Play With Fire: Lead Sheet

This collection captures the Stones' foundational sound during the years when they were actively mining blues tradition and building their signature style. The inclusion of TAB for 29 pivotal guitar riffs gives your students direct access to the architectural elements that define each song, making this an invaluable resource for understanding how melody, rhythm, and riff interact at the highest level. Having all 167 songs in one lay-flat reference book eliminates the scramble of hunting down individual lead sheets.

Raw energy threaded through careful craft. These songs pulse with blues DNA—call-and-response figures, bent notes, syncopated rhythms—but arrive fully formed as pop and rock statements. The early material carries a swagger and immediacy; the later tracks show increasing sophistication in arrangement and production choices. Working through them, you experience a band learning to make their influences their own.

Guitarists who want to understand blues-rock repertoire through the lens of one of its most influential bands, as well as ensemble leaders and music students building knowledge of how American popular song developed in the 1960s. This resource works equally well for solo study, jam sessions, and as reference material for rock and American music classes.

• Study the included guitar TAB section first to lock in the signature riffs before working from the lead sheet; knowing the exact rhythmic placement of these figures will inform your comping and solo approach across all parts of each tune.
• Use the full-color album art reproductions as a cultural touchstone. The artwork and era context shape how you interpret tempo, feel, and dynamics in pieces that might otherwise read as bare notation.
• Cross-reference the discography to hear the recorded versions alongside your lead sheet work. The gap between what's written and what's played reveals crucial interpretive choices about swing, space, and groove.
• Pay attention to the instrumental riffs listed on each chart; these are often the backbone of the arrangement and deserve the same care you'd give to a melody line.

Use this as the core text for a rock history unit or elective focused on 1960s British rock and its American blues roots. Individual songs pair well with ensemble arrangements, acoustic covers, or comparative listening projects where students examine how a single tune might be rendered across different instrumental configurations. The TAB section makes it accessible for guitarists at various levels working independently while the full collection serves as a shared reference for group study.

• Reading and interpreting lead sheets with embedded riffs and figures
• Translating tablature into musical decision-making about phrasing and dynamics
• Understanding 12-bar blues structures and their variations across different song forms
• Recognizing call-and-response and riff-based songwriting techniques
• Contextualizing repertoire through discography and historical documentation