The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Why You Shouldn't Be a Real Book Player • Jazz Advice

    This article sums up how I feel about real books - a useful tool for some circumstances but too-often overused as a crutch and as a way to avoid the work of learning tunes and using your ears. (Really dude, you need to look at a Real Book to play Blue Bossa?)

    It also explains the misuse of Chord Scale Theory as a shortcut paint-by-numbers approach to improvising, instead of as a way to understand what's going on harmonically.

    Ears rule.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    A real book is a tool. IT can be a very useful tool, provided you understand chord charts like that are suggestions, not law.

    personally, I've never met a jazz player who only learned from a real book...how can you learn anything about improvising, voice-leading, etc without using your ears? Most jazz musicians, even mediocre ones like me, still have far better ears than most...and we use 'em...Ears and charts are not mutually exclusive.

    I've read this article before...reeks of "Internet sage" soundbyte wisdom..."burn your realbooks!" reminds me of the other "made up" musicians players use to illustrate a point...the guy who could only play blue bossa with a real book chart...the "classically trained" pianist who couldn't play when you took the music away...somebody's cousin who was an amazing player until he learned theory...

  4. #3

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    Maybe I'm older, but I'm an advocate of using your ears to transcribe the heads and chords of songs from records. It's because I see too many players relying on charts to play the simplest of standards.

  5. #4

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    I once saw Herbie Hancock using a realbook on a gig. 'Nuff said.

  6. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
    A real book is a tool. IT can be a very useful tool, provided you understand chord charts like that are suggestions, not law.

    personally, I've never met a jazz player who only learned from a real book...how can you learn anything about improvising, voice-leading, etc without using your ears? Most jazz musicians, even mediocre ones like me, still have far better ears than most...and we use 'em...Ears and charts are not mutually exclusive.

    I've read this article before...reeks of "Internet sage" soundbyte wisdom..."burn your realbooks!" reminds me of the other "made up" musicians players use to illustrate a point...the guy who could only play blue bossa with a real book chart...the "classically trained" pianist who couldn't play when you took the music away...somebody's cousin who was an amazing player until he learned theory...
    The reason I like this article is that it wasn't the kind of simplistic burn-your-realbook polemics I've seen before. Rather, it acknowledges the usefulness of using charts but also points out the drawbacks of relying on them too much.

    I've seen plenty of players who insist on using realbooks to play not only Blue Bossa, but Autumn Leaves, Black Orpheus or any of the other tunes with relatively simple chord changes that can be memorized with little effort. It's not that they can't -- but using charts for everything has apparently become a habit for many. Even those who have gone through four years of music school. I've seen it - I'm not making this up.

    But to each his/her own. I can only speak for myself - I find it liberating to play without staring at a chart. (But it's not an either/or situation - I do use realbooks to help learn new tunes or to play unfamiliar tunes at jams or to refresh my aging memory.)

    BTW, congratulations on your new addition!

  7. #6

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    Heh yeah, once in an interview with Pat Martino he was talking about some changes for his Wes tribute album and he was about to demonstrate something and said "ah well I'd need the lead sheet to demonstrate that."

    Important to be able to read charts, important to be able to hear everything, important to know theory and be able to do quick and accurate analysis of charts, good to have a lot of tunes memorized.

    Important to be able to tell a story and interact with the audience no matter what level of skill you have with any of the above.

  8. #7

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    You know, the link didn't work the first time I clicked on it (I was actually planning a much more scathing post picking it apart bit by bit) I tried clicking again and realized this is not the jazz advice article I thought it was...this one is much more based in common sense and reality.

    i was thinking of the "throw your real book away!" Article from a few years ago.

  9. #8

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    A little tangent: I generally find the jazz advice columns to have a lot of really solid information, also a little flabby with too little editing and too much internet-savvy marketing speak. Still, I think they're a great resource--it's not like they're replacing some other free font of jazz advice that's better.
    Last edited by dingusmingus; 01-27-2014 at 03:00 PM.

