What other things in the Real Book do you know about that are just plain wrong?? Also, the Harmony 101 course is available right now for 30% off, no code required! cornellmusicacademy.com/harmony
I think all the Metheny stuff was based on Pats original charts so is accurate. They don’t yet have the titles they’d be given for Bright Size life. Interestingly that didn’t always match up with what was recorded, but it’s how Pat wrote them.
In the early 90's I walked into a music store and I said (too) loudly "I need a Fake Book. I was told you sold them". The shopkeep put his hand up and said "shhhhh....those are illegal". Then he took me to the backroom and sold me one for $25 cash. No shit.
I bought one the same way in 1977 or so in Boston. My piano teacher told me about it. Got the same initial response from the store guy. I think I paid $20. Still have that book. I believe I heard about and bought the legit one just within the last year or so (2022). I have not taken the time to compare them though.
@@stephenrothman6058 They left a few things out and there are a couple of different tunes in the new one, Vol. 6 from Vol. 5, which was the last of the illegal ones. Not too bad though. I like Vol 5 better, but maybe that’s just because I’m used to it. That cool that you have your original! And from Boston, that must have come to you hot off the press. I still have my original paper copies of Real Book 1 and 2 as well. The copies I have now are pretty rough though and both are “re-buys” that I picked up after my first set got destroyed over the years at gigs and jam sessions. Such is life. I’m sure I’m a little rougher now too.
@@demonmonkeypoop There are scanned PDFs of each of the first three Real Books, Third Edition, floating around online, and they've been there for at least a decade. (I helped put them there.) The catch is, they're all in C treble clef, so not suitable for sight-reading on a B♭ or E♭ instrument. You'll have to do your own searching, I wouldn't drop a link here even if I was allowed to.
Got my first real book in '85, fifth edition, I think I paid $20. Walked into the music store, went to the counter an asked. Guy got real quiet and asked "Who sent you?" ... "Umm ... nobody, I just know they exist." He wasn't that happy with the answer but since I was only 19 he was pretty sure I wasn't a narc. Pulled one from under the counter.
Charles: "...The Real Book, at least until about 2004, was illegal." Me: *slowly turns and gives the sideeye to my 1999 copy of The Real Book on the shelf behind me*
@@caidthackeray8896 I can't stand sharp keys just because I played bass in a band with alto sax and my hands just default on Bb and Eb frets every time
they’re wind instrument friendly, so it’s easier to work around. i often default these easier keys when playing piano because i played trombone and defaulted to those flat kets (Bb, Eb, Ab, etc.)
I can't tell you how much I questioned my ear when I used The Real Book to try and learn Anthropology. "Wait, there's a B natural on the 2nd beat? ....waaaaaait" and ran like I was on fire to some old recordings of it with Bird and Satch and slowed them way down. There's no Cb in that head, but it's on the paper. After seeing a handful of other "choices were made" notes in the transcriptions I realized the Real Book is indeed "close enough for jazz" and basically just treat it like a suggestion.
OMG, I struggle with that so much too! I often listen to the tune many times, and then try to learn the sheet music and combine the stuff, and it is so annoying when it doesn't match! I start to question whether it is me who read it wrong, or is it them who wrote it wrong. For me, a person who is not that good at reading the sheet music, this is sometimes a really painful experience to try and figure out if I am right or wrong (especially on old recordings where the sound is hard to hear when slowed down).
@@oresthopiak8609 I'm not educated in music theory but I remember reading guitar tabs once in a while, and trying stuff out, and there's SO MUCH WRONG. Like I could tell that a solo note was played way up on the fretboard with a darker string than what was transcribed just from the tone of the guitar in the recording. And how the original made it more logical fingering wise for what comes next etc. And I wondered how someone transcribing stuff like this could make such a mistake. Made me stop using tabs altogether and just listen and try to figure it out myself like I'd always done.
