19

Lead Sheets and Scores

In This Chapter

◆Create clear and readable written music

◆Understand the differences between lead sheets, chord sheets, and scores

◆Learn how to create a full score for choir, big band, or orchestra

◆Explore easy-to-use music notation software for your computer

Once you’ve written a piece of music, you need to present it in a way that other
musicians can easily read. There are many different approaches to creating
written music; which ones you use depends in part on the type of music you’ve
written and who will be playing it.

If you’ve written a song for a rock or country band, the music you write can be
fairly simple—chords and melody will generally suffice. If, on the other hand,
you’ve written a full-blown symphony (good for you!), you’ll need to create a
detailed score containing the individual parts for each and every instrument in
the orchestra.

Whatever type of written music you create, you need to keep it neat and make
it easily understandable. Musicians have to be able to read the music at first pass
(called sight reading), which means it helps to follow certain established parame-
ters. There’s no point in being unique if nobody can read your music!

Follow the Rules

Whatever type of music you prepare, you need to follow certain notation
rules—guidelines, actually, since they’re not set in stone. These guidelines
include the following:

◆The first instance of each staff for each instrument or voice must have its

own clef sign, key signature, and time signature.

◆Typically, the time signature is shown only in the very first measure—and

wherever a time change appears.

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