  10. #9

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    This is a fake "problem".

    There is no data in the article to support the argument for memorizing tunes--just a bunch of clichés. Many classic solos were recorded by people reading off of charts. The author of the article would not be able to tell the difference between a recording of a great player improvising off a chart, or from memory.

    Whenever someone tells you what you should be practicing, ask yourself what part of your practice you will leave out. Would it be more beneficial to practice creatively improvising over 10 tunes with the chart in front of you for an hour, or work on memorizing one tune? Memorization is a very low-level, uncreative mental process.

    It really depends on your goals as a musician. If your goal is to play RB tunes from memory, have at it.

  11. #10

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    Oooh...memorizing is very important.

    One of the only ways to actually sound okay reading off a chart when improvising is to have memorized many musical situations...that comes from tunes.

    Seriously, the stuff I can improvise over best is the stuff I really know inside out. It's not just important, it's crucial.

  12. #11

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    My problem is that it's very easy to get into the habit of constantly looking at charts/lead sheets and never transcribing from the greats.

  13. #12

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    How though? There's no solos to rely on in the real book...If you're going to function at even the most basic level in jazz you have to do some deep listening and cop some ideas, whether you write them down or not...it's inevitable.

    I always say transcribe the greats is usually dispensed as lazy advise to beginners...remember how hard it is to hear jazz when you start out? I'm damn glad I had a mentor who said yeah, transcribe, but you gotta know this other stuff too, or transcribing will be at best frustrating and at worst an exercise in futility. There's groundwork...

  14. #13

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    Is it better to memorize one musical situation verbatim, or have a working familiarity with 10?

    Everything is important; it is a question of opportunity costs. There is a diminishing return on your gains in musicianship as you get closer to memorizing a tune.

    Granted--what do I know. But my son has gone to some camps with a teacher whom Downbeat recognized as top artist on his instrument, and he said "Don't waste your time memorizing".

    It really depends on your situation. A young player might have a lot more important things to learn. If you are playing a lot of RB gigs, it would have more utility. But some jazz musicians are not into the RB at all.

  15. #14

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    My earliest teachers all told me to memorize everything, which I took to heart. I use Real Books when practicing, but, unless it's a sideman gig with short notice, I never read on a gig if I can help it. I feel like reading from a chart really turns off my ears and ability to interact.

    My favorite way to use the Real Book is to try to transcribe a tune first, then compare what I've got to the Real Book version.

  16. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonzo
    Is it better to memorize one musical situation verbatim, or have a working familiarity with 10?

    Everything is important; it is a question of opportunity costs. There is a diminishing return on your gains in musicianship as you get closer to memorizing a tune.

    Granted--what do I know. But my son has gone to some camps with a teacher whom Downbeat recognized as top artist on his instrument, and he said "Don't waste your time memorizing".

    It really depends on your situation. A young player might have a lot more important things to learn. If you are playing a lot of RB gigs, it would have more utility. But some jazz musicians are not into the RB at all.
    memorized to where it's second nature. The second nature part is really most important...it's not "can you recite the chords to misty," its, "can you sit down and play misty."

    Any reading I'm doing while playing affects my listening.

    Doing the kind of small time gigs I do (weddings, unrehearsed pick ups, subbing, solo stuff with lots of requests) it's almost inevitable I'll have a chart (as discreetly as possible) out for some tunes...but if I were rounding up a quartet to do a standards record or any record really, even stuff I wrote--I'd be damn sure it was stuff I knew inside out.

    inevitably, someone will comment about how an unfamiliar tune could bring out brilliance ya da yada...If somebody's that good, then go for it. For a mere mortal like me, I'll pick the stuff I've played a thousand times.

  17. #16

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    I have left in my dust every other aspiring jazzer I've met who thought that memorizing tunes was unimportant...