@@computer_toucher I often try to combine tabs and transcribing by ear. If I hear stuff at full speed and they seem to match, then I learn it from the tab. If they don't match, then I have to slow down the song and transcribe by ear. Even if there are videos of someone teaching a song and I don't like the fingering, I change it to git my needs. This could happen to the person writing tabs, as most often people do this for themselves. My guess is that you wouldn't really like fingerings of Django Reinhardt, for example =D
I learned the Anthropology head using the Real book and played it to my guitar teacher. He looked at me and said, good but what the hell are you doing there in the beginning, it's not only hard to play it's also wrong 😅
My band director had this massive stack of real books in the back, easily like 100 of them and each and every one was in pristine condition (most of our other music books or sheet music copies were pretty beat up) and yes each and every one was treated like the holy grail lmao
Just a note to the editor: the piano levels are maxing out the UV meter in this video - coming out a tad distorted (clipping) through the whole range. This was interesting but my comment has nothing to do with The Real Book. I get a sense of pride when a younger person finds the voice and styling's of Ella Fitzgerald "beautiful". My mother sang in collage and Fitzgerald had a lot of influence on my mom. She worked hard to recreate that throaty resonance of Elle's voice. What I hear in my memory are tunes my mother sang while working in the kitchen, or sang sitting on my bed to sing me to sleep, sounding a lot like (what I realize now as) the recordings of Elle. I can not hear Elle Fitzgerald sing without confusing the sound with my own mother's voice. Beautiful, indeed!
It was always my understanding that the changes used in Real Book I were taken directly from the specific recordings listed at the bottom of each lead sheet (or interpolated from multiple sources if so listed). That's what we did anyway, 30-some years ago! So for "Like Someone In Love" the idea was that if you listened to Coltrane's version from the "Lush Life" album, you could here the changes he and his group used and see them go by as well. I double-checked that this was still the case just now, it is still is... with an asterisk! You are absolutely right about the different key change, even from the lead sheet to Coltrane's recording. His is in Ab and the lead sheet (as you mentioned) is in Eb!! I never knew that! LOL! However, adjusting for the key change, the chords are exactly right. On the other hand, when I played Blue Trane for the first time in high school, I was just playing straight from the record. (Honestly can't remember if we had an Aebersold record at the time...) As far as "But Not For Me" (RB II), I couldn't tell you where those changes came from. The record they used isn't listed at the bottom like it is in RB I. And yeah, I bought my first Real Book in 1988 from another college student for $30. Still got it, too!! And yeah, it was kind of like buying pot - you had to know a dude who knew a dude! LOL!
Actually the Like Someone in Love score in the Real Book is the way Bill Evans played it. It is even written on the bottom of the page in some editions...
Flat keys are preferred because it works much better for the transposing wind and brass instruments like trumpet and tenor sax in Bb and alto sax in Eb, so a piece in Eb (three flats) would be in F for trumpet and tenor and in C for alto, as opposed to say a piece in A (three sharps) which the horns would have to play either in B (five sharps) or F# (six sharps!)
my theory professor went to -Berkley- Berklee and told us about how it was illegal and the proceed to ask us for a flash drive so we can have a digital copy
Jazz musicians like flat keys because wind instruments are more accustomed to flat keys. trombones and trumpets are both in Bb, and alto saxes are in Eb. Flat keys are therefore wayyyy easier to play in.
It always confused me how wind instruments are so often pitched in a flat key, despite natural-key alternatives existing. Trumpets in C are a thing, as are clarinets in A. Trombones are already almost always in C.
@@InventorZahran there are a variety of reasons that wind instruments are pitched how they are pitched, but the single best answer i can muster up for you is that if they changed the fundamental pitch, they’d also change the timbre of the instrument. idk if you’ve heard a C trumpet and a Bb trumpet played side by side, but the C horn has a much brighter tone even though it’s just one tone higher. and on the trombone front; i’ve been playing trombone in my city’s orchestra and brass band for a very long time and not once have i seen a C trombone.
@@shiquote That actually makes a lot of sense! As for the C trombones, the music notation software I use (Notion) will select a C trombone by default, rather than a Bb transposing one. Since it also defaults to Bb trumpets, Bb clarinets, and Eb or Bb saxophones, I just assumed that C must be the most common pitch for trombones.
It happens everywhere. Ever tried looking up online guitar tabs or chords to something? Sometimes you start playing and you're like... wtf were they smoking? This is not even close. And then there are like 7 versions of it with different amounts of "upvotes".. each with their own problems and you kinda have to mix and match... but hey.. it's free.. for the most part.
