What is a lead sheet for piano? It’s a song that’s been notated with just melody and some chord symbols. This is different from music notated on a grand staff, where all the notes are written out for both right and left hand.
Piano lead sheets don’t give you as many specifics as to what notes to play. Instead, there is flexibility and room to improvise. Think of the chord symbols on a lead sheet as your guide to creating your own accompaniment for the melody.
How to read chord symbols: the basics
The first thing to know in order to play music with piano lead sheets is how to play triads.
Triads are three note chords that are made by playing the note the chord is named for, plus a skip above that, plus another skip above that. For example, a C major chord can be played by playing a C, an E, and a G.
You can create any major chord in root position (root position means the bottom note is the note the chord is named for) by starting on the note named by the chord symbol, then going up four half steps to the middle note of the chord, then going up three half steps to the top note of the chord.
To play a minor chord instead, all you have to do is lower the middle note by a half step. C, E flat, and G make up the C minor chord. You can create any minor chord in root position by starting on the note named by the chord symbol, then going up three half steps to the middle note of the chord, then going up four half steps to the top note of the chord.
Major and minor chords are by far the most common chords used in lead sheets. Learning how to play all major and minor chords on the piano will reduce time spent looking for the right notes when playing from a lead sheet.
You can learn more about how to play different kinds of chords here.
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What can you play with triads?
You can read and play A LOT of pop music lead sheets on the piano once you know your basic major and minor triads. Here are some places for you to start looking for a lead sheet you can try:
Free folk and children’s song lead sheets from pianosongdownload.com.
Free folk and classical lead sheets from free-notes.net that can be transposed and printed in any key.
Inexpensive downloadable lead sheets for pop, rock, and just about anything else you could think of from Sheet Music Direct.
Found something you’d like to play? Here are a few steps to get you started
Step 1 – Find a recording and listen to the song. If you have the tune in your ear, catching your own mistakes as you play will be a lot easier. As you listen, look at the lead sheet. This will help you connect the musical symbols on the page to the sounds that you hear.
Step 2 – Top and bottom. Learn the melody and the bass line separately. First, play through the melody several times. Once you’re comfortable with the melody, learn the bass notes in the left hand. The bass note is simply the note at the bottom of the chord, or the note the chord is named after. Once you can play all the bass notes, you’ll be prepared to add the entire chord in your left hand.
Step 3 – Flesh out the chords. Got that bass line down? It’s time to play the whole chord. First, without playing, point to each chord on your lead sheet and say the chord name out loud. This gives you less to process as you’re reading the song. It also gives you a chance to look up any chords you’re not sure about before you start to play. After reviewing all the chords, play them on the piano. Make sure you can play every chord with the left hand alone before adding the melody.
Now you’re ready to try playing the melody and chords together.
How to make your own accompaniment using a piano lead sheet
The great thing about using piano lead sheets is that they’re a jumping-off point for creating your own arrangement. There are lots of ways to create an accompaniment using the chord symbols on piano lead sheets. You might want to play each chord only when you see a new chord symbol, or you might want to play the chords once every beat. You can break the chords up, for example playing the bass note on the beat and the rest of the notes between the beats, or by playing the notes of the chords in arpeggios.
Get creative! There are always hundreds of different ways to play a song. As soon as you’re comfortable with the basic arrangement, start experimenting and find your own way to play!
Extra chords for advanced piano lead sheet reading
If you want to read pop music lead sheets for piano, it is good to understand some of the other chord symbols you may encounter.
Let’s start with the suspended chord. A suspended chord lets you know that the third is replaced with the fourth. In other words, you move the middle note of the chord up one note. For example, if you see Csus, you’ll play C F G.
A slash chord is a triad with a different bass note added under it. For example, if you see C/E you’ll still play the notes of the C major chord, but E is your lowest note.
Four note chords and seventh chords on lead sheets
You may want to learn to play chords with four notes in them. This can give your chords a richer, fuller sound. For major and minor chords in root position, this means you’ll just play the root of the chord an octave up, placing it on top of the chord.
A chord you’ll see a lot on lead sheets is the seventh chord. To create this chord, start with a triad in root position, then add a minor third on top. You’ll often see this chord created on the fifth tone of the scale, in which case a minor third on top of the triad will naturally fall into the key signature. For example, in the C major scale, the fifth tone of the scale is G. The G7 chord would be G B D F, with an F natural, which fits with the key of C major, not with G major which has an F sharp.
Another very common and useful four note chord is the major seventh chord. To create a major seventh chord, first build an ordinary triad with skips. Then add a major third on top to reach the seventh note up from the root of the chord. For example, C, E, G, B, makes the Cmaj7 chord.
A great tip for getting all the right notes is to remember that the “7th” of the major 7th chord is one half step lower than the note you started on. D major 7 chord will be made up of the notes D, F#, A, C#, not C as it would be for D7.
Learn how to play all 12 seventh chords and major seventh chords and practice them because you’ll probably see a lot of them on piano lead sheets. If you can play 7th chords, you’ll be able to play a lot of jazz and R&B lead sheets for piano. This is especially true if you master the dominant 7th and minor 7th chords as well. Learn more about seventh chords .
Other kinds of chords on lead sheets
Sometimes you’ll see a sixth chord, such as C6. This means that you’ll add the sixth note of the scale on top of a regular triad. For C6 you’d play C E G A because you’re adding the 6th note, the A, on top.
What about 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths? You can keep skipping past the 7th to add extra notes called the extensions. If you see a C9 chord, that means you’ll be adding the ninth note up from C, which is a D played an octave up.
A C11 would add the eleventh note up from the C, or an F an octave up, and so forth. You can even sharp or flat these extensions, which turns them into notes called alterations. When you’re reading a lead sheet, these notes are optional. They add color to the music. At the start, just ignore them until you have a really strong understanding of the basic chords. Once you do, you can start adding extensions and alterations to your own arrangements, but be careful that you don’t add any notes that conflict with your melody.
Have fun playing the piano with piano lead sheets
Now you know everything you need to get started playing piano lead sheets. It can take a while to master your chords, so practice them often and in every key. Once you master your chords and know how to play piano with a piano lead sheet, the possibilities are endless.