    You cannot form a group with those kinds of so-called jazz players. Try to explain to them what to do on an ending, or an intro, or maybe alternate changes in a couple bars or whatever, and they are just useless. It is a musical skill - work on it and watch it grow, or don't and you won't.

    Big difference between 'playing jazz tunes' and being a 'jazz player', and one of the keys is memorizing tunes.
    Last edited by coolvinny; 01-27-2014 at 04:48 PM.

  18. #17

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    There was a period where I was trying to maintain every song I learned at performance level. It was really hard to make gains in other areas.

  19. #18

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    It gets easier. If you really learn a tune, it becomes very difficult to forget. The sooner you can get away from the leadsheet, the deeper you will learn the tune. Analyzing the harmony is important. It starts to become only a few chunks of info to memorize. The melody should be in your ear though.

    Tunes I only half-learned in the first place...yeah, those ones I struggle with or have simply not learned at all - the musical equivalent to academic "cramming". Tunes I learned before I really knew "how to learn a tune" I struggle with even though I have known them for much longer than something I learned say a year ago.

  20. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonzo
    There was a period where I was trying to maintain every song I learned at performance level. It was really hard to make gains in other areas.
    This would be an interesting topic for another thread. I'm struggling with this on a daily basis. I'm thinking that there are two levels of "learning tunes". The first is familiarity with the song, structure, melody, etc. If you can play through the melody, comp through it, solo, you're good.

    The second is to be performance ready. Outside of the world of jam sessions this means having a unique arrangement, the ability to nail it without mistakes at command. I'd imagine most professional folks play the same tunes night in and night out, and practice the rough spots regularly, to have them at that level.

    A tune that I'm "familiar" with can be easily reference in my brain for jam sessions, etc. For my regular gigs, I find that I have to play through it at least once every 3 or 4 days to keep in the kind of shape I need to be in to do it. This is solo stuff, so a little more demanding than a combo setting, I think.

    I don't think memorization impacts this reality.

  21. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by ecj
    A tune that I'm "familiar" with can be easily reference in my brain for jam sessions, etc. For my regular gigs, I find that I have to play through it at least once every 3 or 4 days to keep in the kind of shape I need to be in to do it. This is solo stuff, so a little more demanding than a combo setting, I think.

    I don't think memorization impacts this reality.
    I agree with this. The more time I have to spend learning a tune, the more time I have to spend on upkeep. There's definitely a difference memorizing and feeling confident with a tune like All of Me versus Donna Lee. I think you have to pick your battles the same way you pick what tune to transcribe. Some tunes I want to spend a great deal of time with, and I'll learn them hot off the headphones, melody, chords, and all. And sometimes it seems like it would be a waste of my time to transcribe for whatever reason. I'd like to be "off-book" for all the tunes I play and that is what I'm working toward in learning tunes, but a lot of the times the people I play with DON'T know the tunes, so I end up still looking at "the book." A lot of times I feel I'm not so much memorizing chord changes as I am just memorizing a pattern. So I feel like I need to rexamine that tune via lead sheet anyway. Memorization is the ultimate goal, but sometimes it's pure luxury.

  22. #21

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    I can play maybe 60 or so real book tunes without the leadsheet.

    This Saturday, I've been asked to play with a 'rehearsal band' (what does that mean?). I was given a list of 18 tunes, I know three of them. I'll be lucky if I put in an hour before we meet which is probably not even enough time to listen to them. What are you going to do?

  23. #22

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    I think people go about memorizing jazz tunes the wrong way too...jazz tunes have common forms...For like, great American songbook stuff, I swear there's maybe only half a dozen bridges that are really different...people try to memorize a chain of chords...

    I have a repertoire of maybe 150 tunes for solo guitar...i usually keep a gigs worth on the "front burner" so to speak, plus some frequently requested tunes...so that's maybe 35-45 tunes I can play at will...but I'm usually surprised how quickly a tune comes back to me...If it was a tune I really knew well...If I knew "of it," back to the drawing board!