I was thinking while watching this how an unofficial book like this wouldn't become so prolific under the current tech. Everyone puts their written-by-ear versions simultaneously on half a dozen different websites and their constantly being tweaked and adjusted based on feedback. And if one version doesn't work it takes seconds to back out and check another one. No need to go to a store much less ask under the table. As an amateur guitarist (which I still am), we used to buy second-hand compilations of simplified chords to sing various pop/rock songs. They were pretty much the same accuracy level as most of the online tabs/chords which were written for the same purpose. Official or not, we haven't bought one of those in years. We just print out or write down what we want in physical form, often with minor adjustments.
@@BonaparteBardithion Oh yea for sure, it's very easy to look these things up for free nowadays. But more often than not I have to take it as a base and do a lot of fixing for myself to get to be actually accurate. In tabs it's usually a little bit better, but with chords it can be all over the place and not correct; not even close. As if they figured it out by ear without playing to the actual song around a campfire somewhere "oh good enough whatever".
@@ruadeil_zabelin For sure. I basically go in knowing it's not going to sound anything like the original or well known versions. Good enough for recreational and open mic, but at some point you need to listen to and play with the recordings if you want any accuracy.
I always use those as scaffolding, and then cross-check against the recording and fix the errors. It's still faster than starting over, as long as they're 80% correct or better.
Man, i’m a musician and I just recently have been getting into your vids. I’ve been busy and bogged down by life recently and i’ve not had time to play any kind of music. But watching your videos kinda sparked something in me that was like “hey, play some piano when you get home from work, arrange a song, get a jazz combo together.” So thank you for helping me feel that feeling again. Keep doin what you’re doin! Boom, subscribed.
This is one of many reasons my jazz teachers DESPISED the real book. (even though a lot of us used it) They always pushed having us learn the melodies (and changes) by ear, in all 12 keys. I remember hearing stories of some of the musicians calling tunes but in completely wild keys, like F# or B, as a way to "weed out" anyone who really couldn't hang. I'm still pretty weak on transcribing chord changes, but I definitely go for the recordings as a better way of "how it goes."
I see carving on the bandstand now (and calling weird keys is part of carving) as abusive bullying, and I seriously think it dissuades many people from even trying, and many others from ever trying more than once. If they can't hang with the group yet, they're sure as hell not going to learn from someone calling Cherokee in F♯ at 400 bpm. I've had it done to me -- and I actually _did_ hang with it (the tune called in a strange key in my case was "Caravan") and afterward the leader said "We didn't really expect you'd know the tune, let alone in that key."
@@mal2ksc see, for them, it's not about teaching or learning. One of my directors said, "You either know the tune, or you don't." Harsh, yeah. Absolutist? Absolutely.
@@nickbell8353 Used to be that way myself. Then I got the chance to run a band for a little while, and it was... well they weren't great, but shouting at them wouldn't have helped matters any. And when I tried to bring in a ringer to solidify things, and the ringer told them they all sucked and left, I was able to say in all honesty, "Don't worry too much... he sucked three years ago. I know, I was there. Don't let it get to you." If you let the assholes dictate the working conditions, don't be surprised when the job attracts more assholes and drives away people who might be great, they just aren't on board with that Buddy Rich style. Unfortunately this was more the rule than the exception for a long time. To quote Stan Kenton: "I don't care if he's a nice guy, give me an asshole who can play!" And of course Ellington had Juan Tizol who loved to threaten people with knives. Those who complained got fired.
@@in.stereo I get the hesitation, but it's not so bad; the trick is figuring out which scale degree the notes fall under, once you find out where the tonic is.
When so many jazz tunes are played in b-keys (F, Bb, EB and so on), it’s probably because the horns playing jazz are tuned in Bb or Eb (saxes, trumpets, clarinets). Well yes, The Real Book is full of faults. It goes for melodies and especially for chords. Another thing about Real Book is the selection of tunes. There are so many weird pieces in Real Book nobody ever plays and there are so many lovely jazz tunes that are just not there.
