How To Read Lead Sheets Tutorial
The first jazz standard lesson in the PianoGroove course is Miles Davis’ ‘Tune Up’. This lesson provides an introduction on how to read lead sheets for jazz piano. It’s a great tune for beginners because the form is short and there are a number of major 251 progressions for applying basic jazz theory.
Unlike classical piano notation, lead sheets usually just contain one stave of music containing the melody. The chord symbols are notated above the stave to indicate what chord should be played.
If you are coming from a classical background, learning to interpret lead sheets will be an initial challenge. This is because you are given a lot of creative freedom to interpret (or completely change!) the melody, chords, voicings, phrasing etc…
We apply some of the basic theory: major 251s, chord extensions and we touch upon chord alterations. Don’t worry if something in the lesson does not make sense. This is a good thing because it means you are exposing yourself to more complicated topics. It will make sense with time.
Lesson Downloads
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7th Chords In All 12 Keys File Type: pdf -
Diatonic 7th Chords For Major Scale File Type: pdf
Related Lessons
In a minor 251, the 5 chord will be an altered dominant chord. In this lesson we apply altered dominant chords to the major 251 progression.
We explore voicings for each note of the dorian mode. Watch this and never again get stuck on what to play for minor chords!
Introduced by the pianist Bill Evans, the ‘So What’ chord is a minor 11th voicing that sounds great over minor chords with the 5th in the melody.
Practice Tips
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With each chord you play, look at the individual notes and say 'that’s the root.... that’s the major 3rd.... that’s the 9th etc…’ this is important.
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This is important to develop an awareness of the chord tones and scale degrees of harmony.
- In this lesson we do reference some more advanced jazz theory. Don't worry if this doesn't make sense right now, the full understanding will come with time.
Great lesson! Thanks!
Hi hayden
have you the transcriptions of this video with all the chords that you use ? Thank you
Hi Marc, Apologies for the late reply… i missed the notification for these comments. I will put a transcription together for you. Cheers, Hayden
Hello hayden
Thank you for all the answers and congratulations for your website. It is great.
There are many other questions :
About the player, can you tell me how the AB loop works.
Another problem : Sometimes, when I am in “pause” and after a long time (when I play piano after that you said in the video) , the video is deconnected…I have to connect again in your website….Have you an idea ?(I have a mac)
I am happy because I finish the video (How to read lead sheet ) and I play Tune-up with extension chords.
Sometimes, you play the chord note by note. It is difficult to see what you play exactly .
I look forward your transcription for the video.
Another question : Do you think that memorizing the tunes is a good solution to progress ?
Have a good week end .
Marc
Hi Marc,
Thank you – glad you like the website!
I will shortly be making a video explaining the AB loop feature… i will send this out to all students.
The problem with the video disconnecting… how often is this happening? I have not been aware of anything but I will look into this for you.
Yes you should try to memorise the melody and the chord changes…. the melody is obviously very important.
You should remember the chord changes in terms of the progressions. For example, the first line is a 251 in D major. Then the 2nd line is a 251 a whole step down (251 in C Major). This makes it easier to remember because you don’t have to think of the individual chords (which is 6 pieces of information)… you are just thinking 251 in D Major, and then 251 in C major… then try to do this for the entire song.
Does that make sense?
Hayden
Thank you for your answer hayden
Now I memorize this tune because I played it a lot of times…
But from now, I would try to memorize the next tunes in thinking about progressions of 251.
I start “tenderly part 1” the other song of the beginner. What do you recommend after finishing this lesson ? To continue with tenderly part 2 and start little improvisation with tenderly part 2.
Or I don’t start tenderly part 2 , start blue in green and start improvisation with blue in green.
About the flow player , the message on the mac (after I put the video on “pause” and try to play again after waiting a long time is :
html5 = video not properly encoded
https : //cdn.flowplayer.org/301131/288355.m348
This message appears at every time that I put the video in “pause” a long time (About 5 minutes) and I want to play again.
Have a good day.
Marc
Hi Marc,
I would recommend that you mainly work on Tenderly, you will find this tune much easier… Blue In Green is a difficult tune because there is lots of altered harmony to deal with.
Spend some time on Tenderly Part 1 until you are very comfortable with the arrangement. Spend as much time as you need. Then move onto Tenderly Part 2.
In Tenderly Part 2, we also look at some more advanced voicings… in particular upper structure triads.
