How to notate lead sheet form and differ melody/instrumental lines

Question

I'm writing a lead sheet for an original song. I have a few questions:

1. The form is: Intro-V-PC-C-V-PC-C- Instrumental-V-PC-C-Coda-Outro Is this already good enough, or are there better ways to write it?

2. The Intro and Instrumental sections share the same melody; the only difference is that the Instrumental section has a band playing behind it. Can I use a D.C. (Da Capo) marking instead of writing out the entire Instrumental part?

3. The ending melodies of the Verse and Instrumental sections sometimes blurred (I've marked the Instrumental melody in red). Is this generally acceptable, or is there a conventional way to notate this more clearly?

4. There are slight variations in syllables and note lengths between the repeated verses, but I don't want to include the lyrics. Is it generally acceptable to omit these variations?

Answer 1

1. Although technically correct, it's quite difficult to follow, even after knowing how the roadmap works — the eye has to travel all over the page, and it will be prone to error. I'd do it this way:

2. That's going to make things even harder to follow. Maybe this instead:

3. You can remove the first two beats of the Intro and make it into a pickup measure. Then (the last measure of) your second ending (as shown in #2 above) will just be two beats long. Alternatively, keep thing as they are, but use a D.S. to repeat to the second measure of the intro.

4. If they don't need to be played, then omitting them is fine.

Answer 2

1. It's generally preferable to be sparing with "goto" commands. So I'd suggest ditching the first coda and using a plain good old repeat instead.

2. If the information you include is the same, then yes, you can write them as one. Keep in mind that whatever is left out of the sheet is not conveyed, so unless you intend it for your own band that you can instruct directly or you write a note above the staff, that idea will be lost.

3. One conventional way is to write instrumental ornaments in smaller notes.
   Or, typically if it's a longer part, there's sometimes "(Instrumental)" written in the line where lyrics would otherwise be instead, keeping the notes at standard size (this also works when some verses are sung and other are instrumental, or even part instrumental - part sung).

4. Yes, as long as a singer can make sense of it intuitively enough, it's perfectly acceptable to omit the fine variations in favour of keeping the sheet simple.

Answer 3

Write whatever is necessary for the use it will be put to. Will a performer ever need to sight-read it? In that case, go easy on complicated repeat structures. Or is it more for reference? You can get away with more shortcuts then. Will a singer be using it? Make sure all the lyrics are clearly included. You probably don't need to meticulously notate minor rhythmic differences between verses.

The thing that worries me most about your example is the rhythmic grouping in bars 18 and 32. Do you understand why that's 'wrong' (i.e. hard to read)?