Just standards real book (warner bros) pdf download

Despite being a classical pianist, for various reasons I would like to get faster at reading chords, lead sheets, etc. So, I figured I could pick up one of those gigunder Fake Books you always see in book stores with over 1,000 tunes in them, just read a chart a day, and this would help me get more "fluent", if you will, with my chord reading/comping.

Being a student, my jaw dropped at the priecs, ranging from about $40-50 a book.

Are there are any free lead sheets/fake book type things floating out around there on the internet, perhaps in acrobat form? I honestly would buy a book at some point, but for the time being I'm broke, and I'd like to get started.

One more question: What the heck is the difference between a "Real Book" and a "Fake Book"? Flipping through them, they look like exactly the same thing...

Re: Real Books/Fake Books

As I understand it a "fake book" has a melody line, the chords which are traditionally played with it and nothing else. Presumably by a "real book" you may mean a volume of tunes with the chords expanded into suggested keyboard figures.

There is, of course, nothing to stop you picking up the tunes by ear and putting your own chords into them. This can be most interesting and costs absolutely nothing.

Re: Real Books/Fake Books

Many years ago, the only way you could get ahold of a somewhat complete compilation of lead sheets was to find and copy (illegally) what were known as fake books. These were handed down from musician to musician or bought and sold on the black market.

Then, Sher music decided to make a legal fake book. They compiled a lot of standards and popular tunes, purchased the legal rights to them, and published the collection under the title "The Real Book."

So..."The Real Book" (up to three volumes now I think) is simply Sher Music's legal fake book. The high price is the result of their purchasing of the rights to all the tunes.

Re: Real Books/Fake Books

Scot, I have 3 or 4 fake books, most were closer to $20 or $25 for 500+ pages than $40 or $50. You might check Hal Leonard Publishing website for more prices.

Here are two links I recommend.

The first one, Ralph Patt's (two T's) Vanilla Book, gives the Chord Changes only (no staff or melody line) to about 500 standard jazz classics. Its a good site because he "distills" about 120 chord progressions and bridges and gives several examples of songs in which that progression occurs (highlighting the progression in question within the songs). (That'll make more sense when you look at the site.) You can download a 1.3Meg AdobeAcrobat PDF file of all the songs for no charge.
RalphPatt.com Vanilla Book Tonal Center Page

The second site is based in France and costs $20 for a CD containing about 1000 songs in PDF. I'm not sure of the exact number but its a bunch. They have published 3 "RealBooks" Vol 1, 2, 3 and all 3 are on this CD. Two hitches. First, at least on my computer (which is on cable to the net) the site was often really SLOW. Its in French but there IS an English button, though it's not marked very clealy. Second, they will NOT accept Visa (or any other credit card) or Checks or MoneyOrders. Cash ONLY. (I'm not sure what spin this puts on the "Real" part of their title) Ok so, RIGHT!, I'm going to slip a 20 into an envelope and mail it to France.....yea, of course no sweat right away sir, and by the way, heres my PIN number and my favorite pair of socks. The point being, I sent them a couple of Emails asking about this and they replied that it would be OK. I postponed what I thought would be a stupid thing to do for 2 or 3 months and then went ahead and sent them the 20 bucks and kept my fingers crossed. The CD showed up in the mail in about 2 weeks and its pretty good. Title lists are available on the web site. These lead sheets are more like you'd see in the fake books you've looked at, with the staff, melody line and chords above the staff.

The Real Book CD site in France

Patt's site is well worth the visit for its educational value and practicality.

Good luck to you, and by the way, I played on EIGHT different Bosendorfers today!!! (Sorry, I know its OffTangent, but I had to tell SOMEBODY)
Bob

Re: Real Books/Fake Books

Almost, but not quite. Actually "The Real Book" was in existence long before the Sher Music books (which are very well done by the way). The Real Book is an illegal "fake book" that is owned and used regularly by just about every jazz musician. It's sold under-the-table at various places. I'm not exactly sure about the origin of the book (although I've heard several stories). But it was really the only source that contained most standards until the Sher Music books were released. It's also infamous because a great deal of the chords are wrong!!! Sher Music also published "The World's Greatest Fake Book" series before the "Real Book" series was introduced.