Let me know if you have any further questions 🙂
Hayden
ps. thanks for sending the error with the flow player… i will look into this shortly.
Hi hayden
Another question: Is it possible to do that for the small hands ?
It is very hard to do : C (root) – D ( 9th) .
Sincerely yours
If you can’t reach that, you can ‘roll’ up the chord and use the sustain pedal for the low note. I would recommend that you keep trying to stretch for these notes and you will find that your reach will get bigger with time.
HI HAYDEN
I start again with “tunes up” and I have two questions about the last measure E-7 and A7. The purpose of this last measure is to return to the first measure and play one more time. But when I want to finish this song , how I play the last measure ?
After playing with simple chords ( first part of the video), must I continue with the extension chords (Kenny Baron….etc…) or can I start another tune like tenderly…So, do not forget that I am a beginner…Marc
Hi Marc,
To finish the song, just go to the 1 chord which would be D Major7. This would create a complete 251 and that would be a nice resolution to end the tune. You can do this on any tune when you want to finish… just do a complete 251 in the key of the tune (This tune is written in D Major)
For example play E-7, A7 and then Dmaj9. A nice voicing for the D Major would be:
Root and 5th in the left hand (D and A)
maj3, 5, maj7 and 9 in the right hand (F#, A, C# and E) – this is like an F#-7 chord… you can then run this up the keyboard in your right hand with the F#-A-C#-E … all the way up.
I would recommend that you start on another tune like Tenderly, but remember you can always revisit the tunes that you have learned previously. When you learn some new theory, I would recommend that you go back through the tunes that you know and then apply the theory. It’s a great way to learn in context!
Hope this helps 🙂
Hayden
Hi hayden
I have another question added to my last message.
What is the first lesson that you recommend to start jazz improvisation ?
Have a good weekend.
Marc
Hi Marc,
I would recommend you watch the lesson on Blue In Green
Improvisation:
pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/improvising-blue-in-green/
This lesson discusses many basic concepts for improvising over a tune.
It
would be helpful if you learn the tune first too, here is the tutorial:
pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/blue-in-green-tutorial/
Hope this helps 🙂
Hayden
Hi Hayden, What is the recommended order for all of your beginner lessons?
Hi Barb,
Thanks for getting in touch!
I have copied the 2 beginner courses for you below. The new website has all lessons organised into courses like this and it will give students a clear series of progression through the material.
It should be finished in 24-48 hours… I will know more later today once I have spoken with the tech guys.
Hope this helps, the new site also gives you guidance on how to practice each lesson.
Cheers,
Hayden
Jazz Piano Foundations:
1. pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/12-major-scales/
2. pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/minor-scales-for-jazz-piano/
3. pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/intervals-for-jazz-piano/
4. pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/triads-for-jazz-piano/
5. pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/7th-chords/
6. pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/major-251-progression/
7. pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/how-to-read-lead-sheets/
Extended Chords & Harmony
1. pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/chord-extensions-9ths-11ths-13ths/
2. pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/so-what-chord-voicing/
3. pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/herbie-hancock-voicing/
4. pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/kenny-barron-voicing/
5. pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/misty-tutorial-lesson/
6. pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/tenderly-jazz-standard/
7. pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/my-foolish-heart-tutorial/
Why are the 9th and 11th chords called 7th chords?
Hi Barb, Good question!
Here is an important point that you need to understand with regards to chord extensions:
If the chord is G-7, as a jazz arranger, you need to decide how to play a G-7 to produce a nice sophisticated jazzy sound.
You need to understand that with any chord, you have the creative freedom to choose what notes to include, your options for minor chords are root, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th & 13th (if you add another 3rd on top of the 13 you are back to the root so 13 is the highest extension)
Generally speaking, the higher the extension you include, the richer and ‘more complex’ the sound will be. Complex doesn’t always mean good, sometimes just a plain chord with the root, 3rd, and 7th will sound just fine. Variety is the key.
Another important point is:
Jazz musicians often abbreviate chords to just ‘7’, eg. G-7 or C7 – even if the chord contains higher extensions such as 9, 11 or 13.
This is like shorthand.
It also applied to lead sheets…. just because the chord symbol says ‘7’ … you have the freedom to add in extensions and alterations. That is the beauty of playing jazz music… you have a lot of freedom to interpret chords how you want to.
