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How to Create Song Charts

A song chart is sheet music that is usually used in reference to marching bands, big bands and jazz bands. A song chart usually encompasses several musical parts in a single folder. A band leader typically passes out the individual pieces of music during rehearsals and collects them afterward, though sometimes band members take their sheets home for rehearsal.

Things You'll Need

  • Blank music staff paper
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Instructions

    • 1

      Write an individual music sheet for every instrument in the musical score (see Resources for individual notation). The guitar sheets should have chord diagrams over the corresponding bars as well as the lead and rhythm notation in the bars. Include a fully notated sheet music for all instruments that have a part in the song, including percussion. All of the sheets will be notated with standard musical notation except for percussion, which has its own style of notation (see Resources). Label each music sheet with the name of the song and the instrument at the top of each page.

    • 2

      Create a "fake" chart to go along with the individual sheets. This will be a music sheet that shows only the music bars with chord changes written above, in letter form.

    • 3

      Create a full score that shows all of the instruments together as a single unit. Do this by notating all of the individual instruments on the same music staff, which usually is written much smaller to accommodate all the parts. This is primarily to get an overview of the entire score, not for musicians to use to play the piece.

    • 4

      Print your full score and use a three-hole punch to bind the score in a three-ring binder.

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