Get lead sheets for free (legally)
A “lead sheet” is a simplified form of sheet music that only contains a single staff with the melody, and chord symbols that give an indication of the harmony. It’s up to the players themselves to create the arrangement.
Lead sheets are very popular with many musicians, especially those who play Jazz and popular music.
A lead sheet gives you a quick idea of how a piece is supposed to sound, but it also gives you the freedom to play it however you feel like.
Often lead sheets are sold in thick books called “fake books” that can be pretty expensive. I have a couple of them and they are well worth the money — together they contain more than 2,000 songs — but they are not exhaustive (and there is quite a bit of overlap between them).
If you don’t want to spend a lot of money on buying a fake book, or you’re just looking for a song that isn’t in your collection, check out wikifonia.org.
Wikifonia collects lead sheets and publishes them online, for free. The quality of the work is sometimes debatable, but at least it will give you a starting point. You can also submit your own lead sheets for the benefit of others.
Apparently the service is perfectly legal so you won’t have to worry about that either. 
Read more articles on Piano Clues:
Comments
Reverse Chord Finder Pro for iPhone
This app lets you find out which chords you are playing. You select the notes on a piano keyboard and Reverse Chord Finder tells you the names of the matching chords. The ideal app for songwriters, musicians and music students. Get it from the iPhone App Store »
A retiree with limited funds. Thanks for your free info. I am trying to learn
on a Casio WK3500 using Wikifonia Lead Sheets.
i would love to get some classical music sheets
Hi,
I’m trying to do lead sheets for my daughter to sing tomorrow. I don’t know what I’m doing. I have to condense 8 pages into 3 pages which seems to me to be an impossible task. The song is Fairytale by Sara Bareilles. What do you think?
Are there any other lead sheet websites? There are a few songs I want and can not find them anywhere.