First I would recommend watching this lesson on chord extensions: pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/chord-extensions-9ths-11ths-13ths/
Then check out these 2 lessons on voicing major and minor chords:
Major Chords: pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/major-voicing-variations/
Minor Chords: pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/minor-voicing-options/
Hope this helps 🙂
Hayden
Hi Hayden,
I would like to ask about your voicing in the 7th bar – Cmaj7, why did not you use the same as in the 3rd bar – Dmaj7?
Cheers,
Martin
Hi Martin,
I presume you are talking about the Cmaj13 voicing at 11:45s ?
You could play the same voicing as we played over the Dmaj13 – and that would sound absolutely fine. The only different is that the Cmaj13 voicing has an additional 9th near the top.
Vice versa, you could also add the 9th into the Dmaj13 voicing on the first line.
When playing jazz, variety is key. If you play the same voicings over and over again, your playing can sound predictable.
If I had to give you reasons why I added the 9th over the C Major:
1) C Major is a ‘white key’ ie. all of the notes are white keys, and so it’s easier to cluster the notes together that in other keys. It’s slightly harder to do this in D Major, because you are playing a mixture of black and white keys. So from a technical standpoint, it’s easier to play that voicing – which might have been one of the reasons that my hands went to play it.
2) The Cmaj7 marks the end of the first 8 bars. In bar 9, the melody then changes to a different phrase, whereas, on the 1st and 2nd lines the melody was identical, but a whole step down. By playing that big, dense Cmaj13 voicing with the additional 9th, it acts as a nice end to the first section of the tune.
What I would recommend for you Martin is to experiment. For every single chord, you can add notes in and take notes out. Remember variety is key and you want to create a selection of sounds and textures in your arrangements.
If you played the exact same voicings for every major chord… it might sound a little boring!
Hope this helps 🙂
Cheers, Hayden
Hi Hayden, I was wondering where I might be able to find the downloadable transcription for ‘Tune Up’? Thanks! Erik
Where is the transcription? I can’t see it to download it.
For example, to Tune Up?
Hi Hayden, this might be a stupid question but is there a reason why you are not playing the 5th note in the chords? Is it because it would sound too dense/complex? What makes you decide to include the 3d and not the 5th? Thanks!
Hi Rein,
Not a stupid question at all.
We can always add the 5th to our voicinigs. The 5th is an interesting interval because it can be played in the lower registers of the piano without it sounding ‘muddy’. If we want to add weight, density, and impact to our voicing, then we can include the 5th. It just gives a ‘bigger sound’.
The 5th always adds ‘weight’ to the chord, but does not change the chord quality.
The 3rd and 7th of the chord are the most important notes because those notes determine the chord quality, ie, if it is major, minor, or dominant.
Playing jazz standards with root-3-7 voicings is a good place to start for beginners. This helps us to visualise the essential components of the harmony (3rds & 7ths) and how the 3rds and 7ths move in the 251 progression. It’s very important to visualise the 7ths falling to the 3rds in 251 progressions.
Our Brazilian piano teacher Jovino made a nice lesson here which explains about avoiding redundancy in chord voicings: pianogroove.com/bossa-nova-lessons/elegant-efficient-chord-voicings/ – I think you will like that lesson as he explains some important concepts for voicing chords.
Another thing to mention is that in this lesson on “Tune Up”, I do introduce some more advanced theory such as chord extensions and alterations. We cover this theory in the next courses. If any of this theory doesn’t make sense to you, don’t worry about it. Just copy what I’m playing, and the full understanding will come with time.
If you have any further questions just let me know.
Cheers,
Hayden
Hi Hayden,
thank you for the elaborate response!
Can you tell me why the 3d and the 7th are more important than the 5th, which does belong to the root chord?
Hi Rein,
I’ll try to explain a different way.
Let’s take 3 chords: Cmaj7, Cmin7, and C7:
Cmaj7 = C-E-G-B
Cmin7 = C-Eb-G-Bb
C7 = C-E-G-Bb
For all 3 chords, the root and 5th is C & G.
However the 3rds and 7ths are all different combinations.
Therefore the 3rd and 7th are the most important notes because they define the harmonic quality of the chord.
I’d recommend that you revisit the lesson on 7th chords: pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/7th-chords/
Cheers,
Hayden
Hi Hayden,
Why is there a Gb on the two last Em7 and A7 chords in the voice leading section ? Aren’t we just supposed to play 3rd and 7th (+ the melody ) in this section ?
