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2.14 A lead sheet

In popular music, it is common to denote accompaniment as chord-names. Such chords can be entered like notes,

     c2 f4. g8

but now, each pitch is read as the root of a chord instead of a note. This mode is switched on with \chords

     \score {
       \chords { c2 f4. g8 }
     }

[image of music]

Other chords can be created by adding modifiers after a colon. The following example shows a few common modifiers

     \chords { c2 f4:m g4:maj7 gis1:dim7 }

[image of music]

For lead sheets, chords are not printed on staves, but as names on a line of themselves. Hence, we have to override the context with \new, rendering the music expression in a ChordNames context

      \new ChordNames \chords { c2 f4.:m g4.:maj7 gis8:dim7 }

[image of music]



When put together, chord names, lyrics and a melody form a lead sheet, for example,

     \score {
       <<
         \new ChordNames \chords { chords }
         \notes the melody
         \lyricsto "" \new Lyrics \lyrics { the text }
       >>
     }

[image of music]

A complete list of modifiers and other options for layout can be found in Chords.

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