Re: Real Books/Fake Books

Here is a fairly up-to-date list of fake books:

New Real Book Vol 1 - Chuck Sher
New Real Book Vol 2 - Chuck Sher
New Real Book Vol 3 - Chuck Sher
Standards Real Book - Chuck Sher
The Latin Real Book - Chuck Sher
The All Jazz Real Book - Chuck Sher
The World's Greatest Fake Book - Chuck Sher
Aebersold Play-A-Long Series
The Definitive Jazz Collection - Hal Leonard
The Ultimate Fake Book - Hal Leonard
The Best Fake Book Ever - Hal Leonard
The Ultimate Jazz Fake Book - Hal Leonard - Herb Wong
The Real Jazz Standards Fake Book - Hal Leonard
The Real Jazz Fake Book - Hal Leonard
The Best Chord Changes For The World's Greatest Standards - Frank Mantooth
The Best Chord Changes For The Most Requested Standards - Frank Mantooth
The Best Chord Changes for the Most Popular Songs - Frank Mantooth
The Best Chord Changes for the Best Known Songs - Frank Mantooth
The Best Chord Changes for the Best Standards Ever - Frank Mantooth
Champ Champagne 'Real Chord Changes' series - Hal Leonard
A Jazz Chord Book - Lionel Grigson
Latin Fakebook - Warner Bros
Just Standards Real Book - Warner Bros
Just Jazz Real Book - Warner Bros
The BbEbop Book - Music Sales
100 Jazz & Blues Greats - Wise Publications
The Jazz Sourcebook 2 - Wise Publications
Professional Pianist's Fakebook - Lee Evans
Professional Chord Changes And Substitutions - Dick Hyman
All The Right Changes - Dick Hyman
101 Latin Hits For Buskers - Wise Publications
The Pat Metheny Songbook - Hal Leonard
The Music Of John Coltrane - Hal Leonard
Charles Mingus - More Than A Fake Book - Hal Leonard
The Kenny Barron Collection - Hal Leonard
Abbey Lincoln Songbook - Hal Leonard
Charlie Parker Omnibook - Atlantic Music
Straight Ahead Jazz Fakebook - Gerard and Sarzin
Bebop Pianists - Gerard and Sarzin
Ragtime & Early Jazz - 1900-1935 - Jazz Bible Series - Hal Leonard
The Swing Era - 1936-1947 - Jazz Bible Series - Hal Leonard
Jazz of the '50s - Jazz Bible Series - Hal Leonard
[Old] Real Book Vol 1 *
[Old] Real Book Vol 2 *
[Old] Real Book Vol 3 *
[Old] Vocal Real Book *
Satanic Changes *

Re: Real Books/Fake Books

That's quite a list! Thanks for posting it. I only have a handful of those books. Love that Metheny book!!!

Keyplyr, do you know anything on the origin of the original Real Books?

Re: Real Books/Fake Books

Keyplyr, do you know anything on the origin of the original Real Books? - SteveY

Well, without making my age to obvious (he he) it's my understanding that circa 1967, two Berkley School of Music undergrads started a project to compile leadsheets to the major Jazz tunes as played by the most noted artist.

As was stated earlier, this was illegal replication of copyrighted material, so distribution was somewhat hidden from mainstream music publishing. However, somewhere along the line, deals were made with the appropriate parties and the first Real Book hit the general market by 1969.

Many Jazz aficionados groaned because of what was termed "satanic changes" i.e. hard 7ths instead of major 7ths, 9th chords instead of add 9s, using the minus sign (-) instead of an "m" for minor, etc.

Anyway, the book was an instant success, selling volumes to the new/wannabe Jazz player who was eager to play the tunes the way the artist did.

Seeing this marketing opportunity, established publishing companies started to release their own versions, much to the glee of us all!

Re: Real Books/Fake Books

Are you saying that this was a legal book? I'm not so sure. I bought my first copy at a music store in the San Fernando Valley, but I had to ask for it as they kept them out of sight and would only take cash for them.

I've always tried to take the high road when it comes to copyright infringement. Every piece of software in my studio is legit (which is getting rare these days)! But in this case, it's pretty difficult to be legit in that you really couldn't be a jazz musician in the 70's and 80's without owning a Real Book. It was an expected part of being a pro -- at least it was in my experience. Would you agree with that Keyplyr? These days there are other great resources available to musicians that allow them to be stay above board. I don't do much of that kind of work anymore. Perhaps there are jazz players here that could answer this question better than I?

Re: Real Books/Fake Books

Are you saying that this was a legal book? - SteveY

Further checking points to the "legal" release a couple years later, possibly 1973; but yes, the original Real Book, as we know it today, started out as black-market but eventually became a legal, published volume, 3 in fact and one vocal edition.

And yes, it, and other fake books, circulated covertly for many years. I wrote one myself, but without much financial success (I still have about 3 copies.)

I was very surprised when I started seeing the Real Book openly for sale in music stores since so much legend surrounded it. I remember a store owner friend of mine actually ripping out the cover pages, containing the publishing information, so they appeared more clandestine, allowing him to reap a heavier profit.