aellison62 Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 I know quite a few members of this forum use apps like OnSong to pull up PDFs of songs while playing. I am considering working as a duo piano/ guitar act in my upcoming retirement and can see myself using my IPad to pull up songs to read lead charts. My question is, where online is the most economical to purchase chord charts/ lead sheets for popular songs? I looked at music notes and they want $3.99 per song !!! Where do you all get your song charts from? Quote Kurzweil Forte 7, Mojo 61, Yamaha P-125, Kronos X61, Nautilus 73 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PianoMan51 Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 I have four categories of written music for gigging in my iPad. 1. True lead sheets with melody, chords and occasionally lyrics. These are in (mostly) jazz fake books. You buy the books to scan because the melodies are still mostly under copyright and the owners want money. Sometimes you will find PDFs that someone has scanned available on the web. These will be pop standards from earlier than the mid-60s and some jazz-centric tunes from the 60s onward. I use iGigBook for these. The app has pre-existing table of contents for most jazz fake books. This is my preferred format because it makes easy work when somebody says 'play the head", and because I find chord selection and voicing easier when I can look ahead to see the melody notes. This type however can"t be transposed. They are usually reasonably accurate. 2. Then there are apps that have those same jazz standards, this time just the chords because the chord progressions aren"t copyrighted. iRealBook and iGigBook have these. Unlike the lead sheets above, these can be easily transposed. Again, reasonably accurate. 3. The third type are the lyric/chords charts you can find for free on the web. These are usually for pop tunes from the 60s and up. The accuracy is vary wildly but if you play by ear it may be enough to go on. Some apps like OnSong will allow transposition if the text files have the chords properly formatted. 4. The last is digitized sheet music with melody, lyrics and simplified piano accompaniment. These typically allow you to choose the key before downloading. And are expensive. I rarely use these though on occasion i will pop for one when it"s a tune I don"t want to really learn and I"d rather pay $5 and just read it. I load the pdf into iGigBook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groove On Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 iReal Pro has lots of chord lead sheets you can download for free or you can make your own in the app. Also has lots of options to create/share/export lead sheets as well as set lists. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aellison62 Posted July 1, 2021 Author Share Posted July 1, 2021 Thanks, it sounds like I need to get iRealBook and/or iGigBook and then import those chord charts into OnSong or Song Sheet Quote Kurzweil Forte 7, Mojo 61, Yamaha P-125, Kronos X61, Nautilus 73 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aellison62 Posted July 1, 2021 Author Share Posted July 1, 2021 Hmmm, actually I am not looking to play jazz standards and such. More like songs from Elton John, Beatles, even newer stuff like Bruno Mars. So, 60s to 2000s pop songs. I guess searching the web first makes sense. Quote Kurzweil Forte 7, Mojo 61, Yamaha P-125, Kronos X61, Nautilus 73 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PianoMan51 Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 In my experience It"s hard, or maybe impossible to find pop songs from the last 50 years in a professional lead sheet form. Yes you can find 'easy to play" piano versions, but I find it annoying to have to filter out the junk that the arranger added and play the essential parts that are missing. So I end up using the lyrics/chords type of format. But this requires work on my part. Fix the chords. Fix the form. Change the key to match today"s singer. And this assumes that I"m good enough to play the melody by ear (if needed) or, I"ll never have to play the melody. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miden Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 Thanks, it sounds like I need to get iRealBook and/or iGigBook and then import those chord charts into OnSong or Song Sheet Also look at Unrealbook - does most things the others do but is a lot more straightforward (imo) in operation. Quote There is no luck - luck is simply the confluence of circumstance and co-incidence... Time is the final arbiter for all things Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miden Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 Hmmm, actually I am not looking to play jazz standards and such. More like songs from Elton John, Beatles, even newer stuff like Bruno Mars. So, 60s to 2000s pop songs. I guess searching the web first makes sense. There are plenty of Pop fake books out there, just got to look. Try pop fake book pdf as a search term Quote There is no luck - luck is simply the confluence of circumstance and co-incidence... Time is the final arbiter for all things Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobadohshe Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 I have an annual pass to sheetmusicdirect, and I'll often pull up their PVG arrangements and make my own leadsheets from those. It's time consuming but gives me everything I need and I can knock tunes down to 1-2 pages. Quote Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37 My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveMcM Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 I've used iGigBook and iReal Pro for years. Very happy with both. Quote Wm. David McMahan I Play, Therefore I Am Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
octa Posted July 2, 2021 Share Posted July 2, 2021 scribd is a subscription site that has tons of sheet music & such. Quality ranges from excellent to useless. Non-subscribers get to view 3 free pieces a month. This month I grabbed (screen shot then create pdf w/ ForScore on iPad) a slightly blurry copy of the Clare Fischer book (mentioned in recent thread) as one of my 3 freebies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tunaman Posted July 2, 2021 Share Posted July 2, 2021 No mention of MuseScore yet⦠very good resource at times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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