  24. #23

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    Until you get to the point where you perform regularly, and I'm talking at least a couple of times a week, which most of us don't do, you can never really get a true picture of what you really need to do. You can only guess until then, and do the best you can.

    I feel terrible that the opportunities for most to get together and play jazz with other people at any level is almost non-existent, and it seems that jazz guitarists are in less demand that other instruments, but are in the most abundance.

    When you are playing and performing with other people often, when you get time to shed, you know exactly what work needs to get done, because what you lack stands out like a sore thumb on the bandstand to yourself if not others.

    The only guys I know that have a large workable repertoire memorized, comes from years of gigging. As time marches on, we have hundreds and hundreds of more tunes and possibilities than guys playing 30-40 years ago. Memorization and reading as an informed player is the way things work today. The gigs just aren't there to define what needs to be done, which is a shame for a lot of us wishing to get to or maintain an accomplished playing level. Rant over....

  25. #24

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    Quote Originally Posted by jzucker
    I once saw Herbie Hancock using a realbook on a gig. 'Nuff said.
    I can't blame him...those changes on Dolphin Dance are hard to remember...

  26. #25

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    I think you have to take that advice column regarding using the Real Book in the context of the argument. I think there is nothing wrong with using the RB to help keep track of the music. Meaning? Lyrics, odd bridges, and safety net. Couple of points about memorizing music.

    In my teens and twenties through thirties, I used to memorize classical pieces including challenging scores like Nocturnal (Britten) and the Chaconne (Bach), Dowland and Elizabethan lute music and the like. Frankly, memorization was a heck of a lot easier back then than at my present age. While a star stage performer like Sharon Isbin must memorize entire concertos, it is easier to do the bulk of that task in your youth. Oddly enough, those solo works I memorized in my adolescence and young adulthood remain pretty well in memory, though I would not try performing a recital of those serious scores without some necessary practice time with the sheet music.

    On the other hand, memorizing a song like The Shadow Of Your Smile or Misty depends more emphatically on the aural component of the task, though obviously it applies to memorizing the Chaconne as well. I maintain it is different with jazz tunes in that I "memorize" really the melody and its supporting harmonic structure. If you talk to my wonderful elderly Mother graced with little sign of dementia thankfully, she can hum and sing tunes from seventy years ago, though she might forget some of the lyrics. But as a musician, I "hear" the changes and just know the harmonic context, and it is that last part, "hearing the changes and knowing", that are essential for the jazz musician. At least unless you are the vocalist.

    So most of us who have spent years playing tunes like Smile, The Way You Look Tonight, and other songs "know" the melody and the changes, but I suspect many of us need lead sheets to keep track of the lyrics. That is why I created my own transcriptions of songs that I "know". I like to record many tunes as multitracks with vocals and guitar, often with some added orchestration synth parts like strings or horns, percussion. I use the Real Book mostly to keep track of lyrics when recording. Before I record, I sometimes listen to the takes of various artists ranging from Jo Stafford to Bill Evans to Tony Bennett, for example, to think about stylistic approaches - tempo, orchestration and the like. With jazz songs my transcriptions are often annotated with things about orchestration or even things like "J Mathis - Eb" for recalling keys in relation to my vocal range with songs I do not play or sing that often. In effect, my sheet music may vary from an elaborate note-for-note Sonata to my own "short hand" lead sheet with just melody and written out chords (eg, Em7b5) over the lyrics. It really depends on the setting and task.

    Last point is about writing columns of advice. I think it may be more 'entertaining' to the reader to set up a "strawdog" either-or type proposition against which the writer may argue his thesis. Reality is rarely so black and white. I don't think many great jazz artists like Ella Fitzgerald really need a Real Book to keep track of the chord progression, but it always pains me to see videos of her performing in her later years very obviously reading off lyric sheets with her thick glasses. Maybe it hits too close to home...

    Jay
    Last edited by targuit; 01-28-2014 at 04:03 AM.