I always had some mental questions about the “Real Book” as some of the arrangements seem to be pointlessly complex but challenging. Fascinating stuff. Thanks for reminding me how a great Ella was
not a jazz musician here but im from bangladesh and a student of indian classical music and nazrul sangeet. this video gives me so much more appreciation for what my music teacher always used to tell us - gaan holo gurumukhi bidya, which literally means you learn singing directly from the mouth of a guru or teacher, which i guess can be generalized as something along the lines of, music is always learnt from an instructor first hand. he always told us that the shwarolipi or sheet music is for when you already know the song, but forgot the melody in a specific place or got confused about a specific part. basically to help you brush up on or confirm something you already know, never your first or initial source of receiving instruction. only after we had learnt how to sing a particular song would we attempt to play it too and it would always be by ear. to this day i have shelves upon shelves filled with shwarolipi books but i only consult them when i need to, and never learn directly from them. but i understand it might be very different for instrumentalists as opposed to how it is for me, primarily a vocalist. also, this of course completely disregards the never ending debate of which the "real" or "true" melody is for individual pieces that have not been standardized as certain genres have historically been better documented than others, but that subsequently brings in the question of what the acceptable extent of artistic interpretation is in terms of the level of freedom given to the performer, but im rambling now so ill stop because like i said my point was that i have a little newfound appreciation for my (otherwise very strict) ustad thanks to this
On the flats vs sharps thing, I grew up doing voice so it didn't matter to me at all, ever. Then I started teaching myself guitar, and sharp keys were always easier because you could play more of their chords in standard tuning without having to barre. Then I started teaching myself keys and they're all kinda the same, though I prefer flats because I feel like sharps are cliche due to the tendency of guitar-focused music to use those keys. From what I understand, flat tunings are preferred among jazz circles because it's easier to work with brass and woodwind instruments in them.
In the appendices of the Real Book the author cites the versions of the recording used to write out the changes to the song , and in some cases the recordings used. They transpose the music to more horn friendly keys which is why .
Back in 1968, when I was 13 years old, my Dad bought me three fake books. The cover prices were $50, $50, and $35 but they actually sold for about half that. I still have them.
I used the Real Book in college to help me understand what I was hearing on records. It helped me solidify the voicing, progressions and rhythm into my own playing .
The first time I came across one of these jazz fake books was way back in 1973. I was playing a B3 in the noon/afternoon session in this club. The main player who played organ for the main attraction in the evening used to leave this binder on the music rack. When I checked it out, it was full of mimeographed sheets of hand written fake sheets (melody lead and chords) of jazz tunes arranged in alphabetical order. To a musician who just started gigging at that time, it seemed like such a treasure trove. I used it while I was there but wasn’t able to take it out of the venue to xerox it. I later found out that the binder full of fake sheets could only be bought privately through special contacts. I never found the right connection at the time. I believe that that was one of the earlier renditions of the Real Book. Much later in the 90’s, a musician friend of mine gave me a PDF containing 12 of these fake books including the Real Book and something called the New Real Book. This type of fake books is good to use when you’re in a jam. One could hardly expect absolute fidelity in terms of the transcriptions in this kind of publications. Many people must have been involved in the compilation of these sheets, with some transcribers better than others. Besides, like others mentioned in this thread, jazz tunes have different renditions performed by different artists. Even with the same artist, sometimes they would use different chord substitutions and different phrasing of the melody on different recordings.
First lesson from my jazz piano teacher in college was, "Throw out your Real Book." Thanks to him my transcription skills improved dramatically. The RB is a good guide, but trust your ears...
It's foolish to throw out the real book before one has ears. Its best to use it as a way to get acclimated and then learn how to hear mistakes. You learn Spanish faster if you have a book plus immersion that just immersion without any basic resources
My transcription skills are more than adequate, writing things down for other people to play was how I made a living for couple years. But I still very much appreciate having a Real Book around. I can generally tell where it's "wrong" (compared to the version I have in mind at least) and make the corrections much faster than I could write down the chart from a blank page.
I am so fascinated with music theory and the relationships between certain chords in certain instances and how changing a very tiny detail will suddenly change the overall mood of the music. that said, I do not understand it at all even though I've listened to hundreds of hours of people playing examples and explaining it. I couldn't tell the difference between the RB version and Ella's version until he stopped and played the two parts side-by-side.
