Hi Guys,

Can anyone recommend a good, free software tool which I can use to put together a chord chart (like those you see in a fake book)?

I know there are some good commercial tools out there but I'd rather check out the free ones first before having to cough up some dough.

Finale Notebook 2008 isn't really up to the mark (repeat markings aren't fully supported and it's fiddly to use).

Just chancing my arm ...

Rob.

Can Lilypond do lead sheets?
http://lilypond.org/web/

I do mine in Logic. I've messed with a couple others (Sibelius, Finale a long time ago) and they all seem kind of fiddly to me.

If really all you want to do is chord charts on a lead sheet, I use abc2win, or any other abc software. Many folk musicians use it. It's shareware, and the copy I have is free, or free + $20 if you want to print But it's cheap at any price - and well-tested by millions. If you want to links to lots of abc programs, go to thesession.org and click on the links/abc tab.

Cathy

Yes, Lilypond can do leadsheets. There is an example in the quick start guide.

Hi,

For versality, intuitiveness, flexibility, and sheer ease of use, you sometimes can't go past the tools used by all the great masters...

... a sheet of paper an a pen.

So, just in case it's useful for anybody, here's a link to one place that lets you generate a variety of styles of sheet to print out for yourself. You seem to be able to print without registering.

Free Blank Music Sheets

Cheers,

Chris

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies. To be honest, Lilypond and abc2win still seem a little fiddly. I know I'm asking alot (i.e. some great software for free) but I'd probably prefer to print off some blank music paper from www.blanksheetmusic.net and see how that goes.

Thanks again for the suggestions ...

Rob.

Hah, Lilypond *is* great software for free, although it's not very intuitive for people used to a point-and-click interface. If you're on Linux, there are some programs that have a nice point-and-click front-end and use Lilypond as the back-end, but I forgot what it is called.

I planned to write a short tutorial on doing leadsheets with Lilypond on my website, but not today.

From what I hear, Lilypond is as good as anything out there.

Does a non-fiddly notation software even exist for any amount of money? If so, I'd really like to get my hands on it.

@Latebeginner: bookmarked! That will come in handy, thanks! I can't tell you how often I run out of staff paper (or more likely, misplace it in my messy studio).

Finale Notepad is a free download from the Finale people. It is not really all that similar to its alleged parent, and certainly is extremely limited (I've used it to make single-page lead sheets, however, I don't think it has the ability to do chord symbols or slash notation -- at least it didn't the last time I downloaded it -- but it does do lyrics and tablature).

Me again ...

I took another look at LilyPond and it looks like I was a little quick to dismiss it.

Simple clear chord charts is really what I'm after and it looks like Lilypond will do this. I have to admit that I'm not too enthusiastic about having to learn the syntax. I'll browse through the documentation and see how things go.

Thanks again, Guys,

Rob.

Rob,

Here is a leadsheet I did in Lilypond:
http://www.box.net/shared/neeb4f3ms0

Double-click the file to convert it to a PDF.

Note: it is written in the key of C, but I added a \transpose command so the PDF is in Eb.

Hi Matthijs,

That's exactly the kind of lead-sheet I'm looking for ... Thanks for that example. I'll play about with it and see how I get on.

Thanks for that !!

Rob.

Hi Guys,

I've been looking into Lilypond a little more and ... holy c**p it's impressive!!

Have a look at the examples page. They've put such an enormous effort into this software.

http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.10/input/test/collated-files

Ultimately I only hope to create a few lead sheets so it sits perfectly well with me but it looks like I'm only scratching the surface.

Anyway .. Thumbs up, Matthijs !!!

Rob.

Thanks, although I had nothing to do with the creation of Lilypond. Just pimping it!

How do you open the .ly file ?

I double-cliked the file mahlzeit posted,
but it will not open as a pdf.

sibelius is always good

You first need to install the LilyPond software onto your PC (see the link earlier in this thread).

When it's done installing, Windows (if that's what you're using) will associate the .ly file with the LilyPond application.

Double-clicking the .ly file with start the LilyPond application which reads the .ly file and creates a PDF file in the same directory. The PDF file is the Lead Sheet.

I'm still not comfortable with the syntax but I'm still staggered at the effort that has gone into this tool.

Rob.

Thanks Rod.