Real Book #4 Sucks.

[sgcim]

I borrowed RB #4 from this bass player I play in a duo with, and I was looking at some songs, and they leave out 32 BARS of "The Best is Yet to Come! "
I've done the tune with Sinatra imitators and I knew there was a lot left out, so I just listened to Sinatra sing it on You Tube, and there were 32 bars missing.
The bass player says they do that to "Guess Who I Saw Today", but I haven't checked that out, but on "Ugetsu, they leave most of the tune out, and on Solo Flight they leave the entire tune out and just have the changes!
I don't know how many other tunes they messed up, but the bass player said he paid $40 for it at Sam Ash!

[wintermoon]

I have a couple but not volume 4.
I used to get most of my sheet music from the library, they had the originals you could copy. Of course most were in the original vocal keys and needed transcribing since most people play everything in instrumental real book keys.
Your bro can probably hook you up, no?

[garybaldy]

I get some chord charts from here and write them on a piece of paper. If you click on the link a random song will come up but you can find what you want. Best Is Yet To Come (Page 2), The Chord Chart!

[ragman1]

Thanks, that looks useful.

[Al Haig]

I decided to just get Real Books 1-6 since they're the most convenient. Obviously some are left out and screwed up, but nothing google and ur ear can't fix.

[Electgumbo]

Yeah I haven’t found a correct chart of Guess Who I Saw Today. I had to play it for a show a few years ago. I had to figure it out by ear. But nothing seems to follow it the way Nancy Wilson done it. But the singer was ecstatic that I nailed it…

[Mick-7]

I can usually find a lead sheet for any song by searching for the song title and copying images that I find.

For example:
"The Best is Yet to Come" - Sheet Music Now
The Best Is Yet To Come (Lead sheet with lyrics) | Musescore.com

[sgcim]

I can usually find a lead sheet for any song by searching for the song title and copying images that I find.

For example:
"The Best is Yet to Come" - Sheet Music Now
The Best Is Yet To Come (Lead sheet with lyrics) | Musescore.com

Yeah, but you only get one page of the song.with SMN, unless you want to pay $3.
With MuseScore they put it in c for some reason. The standard key is Ab.

[sgcim]

I get some chord charts from here and write them on a piece of paper. If you click on the link a random song will come up but you can find what you want. Best Is Yet To Come (Page 2), The Chord Chart!

Yeah, but that doesn't have the melody.

[sgcim]

I found TBIYTC in another book, and it worked out great. Cy Coleman wrote some great stuff!

[Mick-7]

Yeah, but you only get one page of the song.with SMN, unless you want to pay $3.
With MuseScore they put it in c for some reason. The standard key is Ab.

You can make out most of page 2 in spite of the preview box plastered over it.

[wintermoon]

Yeah, but you only get one page of the song.with SMN, unless you want to pay $3.
With MuseScore they put it in c for some reason. The standard key is Ab.

Sometimes if you scroll through Google images and skip the pay sites you can find entire tunes but its hit or miss and there's a lot of hand written/transcribed versions you need to scroll through and frequently have to tweak here and there.

[garybaldy]

Yeah, but that doesn't have the melody.

I grew up playing jazz from the age of 15 very early 70s. Chords were all we used.

[GuyBoden]

Yeah, but that doesn't have the melody.

If I can't learn the melody by ear, the song is too difficult for my ability.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

If I can't learn the melody by ear, the song is too difficult for my ability.

The value of a full lead sheet is that everybody in the band can play and / or chord behind the same head. Unless you're in a collective improvisation band, it's critical that all play or support the same melody (even if it varies from the original). The audience won't notice or care about deviations from originality, but they'll sure notice clashing notes or rhythms.

We "get away with" a lot, but the band sounds much tighter when all are on the same page.

[garybaldy]

The value of a full lead sheet is that everybody in the band can play and / or chord behind the same head. Unless you're in a collective improvisation band, it's critical that all play or support the same melody (even if it varies from the original). The audience won't notice or care about deviations from originality, but they'll sure notice clashing notes or rhythms.

We "get away with" a lot, but the band sounds much tighter when all are on the same page.

The chords are the anchor.

[sgcim]

The value of a full lead sheet is that everybody in the band can play and / or chord behind the same head. Unless you're in a collective improvisation band, it's critical that all play or support the same melody (even if it varies from the original). The audience won't notice or care about deviations from originality, but they'll sure notice clashing notes or rhythms.

We "get away with" a lot, but the band sounds much tighter when all are on the same page.

