LEAD SHEET SYMBOLS THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

You may not have heard the term Lead Sheet Symbols before, but I bet you have noticed the notes in your music, especially if you have tried to play a song that is not classical. Guide sheet symbols are often found in jazz, pop and blues music and tell us which chord to play with the left hand so we do not have to write the actual notes/chords. It is like a shorthand for writing music. Piano lessons for kids Los Angeles label it as important as it helps you recognize the marked chords and help to play them easily. Let us first cover chords with 3 notes. Major, minor, augmented and diminished chords are the most commonly used chords in most piano music and these different types of chords are separately marked on the lead plates.

Major chords are marked with a capital letter; if you play a C major chord with the left hand, the capital C will appear above the right notes which means you play the written notes with your right hand and the C major chord with your left hand. Minor chords are marked with a capital letter, so if you were to play a C minor chord with your left hand, you would have a "c" above the right notes instead of a "C". Added chords are marked with a capital letter representing the name of the chord and indicate that you need to "augment" or add to the chord. Diminished chords are indicated by a small letter and a circle next to the note name. Sometimes "diminished" is written next to the note to emphasize that it is a diminished chord. An easy way to remember them is to always know that augmented chords and diminished chords have a small circle next to the note name.

The next chord type on the lead sheets is the 7th chord. Major 7 chords are indicated by the capital letter of the note name and a small triangle with the number 7 next to it. A dominant major 7th chord is indicated by a capital letter in the chord name with only a 7 next to it. Minor 7th chords are always indicated by a small letter and "min7" next to it. Diminished 7 chords can be full or split. A fully diminished 7 is represented by a lowercase letter of the chord name with a small circle and a 7 next to it. Alternatively, it can be written as the note name with "dim7" next to it. The name of the split 7 chord is a small letter with a small circle next to it with a 7, but this time there is a slash with the small circle. The top note of fully muted chords is lowered by four semi-steps while the top note of half-diminished chords is lowered by only 3 semi-steps.

The lead sheet can also tell us which chord inversions to play with the left hand. Inversions are usually marked with a slash to the right of the chord name and to the right of the name of the note used in the inversion. Most of the sheet music has only the melody line on the right hand. The notes on the left refer to the entries we visited here today. Online music lessons for adults suggest the more you learn about these notes and what types of chords they represent, you will be surprised how quickly you can read other types of music.