The Complete Idiot''s Guide to Music Theory

Part 4:
Accompanying
168
Working from a Lead Sheet
Here’s the 411: You’re given a sheet of music that includes the melody and the
chords—what musicians call a 
lead sheet.
It will look something like this:
With this lead sheet in hand, what do you play?
The temptation for many novice musicians is to play the melody with your
right hand and form the chords with your left hand.
You should resist this temptation.
When you read a lead sheet, the melody (also known as the 
lead
) is provided for
your reference only. Unless you’re playing solo piano in a cocktail bar, you’re
not expected to play the melody—except, maybe, during instrumental breaks.
No, what you’re expected to play are the 
chords
—along with any kind of embel-
lishment or harmony you can create to play behind the melody.
But the main thing you need from this situation is to play the chords, which
you have—printed in big, bold letters on your lead sheet. Play the chords them-
selves with your right hand, while you play the root note of the chord (the bass
line) with your left hand.
That’s all you have to play, and it isn’t hard at all.
A typical lead sheet—melody and chord symbols.
Learn more about lead
sheets and other types of
arrangements in Chap-
ter 19.
Note
When you’re playing chords with your right hand, try to avoid playing
every chord in the standard 1-3-5 inversion. Try different inversions—
different 
voicings
—to better group the notes from adjacent chords
together. (Turn back to Chapter 9 for more information on chord inver-
sions.) For example, if you’re alternating between the C and the F chord, you
might play the C chord C-E-G, but then play the F chord C-F-A (first inversion),
which lets you leave your thumb on the C note for both chords.
Tip
Working from a Chord Sheet
A chord sheet is like a lead sheet, but without the melody written out. Working
from a chord sheet is just like working from a lead sheet—play the chords with
your right hand and the root of the chord with your left. A typical chord sheet
looks like this:

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Chapter 13:
Accompanying Melodies
169
A chord sheet—no melody.
Working from a Melody
Sometimes you get the melody (in the form of a lead sheet) 
without 
chords. All
you have to go from is the melody—no chords, no bass line, no anything else.
A melody sheet—no chords.
What do you do now?
First, don’t panic. Second, remember back to Chapter 10, in which you learned
how to create a chord progression based on a melodic line. That is the skill
from which you need to draw now.
Take the melody you were given and go off by yourself for a half-hour or so.
Play the melody on the piano, and try to figure out what chords sound good
with that melody. If it’s a familiar song, the chords might come easily to you; if
you’ve never heard the song before, you have your work cut out for you. In any
case, apply the rules you learned back in Chapter 10, and write out your own
chord progression for this melody.
When you’re trying to figure out the chords behind a melody, there are
several different approaches you can take. The best approach, as you
learned in Chapter 10, is to try some common chord progressions. See
if I-IV-V fits the melody; if not, try I-ii-V, or I-vi-IV-V, or the “circle of fifths”
progression. Chances are, one of the common chord progressions will fit—or at
least come close.
Tip
The key thing here is that the chords you write are now your chords. Even if
they’re not quite the established chords for this melody, you can get away with
it by claiming that this is your unique harmonization. You’re at the piano, and
you’re in charge, so what you play must be right!
Now, if you’re playing along with other musicians—perhaps a bass player or a
guitarist—you don’t want to end up with three different sets of chords to this
single melody. If you’re playing in a group, put your heads together and work
out the chord progressions as a group. Heck, maybe one of you actually knows

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