I agree, and this bass player is also a guitarist, who always wants to have the melody in treble clef on a chart, to help him with his bass solos.
It's a beautiful sound to have the melody played by a great acoustic, upright bass with guitar accompaniment. In a duo.,it adds a different texture to the tune, and sometimes sounds better than my solo!
When we play live, people actually applaud after every bass solo, instead of ignoring the bass solo like they usually do.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

The chords are the anchor.

To the melody??? If you can divine the line from the chords, you’re in a league by yourself.

[garybaldy]

To the melody??? If you can divine the line from the chords, you’re in a league by yourself.

No. For the band.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

No. For the band.

Read my post again. I said that having the same lead sheet lets everyone in the band play a tune with and around the same notes and structure. Different books & scores often have variations of a head, and it's common for multiple players to be playing different lines and / or chords at the same time (especially because many insist on doing it "the way I always play it"). Having only a chord chart won't solve conflicting melodies, accents, etc.

Many fake book charts differ from both the original and from each other. Just having the chords won't help this. Few things make a band sound worse than multiple versions of a song played simultaneously.

[pamosmusic]

Read my post again. I said that having the same lead sheet lets everyone in the band play a tune with and around the same notes and structure. Different books & scores often have variations of a head, and it's common for multiple players to be playing different lines and / or chords at the same time (especially because many insist on doing it "the way I always play it"). Having only a chord chart won't solve conflicting melodies, accents, etc.

Many fake book charts differ from both the original and from each other. Just having the chords won't help this. Few things make a band sound worse than multiple versions of a song played simultaneously.

This is interesting ... for American Songbook tunes, most fake books have miserably square rhythms. So generally folks aren't playing anything much like the rhythm in the fakebook anyway.

Different for jazz composers. But how do you reconcile those American Songbook rhythms in the way you're describing?

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

This is interesting ... for American Songbook tunes, most fake books have miserably square rhythms. So generally folks aren't playing anything much like the rhythm in the fakebook anyway.

Different for jazz composers. But how do you reconcile those American Songbook rhythms in the way you're describing?

It's not so much the rhythm of the song as it is the rhythmic structure of the lead lines, eg a dotted quarter followed by an eighth vs a triplet or a pair of quarter notes. There are also many melodic variations in standards that affect the rhythmic flow of the line and / or the most appropriate comping, bass lines, and drum patterns.

The drummer I use most often in my trio follows a lead sheet, and it shows in his playing. He really keeps the three of us tightly together. I used to play with a blues drummer who wanted charts or videos, and he learned every tune we did as I wanted it. We got so used to each other's musical thinking that we almost always stayed together on patterns, hits and accents, even all the way through tunes that were off list (encores, requests, etc) or called by guest players or singers.

[GuyBoden]

It's not so much the rhythm of the song as it is the rhythmic structure of the lead lines, eg a dotted quarter followed by an eighth vs a triplet or a pair of quarter notes. There are also many melodic variations in standards that affect the rhythmic flow of the line and / or the most appropriate comping, bass lines, and drum patterns.

The drummer I use most often in my trio follows a lead sheet, and it shows in his playing. He really keeps the three of us tightly together. I used to play with a blues drummer who wanted charts or videos, and he learned every tune we did as I wanted it. We got so used to each other's musical thinking that we almost always stayed together on patterns, hits and accents, even all the way through tunes that were off list (encores, requests, etc) or called by guest players or singers.

Thanks for the information, that's a lot of good experience you are sharing. Obviously, you're a professional player, many thanks. I'd guess that most forum members are hobby players like myself.

[garybaldy]

Read my post again. I said that having the same lead sheet lets everyone in the band play a tune with and around the same notes and structure. Different books & scores often have variations of a head, and it's common for multiple players to be playing different lines and / or chords at the same time (especially because many insist on doing it "the way I always play it"). Having only a chord chart won't solve conflicting melodies, accents, etc.

Many fake book charts differ from both the original and from each other. Just having the chords won't help this. Few things make a band sound worse than multiple versions of a song played simultaneously.

Which one?

[sgcim]

Read my post again. I said that having the same lead sheet lets everyone in the band play a tune with and around the same notes and structure. Different books & scores often have variations of a head, and it's common for multiple players to be playing different lines and / or chords at the same time (especially because many insist on doing it "the way I always play it"). Having only a chord chart won't solve conflicting melodies, accents, etc.

Many fake book charts differ from both the original and from each other. Just having the chords won't help this. Few things make a band sound worse than multiple versions of a song played simultaneously.

That's why they invented copy machines.