Chapter 19
Chapter 19: Composing for Other Musicians..............................................................
In This Chapter
Getting to know lead sheets
Keeping tabs: guitar tablature
Writing down the full score
Writing for ensembles and foreign musicians
T
here comes a time in almost every composer’s life when he or she is going
to have to work with other musicians. And while it’s fine to sit and jam
with a couple of guys (or gals), shout chord changes to one another, record
the session, and call the end result a song — it’s entirely another thing to sit
down and write a piece of music that any musicians with some basic music
theory knowledge can read for themselves, without your being there to
explain verbally what you want to hear from them.
The best way to communicate your compositions to others is to write them
down. There are many ways to write music down, and in this chapter we
cover the ones you’re most likely to run into.
Composing with Lead Sheets......................................................................
The simplest, most basic type of sheet music is called a lead sheet. Lead sheets
are mainly used by pop and jazz musicians — types of music that allow for
individual interpretation of how an instrument’s musical accompaniment
should go.
A lead sheet is composed of a single staff with the notes of the melody written
out on it, and the accompanying chords written above the staff, as seen in
Figure 19-1.