|Popular music symbols|
|Letter||Triad quality||Example (C)|
|Uppercase MI||Minor triad||CMI|
|Lowercase MI(5)||Diminished triad||CMI(5)|
|Uppercase +||Augmented triad||C+|
|Uppercase 6||Added sixth chord||C6 or CMI6|
|Uppercase 7||Major-minor seventh||C7|
Though voicing and voice leading is most often determined by the performer, more recently chord roots have been indicated through following the chord with a slash and the root note letter name, such as C/G for a C chord with G as the root.
It is often the only form of written music used by a small jazz ensemble. One or more musicians will play the melody while the rest of the group improvises an appropriate accompaniment based on the chord progression given in the chord symbols, followed by an improvised solo also based on the chord progression. Similarly, a sufficiently skilled jazz pianist should be able to accompany a singer and perform a song by himself using only a lead sheet.
Lead sheets are also called fake sheets and collections of lead sheets are called "fakebooks," as in the old cliché "I don't know the song but if you hum a few bars I can fake it." The most famous fakebook is called, ironically, "The Real Book"