I've been hired to play at a wedding with a violinist. During the mass the couple requested we play Ave Maria. I have a piano part, but it would make my life much easier just to have the chords and melody in lead sheet format. Key of G if possible. Thank you !

Melody and chords might not give you much of the interior movement of the accompaniment… remember, you’re accompanying the violinist, not playing the lead yourself.

Sure, a fake sheet might be fine for basic use, but check out the proper sheet music anyway. There may be some tasty counterlines and harmonic moves that it’s unlikely a fake sheet will notate… particularly bass inversions that help shape the accompaniment. Fake books rarely include these.

Thank you to those that sent me the lead sheets. Diki, is right, it's always a good practice to take a look at the "proper sheet music" I have, but it has a the violin parts and full piano accompaniment, so it's cumbersome to read. But, I did a harmonic analysis and came up with my own accompaniment and solo piano arrangement that works best with my skill level. For better or worse, I work best using my ears and own intuition when learning a song. A lead sheet fits my style/abilities much better, but I'm glad I can read the grand staff, at least for study purposes.

Glad it worked out. I love accompanying work, it’s so nice to have somebody else carry the melody from time to time and work on what best compliments it!

I think the real weakness of fake books is the oversimplification of the bass line. Back in Bach’s day, the had a form of ‘fake book’ for the harpsichordist or organist where they wrote the melody, the bass line, and then just numbers for the chords. It was called ‘figured bass’ and most harpsichordists improvised the entire part for a concerto or other orchestral pieces! The ‘jazz’ of its day, you might say!

But having the bassline AND the melody made sure that the improvisation didn’t clash with the orchestra. I really wish fake books still used this system (but with our way of writing the chords!)…

By the way, if you’ve ever worked with country musicians or recorded in Nashville etc., they have a fake system where everything is numbers. 1/// 4//5 6-/// etc. That’s not too far away from Bach’s figured bass’s I/// IV//V IV/// ! The advantage is, they can change key without having to rewrite the chart… Cool!