PS: Great lesson btw 🙂
Cheers,
Pierre-Louis
Hi Pierre-Louis,
I’m glad you enjoyed the lesson.
That Gb – or technically it should be F# – is the 9th of E-7, which then becomes the 13th of A7 in the 25 progression.
They are chord extensions. We look at them in detail in the upcoming course on chord extensions: pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/extended-chords-voicings/ and in particular, in this lesson we look at how the 9th becomes the 13th in a 25 progression pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/the-major-251-9th-13th-chord-drill/
And yes, the purpose of the lesson was to build and arrangement using 3rds and 7ths, but I also wanted to add in a few examples of extended and altered harmony to pique the interest of the students and give you a taste of what is coming next in the PianoGroove syllabus.
If it doesn’t make sense right now, don’t worry about it, just copy what is being played and it will all make sense with time.
Any other questions let me know. 🙂
Cheers,
Hayden
@@PianoGroove:disqus
nice!
Hi Hayden,
Just want to reinforce the need for the transcription files. They are invaluable for me. If I can look at the musical notation it makes it so much easier to pick up what you are playing. Keep them coming.
HI Hayden,
Working through Tune Up lead Sheets (the easy section) little confused about the Em7 and A7 at the end as you play it with notes not in the 7th chords I have been practicing i.e the F# is this a lesson I have missed! Ah just read one of your answers below. Good lesson thanks….
HI Ben,
F# is the 9th of E-7 and also 13th of A7.
Check out this lesson for more information on that exact relationship: pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/the-major-251-9th-13th-chord-drill/
I did gradually layer in some more complex voicings in this lesson. I think it’s nice to ‘get our toes wet’ in more advanced theory, even as beginners.
Any other questions, you can ask them here, or in the forum: pianogroove.com/community/
Cheers,
Hayden
Hi Hayden,
Nice lesson for beginners. But I have a question. Are you always use pedal while playing the whole tune？ Because when I record my play，it does not sounds continuous. Or Maybe I miss some important things?
Thank you.
Hi Nnero,
Yes that’s correct I am using the sustain pedal in this lesson.
When playing solo jazz ballads I do use a lot of the sustain pedal. Be careful not to overuse the pedal because it can blur the harmony together, but when used appropriately it creates a nice effect.
If you were playing this tune at a medium/up tempo, then you would use the sustain pedal much less, or perhaps even not at all depending on the context.
Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Hayden
Thanks for your nice answer and suggestion.
Hi Hayden, Thanks for all the work putting these courses together. I have a question: How do you know what kind of extension you can play based on the chord listed on lead sheets? I see that when the melody is a note outside of the the chord listed, it automatically changes the chord. (i.e. the A in the Em7 at the beginning…is the 11th so you played the Kenny Barron voicing of the m11). But what about when b5’s and #5’s start showing up? What is the rhyme & reason with those additions? Is it all what sounds good to the ear or is there a mathematical kind of relationship to what you can play based on what is listed in the lead sheet? Does this question make sense? 🙂 Thanks
Hi Hayden,
There’s just a small mistake in the “Tune Up” transcription. The lead notes in bar 36 should be A, G, A, “C” (not D, A, G.
Regards,
David
I meant to put a “)” after the D.
Regards,
David
Thanks David – I will fix this and re-upload.
Cheers!
Hayden
Hi Hayden,
A beginner’s question here: can you explain why, in Tune Up, you don’t play the melody – the A note – when playing the second-to-last Em7 cord (where you play Em7 and A7)? Is the melody simply left out sometimes?
Thanks,
Mike
Hi Mike 👋
Good question.
When arranging from lead sheets, we don’t have to play the melody exactly as it’s written.
We can leave notes out, add notes in, add embellishments such as turns, trills, and grace notes. We can change the phrasing and placement of the notes. This is all part of the creative freedom we have as jazz musicians.
The lead sheet is simply a rough guide for the melody. If we listen to a selection of different recordings for any jazz tune we will hear that in each recording the melody will be played differently. Sometimes perhaps just slight variations, whilst other times more stark variations.
This is the process of arranging a song and it’s what each person’s playing personal to them.
My advice would be to listen to lots of different versions of the songs you are learning and find your own ways to play, phrase, and embellish melody.
Hope this helps and any further questions let me know.
Cheers,
Hayden