flat keys in concert pitch transpose easier for Bb and Eb instruments (horns) for example, Bb concert is C for a trumpet, but G concert is A (more sharps therefore percieved to be more difficult to play) strings are the opposite, and prefer sharp keys because they fit the open strings better. a lot of beginner violinists aren't actually taught flats or f naturals until much later on because they haven't developed the ear to listen for the difference in pitch that early on, something I learnt the hard way when a bunch of beginners tried to play an arrangement I did and had no clue how to play Ab :D
3:39 We like to play with more flats because the most used solo instruments like trumpet and saxophone are transposing to Bb or Eb. The trombone is also a Bb instrument, but is written in C for whatever reason. In our brass band we also have a lot more flats than sharps wich also is due to the fingerings in Bb on trumpet is (to me and some other trumpets I know) easiert than in a key with too many sharps. In classical orchestras it is inverted. They focus on the string instruments with the violin being tuned to G D A and E, so they prefer keys with way too many sharps. As Bb trumpet I have to play in E when the concert pitch is D and I really dislike it. I love my flats.
I 100% agree with your argument. It's hard at times because there are so many people who are ignorant of trumpet. Some Pianist or guitarist or Bassist even try to do 'All the things you are' at F# or B or E during a jam session. And if you don't do well, they say you're not a pro. Guitar, piano, and bass players who are familiar with 12 scales do not know the plight of especially trumpet players. So when I have jam sessions, I don't play the trumpet, I sing or play the piano. But you know what? Each instrument has its tough parts. The jazz trumpet master already knows the part, so before they tell the trumpeter to play at F# or B or E, the trumpeter instructs the other instrumentalist to do the hard part for them. Damm! Not every trumpet player is Wynton, Arturo, Tom Harrell who can play without problems, no matter how many # appear.
@@delicious9824 I think for Guitar it is the same as with other string instruments, the open strings are easier. Couldn't they tune it down a half step or is that a problem?
@@yannnique17 Yes. That's what I talking about. In jazz, there are quite a few string players who know it and abuse it. Although he is comfortable with open strings, it is not to the extent that he is uncomfortable just because he is not, but because he thinks he is practicing uncomfortable things and accepts it. However, sometimes they unaware that it is a great inconvenience to trumpet players. or Sometimes even knowing it, they abuse it to 'Let's see how good playing you are at F# or B or E'.
Between this, and many websites that provide chord charts for various contemporary genres getting the chords 80% correct (most of them always skip the bass of the chord, or misinterpret chord voicings), I’ve grown to trust my ear and just make my own charts for gigs.
In the Alaska the musicians who run the local jazz festival recently put together the AK Real Book made up of Alaskan jazz musician's and composer's songs. We eached waved the copyright for print in favor of it becoming an educational tool to help grow the local music scene. I have several songs in the book and it was great to play this year's festival with an entirety original set between myself the trumpet player. The pianist, who was someone I respected immensely and had been wanting to work with for at least 20 years, ended up telling me he only said yes to the festival gig because we were doing original music. I'm not saying we are going to give away the royalties to recording or other situations, but I think it's a great tool for jam sessions and community building. Love you channel by the way!!!
Interesting point at 3:40 about finding flats easier... as a classically trained musician, I find that less accidentals is always easier regardless if it is flats or sharps. I guess it is just easier when you are playing always from what's written in the score. So G would be easier than Eb. I wonder if jazz musicians find flats easier because they are not constrained to sheet music
Flats are more common because the horns that play jazz are tuned in flat keys (Bb, Eb) so people just gravitate to playing in the flat keys like F, Bb, Eb, and Ab the majority of the time since, as you said, playing with less accidentals is easier in general. If you look at tunes that have other origins (e.g. the bossa nova tunes) you'll see the sharp keys popping up more often like G, D, and A since they come from styles where other instruments reign (like guitar or violin).
As someone who just grew up playing trombone in concert bands, any time there is a B-natural (or any sharps) it is harder. Slide positions on a trombone, and correspondingly on valved instruments, are tuned such that the nominal position plays Bb - all the way in on the slide, no valves pressed down. I don't find Eb any harder to read or play than F or Bb, but once you get to Ab it starts to get harder - mostly due to the first time you need to use the 5th slide position.
3:36 Wind instruments are built in flat keys, so it's easier for them. Just as guitar players tend to like sharp keys because their instruments are built with the open strings E, A, D, G, B, E.
Personaly I tend to start the song 'Like Someone In Love' (in Eb major) not with the tonic at all, but instead with the chords Dm7(b5) then G7(#11, +5) then Cm7, followed by Fmaj7 (add 2)/A, then chromatically descending Ab7 (#11) Gm7, Gb 13 (#11) Fm7, etc. Although Bill Evans didn't actually do this, it's the sort of thing he often did do...
