Sheet Music Made Easy

A rootless voicing leaves the root to the bass player and gives your left hand four better notes: the 3rd, the 7th and two colour tones. There are only two shapes to learn. The A form has the 3rd on the bottom, the B form has the 7th on the bottom. Switch between them through a ii–V–I and your hand barely moves. The free sheet below has both versions in all 12 keys. Free practice sheet Rootless voicings in 12 keys — A4 PDF Letter PDF One page. ii–V–I starting on the A form and on the B form, every key, treble clef. No email. On this page What “rootless” means  ·  The A form and the B form  ·  ii–V–I starting on A  ·  ii–V–I starting on B  ·  Where to play them  ·  Four common mistakes  ·  How to practise it  ·  FAQ What “rootless” means In a band, the bass player is already playing the root. If your left hand plays it too, the two of you double the same note in the same low register, and th...

Block chords put a full chord under every single melody note. In four-way close, the melody sits on top and the other three chord tones are packed directly underneath it, all inside one octave. Melody notes that are not in the chord get a diminished seventh chord instead. Double the melody an octave lower and you have the locked-hands sound. The free sheet below has the whole idea in all 12 keys. Free practice sheet Block chords in 12 keys — A4 PDF Letter PDF One page. The sixth-diminished scale in four-way close, every key, treble clef. No email. On this page Build one block chord  ·  Passing notes get a diminished chord  ·  The sixth-diminished scale  ·  Locked hands  ·  Four common mistakes  ·  How to practise it  ·  FAQ Build one block chord Start with a C6 chord: C, E, G and A. Pick a melody note from it and put that note on top. Then stack the other three notes directly underneath, as close together a...

A funk or jazz groove in A minor uses a small, predictable set of chords. Learn the four colors of the home chord, the Dorian D chord that answers it, the E chords that lead home and a handful of passing chords, and you can name most of what you hear by ear. The free one-page chord finder below has all 27 with keyboard diagrams. Free chord finder A minor funk chord finder — A4 PDF Letter PDF One page. 27 chords with left-hand bass and right-hand voicing, plus eight progressions. No email. On this page Four faces of Am7  ·  The Dorian vamp  ·  Other chords in the key  ·  The way home  ·  Passing chords  ·  Eight progressions  ·  Finding them by ear  ·  FAQ All the pictures show the right hand only, written in the treble clef. The left hand, or the bass player, plays the root: A under the Am chords, D under the D chords, E under the E chords. Four faces of Am7 The same Am7 vamp can sound four diff...

Writing sheet music is slow for six predictable reasons, and each one has a fix. Ask working musicians and you hear the same thing: for a quick chart, pencil and paper still beat notation software, and software only pays off later, when the chart has to be corrected, transposed or shared. The goal is to get both. Write at pencil speed, then let a tool do the dull parts. Prefer paper? Free printable Blank lead sheet — A4 PDF Letter PDF Ten staves, room above each for chord symbols. No email. Full disclosure: I play saxophone in working bands, and I make an iPad notation app, Band Session Note, around exactly these problems. Every fix below works on paper too. Where the app helps, I show its actual screen. The six time-wasters 1. The software is slower than the idea 2. Rhythm is the slowest part 3. Chord symbols get squeezed in last 4. Transposing horn parts by hand 5. One mistake means rewriting the page 6. The chart falls apart on the gig A five-step workflow  ·...

A guide tone line connects the 3rd and the 7th of every chord. In a ii–V–I the 7th of one chord falls a half step to the 3rd of the next, and the 3rd stays where it is to become the next 7th. Play only those two notes and the whole progression is there, with no root at all. The free sheet below has it in every key. Free practice sheet Guide tone lines in 12 keys — A4 PDF Letter PDF One page. ii–V–I guide tones in every key, two positions, treble clef. No email. On this page What guide tones are  ·  The ii–V–I line  ·  A longer line  ·  Four common mistakes  ·  How to practise it  ·  FAQ What guide tones are A seventh chord has four notes, but two of them do most of the talking. Here are four common chords with those two notes in blue. The blue notes are the 3rd and the 7th: F and C in Dm7, B and F in G7, E and B in C△7, C♯ and G in A7. The keyboard above each bar shows all four keys you play, with the root in red. ...

A quartal voicing is a chord built from fourths instead of thirds. The most useful one is the So What voicing: three perfect fourths with a major third on top. Learn that single shape and you have a modern, open sound for minor chords, sus chords and a whole ii–V–I. The free sheet below has it in every key. Free practice sheet Quartal voicings in 12 keys — A4 PDF Letter PDF One page. ii–V–I in fourths in every key, treble clef. No email. On this page Build it from fourths  ·  One shape, a whole key  ·  ii–V–I in fourths  ·  Four common mistakes  ·  How to practise it  ·  FAQ Build it from fourths Ordinary chords are stacked in thirds: D–F–A–C is Dm7. A quartal chord skips every other step and stacks fourths instead. Start on D, the D just above middle C, and build one fourth at a time. D up a fourth is G. G up a fourth is C. C up a fourth is F. That is three perfect fourths, and on top you add a major third: A, ...

A drop 2 voicing is a four-note chord where the second note from the top has been moved down an octave. That one move turns a tight, crowded chord into an open one that sits under four fingers on guitar and splits neatly between two hands on piano. The free sheet below has a ii–V–I in every key, in two positions. Free practice sheet Drop 2 voicings in 12 keys — A4 PDF Letter PDF One page. ii–V–I in every key, two positions, treble clef. No email. On this page Start with a close chord  ·  Drop the second note  ·  Connect them smoothly  ·  How the voices move  ·  Four common mistakes  ·  How to practise it  ·  FAQ Start with a close chord Every seventh chord has four notes. Pack them into the smallest space you can, all inside one octave, and you get a close-position chord. Here is a ii–V–I in C written that way. The keyboard above each chord shows exactly the keys you play. Dm7 is C–D–F–A. G7 is D–F...

A shell voicing is a chord cut down to three notes: the root, the 3rd and the 7th. Those three tell your ear what the chord is; the 5th adds almost nothing. Learn the two standard forms and you can comp through any jazz standard tonight. The sheet below has all twelve keys written out. Free practice sheet Shell voicings in 12 keys — A4 PDF Letter PDF One page. ii–V–I in every key, both shapes, treble clef. No email. On this page Why three notes are enough  ·  The two shapes  ·  Mix them and your hand stops moving  ·  Four common mistakes  ·  How to practise it  ·  FAQ Why three notes are enough Look at any seventh chord. The root tells you where you are. The 3rd tells you major or minor. The 7th tells you whether the chord wants to move on (a dominant 7th) or sit still (a major 7th). The 5th is the same note in all of them, so it carries no information at all. Drop it. What is left is the shell : root, 3rd, 7t...