometimes called fake music or lead sheets), either transcribed manually or copied from some other source. ... The Real Book can refer to any of a number of popular jazz fake books, but is generally used to refer to Volume 1 of a semi-underground series transcribed and collated by students at Berklee College of Music during the 1970s. ...

External links

• Gospel Lead Sheet Examples - Gospel lead sheets typically include the lyrics with the chords written above them.
• Real Book/Lead Sheet Directory - Searchable database of Real Book Songs and Lead Sheets.
• Electronic Real Book - Interactive fake book software with all transpositions of famous jazz standards.
• Wikifonia - A wiki for Pop/Rock/Jazz/... Lead Sheets in high quality pdf.
• Leadsheet Notation Textual notation for creating, communicating, and playing leadsheets.