Jack Cooper - Guelph, ON Musician

I’ve been inspired recently by a friend in Kitchener named G.K. Eckert who recently created a blog site.  G.K., like many artists and teachers I know, knows the secret of success isn’t how talented or lucky or anything else you are, but how persistent you are and how receptive you are to new or existing information.  G.K. also realizes the value in disclosing what you know, without any preconceptions of how you will be received.

In that spirit, here goes:

I run a business called BerLen music.  One of the basic services I provide is the transcription of original songs into a a type of sheet music known as a Lead Sheet.  The lead sheet provides all the basic information about the song- the melody transcribed into standard music notation, the lyrics, the key, the chord symbols, and any additional instructions about the song (pauses, changes in tempo, volume, places where solos happen, etc.)   There are a couple of different ways to format a lead sheet.  At one extreme, a lead sheet might show the entire melody of the song transcribed in full.  At the other extreme, only a single verse or a verse with chorus might be transcribed with lyrics underneath, followed by the inclusion of additional lyrics.  The format will depend on the complexity of the song structure.

Most musicians have developed the ability to learn music really well by ear.  Repeated listening to a recorded piece of music will often be sufficient for many musicians to learn the melody (and in many cases the chords) of a song.  Plus a lot of musicians are entirely self-taught and may never have developed the ability to read music fluently.  For these reasons, many musicians will often rely on lyric sheet or lyric sheet with chords for learning to play a song by someone else (assuming they have access to a recording of the song).

But a properly formatted lead sheet will ensure that any musician who can read music will be able to learn a song accurately and quickly.  Even without access to a recording of the original song.  There are many scenarios where this can be extremely useful, for example:

• You are a songwriter but not necessarily an accomplished performer, and you would like to have another musician cover your song.  There does not exist a recording that can properly convey the melody and structure of your song.
• You are a performing songwriter and are adding new band members for live gigs.  You may have a proper recording but have made some tweaks along the way and want to convey the accurate version of the song’s structure.
• You are about to start a recording project and have recruited other musicians to play with you.  You want them to quickly become familiar with the song structure and chord changes.
• You want to add other singers to your song- some of the singers have good ears, some don’t but can read music passably.
• Oh yeah, and one more thing: you want something that is real easy to read and follow.

In the next segment, I will describe how I go about creating a lead sheet and talk about the tools I currently use. Generally, I can create a lead sheet from a recording and lyric sheet in 1-2 hours.  My rates are reasonable and I will consider giving discounts for a job consisting of multiple songs.

Oh, and here is G.K.’s blog site.

Cheers,
Jack