This is an interesting site. It may be of use to many.
http://hetzler.homestead.com/TOC.html
JP
Definitely of use to me!
Thanks John. I had not discovered this one yet.
Mack
John,
Thanks for the tip. I have it bookmarked already.
Mike
I have what may be a dumb question: Why do they call them “fake books”?
Redwolf
Fake books usually give you just the bare bones of a song or tune-- enough to let you “fake” it in a session or a jam.
~Andrea
Every jazz player has this big expensive book that has the melody lines and chords for pretty much everything. It’s called “fake book”. There’s also a “true book” or “real book”, i’m not sure, which has transcriptions from famous recordings. I don’t know which one came first. I think fake book comes from “faking it”, that is, playing the stuff well enough without really investing the time to learn. It’s a self-deprecating thing.
Thanks John…the site is great.
The best part is the free download for the MIDI player. Does the same thing that Amazing Slower Downer does, only with MIDI files.
Fantastic!!!
Mike
The original fake books, as already indicated, were mainly for jazz and pop (pre rock pop) musicians. They were mainly useful for piano and bass players because they gave the melody line for standard tunes. More importantly they gave a series of chord changes for the melody so that the accompanists didn’t have to figure them out. These weren’t so much use for horn players because, at least for an on-the-spot arrangement, because the tunes would still have to be transposed into whatever key was appropriate for the horn. Flutes, which are not common, are exempt from this. Maybe trombones too except the melody was written in the treble clef. Some books of trad music like the Fiddlers Fake Book present transcriptions of tunes taken from records along with chord changes. The online fake book isn’t really one in the same sense as the originals.
Steve
very useful.
thanks!
What’s maddening about fake books for songs is that they only give one verse. I guess its supposed to be enought to shut up the drunk in the corner that keeps asking for a given tune.
“The Real Book” was a legitimately published fake book that came out in the early 80s (I THINK). Prior fake books were illegal and distributed by word-of-mouth among pro musicians as copyrights and permissions were not secured. They have been around for decades.
When I was manager of a music store, one of these guys showed up, offering to sell us some at wholesale outright for cash only. My boss refused em and told me the deal with fake books.
I still have a fake book I secretely bought in the '50s. I was given to believe that if I happened to be caught with it I would be tarred and feathered and also drawn and quartered. But that would only be a start. I never really understood why they were called fake books but my thought was that the set of arrangements for a dance band or jazz band was called their book. That would be a real book becuase it contained all the parts for the arrangement.
Steve
Yeah, I thought it just meant that you were “faking it” when given a request. I never thought about full arrangements but that sure makes sense. It always seemed like a pianobar guy kind of thing.
I have a very weird Greek Wedding Music fake book that I bought just for the heck of it, figuring that maybe we would have to play a Greek tune at our gigs. We have played Russian, Italian, Irish, hawaiian, trad. Jewish and NEW Jewish (Israeli new folkie) as well as Born Again type of things. Never did play a Greek tune tho..
Oh, the stories I could tell…Wedding musicians need one of those delis to go in and swap worst wedding gags and have sandwiches named after us when we are complete geezers (yes, I am still a geezer-in-training).
Really cool resource…Thanks.
PhilO