There’s a lot more to understanding and interpreting a Lead Sheet than just decoding the dots…
Let’s take a closer look…
Tonality
Based on at least 5 things: 1) Key signature has no sharps or flats, 2) Song starts and ends on a C Major Triad, 3) Melody emphasizes the notes in a C Major Triad (C, E, G), 4) Melody starts and ends on the note C, and 5) The note C sounds and feels stable and resolved… it’s a pretty safe bet that we are in the key of C Major. In other words, the tonality is “C Major”.
Play and sing out loud to see if your ears agree with the analysis…
Meter
The time signature (4/4) indicates that each quarter note receives one beat, creating an underlying feeling of four-ness in each measure…
Count out loud as you play in order to deeply internalize the feel…
Form & Melody
The form is eight bars long, and the melody is broken into two almost identical 4-bar Phrases. The only difference between the two phrases is the last three notes (more on this in the next lesson)…
Play and sing along to internalize the idea that the melody in this 8-bar piece consists of two coherent and interrelated 4-bar phrases…
Form & Harmony
The C chord establishes the home key and major-ness of the piece and the G7 chord provides harmonic tension that craves resolution back to the C chord in two harmonically identical four-bar phrases.
Sing and play the melody while playing a C chord and G7 chord in your left hand–feeling how the harmonic tension is created and then released in each four-bar phrase…