Lead Sheet layout with 5 verses

• Nov 6, 2015 - 03:23

I've attached a lead sheet scan of The Holly And The Ivy. It's got 5 verses, and they put 3 under the melody line and listed 2 more at the bottom.

I could put all 5 under the melody line. I know how to number them, and italicizing Even Lines would help readability. Don't know how to make the trailing brace that leads into the chorus, but I could live without that.

OTOH, maybe having the last verses at the bottom reads easier for some people, assuming they've learned the chords by the third verse. But I don't know how to make a (floating?) text-box for something like that.

Anyway, any advice on which way works better for musicians reading on the fly is appreciated. Trailing brace and text-box questions are bonuses.

Thanks....Lyle

Attachment Size
Holly And The Ivy001.jpg 519.54 KB

Comments

As a musician, I like the lyrics to show up duirectly under the melody notes. to someone who doesn't read music, it might be easier to see the lyrics at the bottom.

Anyhow, to add text at the bottom, append a text frame from the Frames palette (or via the Add menu).

For the brace, you could add staff text, size it appropriately, and drag it into place.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks, Marc, that all makes sense.

And I can certainly live with this, but the behavior seems a little odd:

In the Good King Wenceslas attached here, with five verses, I go to adjust the "Lyrics Bottom Margin". It all looks the same from 3.5 to 5.5 spaces, maybe even a little better at the lower settings. Then at 6.0 spaces, there's a big jump.

Thanks...Lyle

Attachment Size
Good_King_Wenceslas.mscz 23.51 KB

In reply to by Lyle

Yes. Specifically, Once the lyric bottom margin exceeds 5sp, though, the system distance becomes too big to fit all the systems on the page, so the last system moves to the next page, and now there is more room to spread the systems out on the the first page (up to the configured maximum of 15sp).

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