Music Composition DUMmIES

Most guitar-centric or popular music magazines publish at least one or two

lead sheets per issue, ones that are usually based on contemporary songs.

There are also stacks and stacks of books that compile many lead sheets,

called fakebooks. The best-known fakebook is called, perhaps confusingly,

The Real Book(Hal Leonard Corporation, currently in its 6th edition). In a

fakebook, you’re provided with a melody line, chord name, a guitar chord

chart showing the proper fingering for each chord to be played, and the

lyrics of the song.

For many cover bands, making their way through a fakebook of modern rock

tunes is about as deep into music theory as they ever get. Or need to get.

Being able to work off a lead sheet or fakebook as a musician can be immensely

satisfying, as they give a musician the room to make up his or her own version

of the song.

Many times, a very basic lead sheet is all a good jazz or pop ensemble needs

to get rolling. A good rule of thumb is that the bass player of the band is the

one with the most detailed sheet music, because, as the fulcrum of the band,

the bass player needs to know exactly when a chord or tempo change is to be

expected. So if you wanted to only write one part for a whole ensemble to

work off of, you would write out a specific bass line, showing the note values

and tempo needed as well as the notes to be played for the bass part.

By writing the chord symbols above the staff on that same lead sheet, you then

provide enough information for the pianist and the guitarist to work from.

Then, because the bass player is playing something very specific and is already

defining the basic rhythm of the piece, the percussionist would be able to use

this same chart to figure out when to play. Instead of needing an individual

rhythm chart, a drummer can look at a bass player’s melodic phrasing and

see where the accents are. Knowing how to put together a good lead sheet

that everyone in the band can use can save you a lot of time.

Listen to any old jazz or funk record — especially from the catalog of Stax

Records, which represented such performers as Otis Redding and Booker T.

& the MGs during their heyday — and you can hear this musical process

unfold for yourself. They almost all start off with the drums and a bass riff.

&c œ œ œ œ

C

œ œ œ œ

FF#dim

œ œ œ œ

Gdim

œ œ œ œ

C

Figure 19-1:

This lead

sheet is

for the

traditional

song, “Little

Brown Jug.”

242 Part IV: Orchestration and Arrangement