Lead sheet generation - what software?

tristanc

I'm looking for a way to generate basic lead sheets / charts for folks to follow at a bar jam night. Basic stuff. "A" section, "B" section, chord names and perhaps the key. 4 measures a line, no need for rhythm or lyrics. See image in link:
https://user.fm/files/v2-4395013a8f75792dc9efcb6f88e7c0c2/lead_sheet.jpeg

I had thought LilyPad would do this but even with ChatGPT I can't quite get something as basic as I want! Happy to use geeky tools to do this - LaTeX etc.

Has anyone done something similar? Or is good old pen and paper plus a photocopier the way forward?

Whistler

MuseScore. It is opensource software (free) and is pretty good.

borntohang

I use chordsheet.com. Editing interface is a little clunky and it's not great for much beyond basic lead sheets because there's no top line function, but once you've got the hang of the language it's pretty quick. This took me about five minutes, for example: https://www.chordsheet.com/public/UCKUVI

tristanc

Chordsheet.com Yes! That's it! Thanks for the pointer, I had totally missed this site. And clearly others need this basic functionality too. It would be great if someone made an open source version of that to run from a text file.

I just tried MuseScore and the sheer number of settings was overwhelming - I can see it's a powerful bit of kit. 

Thanks both. 

danishbacon

Irealpro is the one I use on iPad and phone, excellent functionality 

Roland

For something as simple as that I’d use a word processor, or even a text editor

tristanc

iRealPro is a great tool - haven't got to grips with its editing / sheet generation side yet. 

And agreed, a Word template would go a long way to getting the same result. Sledgehammer / nut etc etc.

I'm enjoying the chordsheet site - have just entered 8 songs in no time at all, to the level that can be shared / used by someone who isn't me. Have yet to explore the font size control. Can I make the chord letters big enough to see across the stage or when the page is on the floor.

Fez

I need to have a look at chordsheet as I have always just used word.

Roland

For something as simple as that I’d use a word processor, or even a text editor:
|:Am     |D       |Am    |D        |
| C        |C       |D       |E        |
| Am     |Am  : |

With a word processor you can use tab positions to makes sure your bars line up. You can also insert images of TAB and stave if a song really needs it.