Great video Charles. I’ve discovered a few songs in TRB over the years that I realized were wrong but unfortunately none come to mind at the moment. What really got me excited was when you “added a few chords” to the turnaround in “But Not For Me.” Those chords you added were beautiful and it’s that part of jazz that seems to elude my ability to understand even after more than 50 years of playing piano. Is what I’m describing something that your Harmony 101 course covers? I’m just a hobby player but those kinds of tricks are what I really crave to know how to pull off. You make everything look easy but of course it’s not.
The reason Jazz musicians favour the flat keys is that they are more natural for the horns. Guitarists, on the other hand, far prefer sharp keys, as they give access to more open strings- but jazz guitar, being mainly a rhythm instrument, has had to suck it up and adapt to the flat keys. It's been said of Parker that, being self-taught, he didn't realize that saxophonists played mainly from C to Ab, and learned equal facility in all keys- which, of course, put him ahead of the pack.
I think a big reason jazz is often in flat keys is because it's old old old beginnings came from marching music, which was often done in flats. But I'm not a music historian and that might be wrong.
As a trombonist turned bass player, my take on the F# =/= Gb is; "flats are easier on brass instruments than sharps are because you typically learn/think of the harmonic series from the top down, and sharps are easier on string instruments than flats because you learn from the root note, up" For beginning bands, the key of Bb is easier than C (B natural suuucks on a trombone, for example; I literally couldn't reach that far when I started playing because my arms weren't long enough), and Eb and Ab are about the same, with some transposing instruments doing better or worse, depending. Orchestras sometimes start with the key of C, but are generally very comfortable in G or D as well, which is something that's also true for banjo/guitar folk groups as well.
Jazz is often written in flat keys because the saxophones transpose in Bb and Eb (so playing a C major scale on an alto sax sounds like an Eb major scale). So flat keys are just more natural for them to play.
I think it should be noted that a lot of people (including me) would "obtain" cassette copies of Aebersold play-along records and then use the Real Book to play over them. The key would be different from time to time though. So double-illegal. Also there are tunes that aren't even in the same key across all editions of the Real Book -- in particular I remember _On Green Dolphin Street_ as being in E♭ in the first edition, but in C in the third edition. So it was often necessary to note on the set list what key we were playing a song in. On the flat/sharp thing... I actually prefer sharps because for whatever reason, the fingering patterns are generally less awkward on a woodwind. The one real exception is flute, but being a C instrument it's not playing in sharps nearly as often, and it's not like sharp keys are _bad_ on flute in any way. It's just that they're not any easier than the flat keys, and you tend to see the flat keys more unless you're in orchestra. If given a choice between reading a part in C♯ and a part in D♭, I'm going to choose C♯ in spite of having more in the key signature (7 vs. 5). Of course it matters how complex the part is -- I don't really care whether you write it in F♯ or G♭ if it's easy to read either way. This has nothing to do with the difficulty of performing it, the audience is not going to know or care what's on my page. My fingers are going to do the same thing either way (ideally). I just have a slight preference for sharps over flats, which only really kicks in at the F♯/G♭ side of the circle of fifths.
I feel like flats are easier than sharp's because it sounds better to move the route note down a 1/2 step than it does to move it up. Therefore you hear that half step key change in a lot of western music, so naturally we have more practice in it.
It must be noted (don't know if someone else has pointed this already in the comments below, haven't read them all yet) that "Real Books" come in more than one key. There is the C version (supposedly the "correct" one) but also the Bb version, the Eb version, etc. which are usually meant for wind instruments in the said keys since they can't be tuned, whereas the C version is usually meant for the piano. Versions other than the C version have all their songs transposed from C to said key. That being said, it was interesting to learn from this video that transposition alone doesn't account for the differences between the "Real Book" (henceforth called just RB) version and the original version. I've struggled with that issue when learning Bill Evans's "34 Skidoo". The version that hooked me onto this piece was the "Montreux II" version (which has a really cool intro), whose harmony in the RB version only matches the recording in the main theme. Later on I found out the RB version I had was actually the one from the album "How My Heart Sings", but even there I notice differences in the chords between the recording and the RB.
