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Only a very small percentage of jazz musicians use fake book lead sheets? That's news to me!
Originally Posted by pamosmusic
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05-16-2025 04:50 PM
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I actually can't remember the last time I used a lead sheet to play a standard personally, but some people use them. (I do practice sight-reading lead sheets for tunes I don't know from real books.)
More to the point - notes are notes. Just write the part you want your musicians to play. If I am writing a part for the horns I won't notate chords. You just put them in for the solos. Don't clutter the music any more necessary.
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1. I second Christian. Originally Posted by Mick-7
2. that is very clearly not what I said:
“lead sheets are a very small percentage of the music written out there.”
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Yes, but we're presumably talking about people who play jazz, and I'm sure they read a lot more song lead sheets or transcriptions than anything else. Originally Posted by pamosmusic
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Erm … okay? Originally Posted by Mick-7
When we’re writing music is that what we’re writing mostly?
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I see lead sheets all the time. If I get called for a gig by a new leader, I always end up with lead sheets. I know the usual 50 or so (not the hundreds some people know) but nobody usually wants to play those. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I don't see it much when I go out and I almost never get called to do one (which, of course, proves nothing).
And, even leaders that call the old chestnuts, often have their own arrangements, so the version in your head may not be the one you have to play. For that matter, there are different versions of common tunes, both of which get played. Like that extra four bars in Desafinado. Or the turnaround in Meditation.
When I write parts for other instruments, I might include the chord changes even during melody sections. Why? To give the player a better chance to recover quickly in case he gets lost. I like it when the chart has info about what else is going on in the band - which the pro arrangers often do.
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I saved a few lead sheets from my college jazz band days, the guitar and piano parts and a horn section part or two. I'm looking at one now by Sammy Nestico. The piano part has melodies written for the pianist with chord names written above them, and the names of the melody notes match the chord tone names, which are sometimes contrary to the key signature. When he wants the pianist to play specific chord voicings in a section, e.g., in the coda, he writes them out but otherwise only the chord names are written. Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
None of the charts adhere to the ascending/descending accidentals rule that's been proposed here. As you said, arrangers generally want the musicians to understand the piece of music they're playing so that they can perform it well.
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Well yeah Mick, a piano part is going to have chord symbols above it when they have melodies written. Because they accompany for themselves.
Saxophone, not so much.
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A lead sheet allows everyone to get by on an unfamiliar tune but I can’t think of a situation where it represents an end point. Presumably in an ideal world we’d either learn the tune or write a proper arrangement. Or both?
In a way they are a bit of a halfway house. Sort of ‘we are giving this a go.’ A lot of my tunes are basically lead sheets, and that’s not unusual.
Chords in the head are relevant to some band members more than others. A horn player doesn’t care about the chords if they are reading the melody line. It’s of relevance to the rhythm section.
Obviously if it’s an arrangement you write the bits that are relevant for the musician in question.
Over time I’ve realised that if you are writing complex music it’s common courtesy to not ask the band to make up too much of it.
Write the bass line, melody and harmony lines and indicate the blowing harmonies where needed, cleanly, clearly and with as little BS as possible.
Guitar/piano parts are a slightly different affair obviously. We generally have more choices to make.
In practice there’s a few lead sheets in my bands pad but that’s on me lol. Sometimes it’s nice to not over arrange stuff.
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Get Me Joe Beck.
My favorite guitar trio album -- and it was a pickup band playing standards they all knew. Second night of a two night gig -- the first night went so well, they decided to record the second, and that's the album.
The point being that great musicians can make great music starting from a lead sheet or, in this case, basically a memory of a lead sheet. It requires allowing the creative juices to flow and a lot of interaction. When it goes well, it's my favorite music.
The stuff I do in small groups is usually based on lead sheets. But, I'm not using multiple horns with horn background parts. I have some friends who have a band that does that. They make it sound easy, but it is an impressive amount of work to put together a couple hour long show at that level of professionalism.
One last point, about memorizing the tunes. If you're going to play the usual vanilla versions, sure. But, my band book is about 250 arrangements written in lead sheet format. And, I occasionally have to use subs if someone can't make a gig. I don't see how playing this stuff from memory will work.
And, my experience is that even when I'm hired for standards gigs, I am handed a book of lead sheets. That wasn't often true when I started out in the 60's, but it has usually been true recently.
I think that's because nobody wants to play the 50 or so standards that everybody knows. Joe Beck made it work, proving the concept, but it's not what I see happening. Maybe at his skill level?
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It almost sounds like what you write will be different depending on what the music is and what you know about the musicians playing it.
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There's a bit of thing among professional straight ahead players to not use lead sheets. It's a point of pride.
That said I know many pro players who are primarily booked as readers, and they do often use lead sheets on the odd occasion when they are playing standards.
Myself, I would rather play tunes I know if I'm playing melodies. OTOH if I'm comping and don't know the tune, it's often the case I can get the changes down quickly enough to at least not stare at iReal. I have decent enough ears to work out tunes like that quickly, but iReal does mean I can get the lay of the land quickly (oh it's a move to IV and then a turnaround, bridge goes down the a major third' etc) and then go from there. iReal has taken the niche one filled by real books... not altogether a good thing, as those charts don't have the melody.
If it's originals there will be charts of some type, at least until we've played enough gigs to start memorising them.
(Apparently Tigran expects everyone to learn his bonkers music by ear.)
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