chord chart
A simplified musical score showing only chord symbols and song structure.
In Depth
A chord chart (or lead sheet) provides the minimum information needed to perform a song: the melody, lyrics, and chord symbols (like Am7, D9, G). It does not specify voicings, rhythms, or arrangements — these are left to the performer's judgment and style.
Chord charts are the standard notation in jazz, pop, and worship music. A professional session musician can take a chord chart they've never seen and immediately produce a stylistically appropriate performance. The Real Book — a collection of jazz chord charts — is the most widely used fake book in jazz, containing hundreds of standards in a standardised format.
The original Real Book was an illegal, hand-copied collection of jazz charts created by students at Berklee College of Music in the 1970s. Despite being technically pirated, it became the bible of jazz musicians worldwide.