The 5-Minute Lead Sheet

Live from Los Angeles, California
YouTube Playlists: Jazz Foundation & Solo Singing

If you haven’t done it already, isn’t it time to learn how to write your own lead sheets? It’s no fun paying someone else to do it when it’s easy to do yourself! Luckily, for a simple lead sheet it’s not necessary to have a PhD in jazz theory or piano. The process is fairly easy after you have already found a version of the song from a fakebook or online:

1. Write the title and groove on your lead sheet page.

2. Draw all the bar lines, 4 per line to create the layout. It’s ideal if you know the song form of the tune (then adjust the layout accordingly,) but if you don’t, you can still simply write out 4 bars per line to complete your lead sheet.

3. Then go to a piano and figure out how many half steps there are (up or down) between the original key and the key you’re changing to.

4. After that, write in every chord above its corresponding measure as you see on the original version. Transpose the letter if each chord symbol (for example the “D” of “Dmin7”) to your key, and for the rest of the markings, just copy them over exactly as you see them. It’s ideal if you know what all the markings mean, but for the moment – it’s not absolutely necessary!

5. Finally, add slashes within each measure representing beats of the measures, and anything else you see in the original such as double bars or repeats, and you’re done!

The lead sheet in this video actually took only THREE minutes. Try it out!

LINKS
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JAZZ SINGER’S HANDBOOK
By Michele Weir (Alfred Music)

Contains a chapter dedicated to lead sheet writing with everything you need to know, presented in a detailed step by step process. Also there’s another chapter on taking it to the next level by adding an intro, ending, and arranging features.