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2.14 A lead sheet

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

     \chordmode { c2 f4. g8 }

[image of music]

Now each pitch is read as the root of a chord instead of a note. This mode is switched on with \chordmode

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

     \chordmode { 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 for themselves. This is achieved by using \chords instead of \chordmode. This uses the same syntax as \chordmode, but renders the notes in a ChordNames context, with the following result.

     \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,

<<
  \chords { chords }
  the melody
  \addlyrics { the text }
>>
}

[image of music]

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

This page is for LilyPond-2.6.3 (stable-branch).

Report errors to <bug-lilypond@gnu.org>.

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