@@thepostapocalyptictrio4762 Doesn’t change the fact that they used the Cedar Walton version of Blue Train up until the sixth edition. But, feel free to continue to purposely miss the point, sweetheart
@@DefenestrateYourself miss the point? Realistically a new player is just going to buy the legal version off Amazon and not know the old versions were worse. Why bring up issues that don't apply to the Real Book anymore anyways? Im a believer in transcription myself, but I think the book has some value, especially for a beginner in jazz.
In the early 80's a friend of mine told me to go to this particular music store, wait till I was the only customer, then tell the guy working there I was interested in a jazz fake book, and tell him Rex (my friend's name) sent me. I did, the guy took me in the back room, unlocked a big drawer and sold me the Real Book for 25 bucks cash, He put the book in a brown paper bag, and then put it in the store bag. I later went back and bought Real Book vol. 2 and Vintage Jazz Standards vol. 1 and 2 (in one vol.) Really. I still have them!
I love how much your videos have taught me about music. I've played for 20 years and used to throw theory aside for the sake of time, and I've never had an easier time learning than watching your videos. Thank you!
Miles Davis quintet starts “But not for me” on the the V of V on the 1954 “Bag’s Groove” album, Some of the mistakes in the book are from specific instrumental recordings (not based on the original composition).
Yeah - I wouldn't call them mistakes in that case. They are simply based on a different version. And all in all, the original version isn't always the most "important" version. For example the original version of Fly Me to the Moon was in 3/4, but the 4/4 version by Sinatra is the one that everyone uses as a point of reference - that is the "source material", even though it isn't the original version.
Great piece. These 'approximations' are prevalent in printed music. Back in the nineties when Becker and Fagen decided to tour again after 20 years (resulting in the album "Alive In America") they decided to "re familiarize" themselves with their back catalogue by going through the various notated versions of their work. Such were the inaccuracies, they decided to go back, dig out the recordings and brush up by ear...
Adam Neely wasn't wrong when he said that the Real Book is a "jazz shibboleth." (If you don't know what that means, check out his own video on the Real Book from a few years back.)
You mentioned you find flat keys easier to deal with than sharp keys. This changes per instrument. Violin, viola, and cello are tuned in 5ths and are generally easier in sharp keys.
I find sharps way easier to deal with than flats- but that’s because my primary instrument is guitar, which people tend to conceptualize in sharps (and also keys with sharps tend to have more open strings than keys with flats) I’m sure if I started as a trumpet player it would be the opposite
I play concert percussion in three concert bands and a brass band. I almost never see key signatures with sharps. I suspect that it is because of transposing instruments like trumpet and clarinet. If the music is in the key of Bb major, then the sheet music for Bb instruments is in the key of C major. For transposing instruments, major scale key signatures with sharps always end up with more sharps or flats, but major scale key signatures with flats always end up with fewer.
For "Like someone in love" or "Blue Train" you could argue that there are "original" versions by virtue of the tunes being introduced to the public in recorded form. For a tune like "All the things", it's not so simple. This tune was written for the musical "Very warm for May". In the musical versions I've heard, it is performed with a verse, and as a rubato type ballad. In jazz, the verse is omitted, and I'm not even sure who came up with the "jazz intro". It's still very much a cycle of fifths tune whatever version is being played, but for a lot of those old Broadway tunes, both the rhythm and harmony, as well as the phrasing of the melody, is very different from the original Broadway sheet music. The point is that many of these tunes were appropriated by jazz musicians at the time. They were tunes that everybody "knew", hence the term "standard", so you could have a common repertoire to play on a jam session. By the 70s, when the book was made, a lot of these common references had been lost among musicians. Sure, it's weird that they didn't use the original version of "Blue Train", but I'm not sure that chart was written with the idea of the Real Book becoming a standard reference, it was probably some guy's transcription of whatever version he liked. My point is that in some ways it's unfair to say that the the Real Book is "wrong".
That’s super interesting to hear the preference for flat keys is a jazz pianist thing too. I’ve played almost exclusively classical pieces (especially romantic era) my whole life, and most of my life I felt like flat key pieces were much easier to both read and learn. Lifelong friend who also plays feels the same way. Now, though I feel relatively comfortable with each, though flat keys still feel more “intuitive”. Oddly, I think just because my all-time favorite pieces tend to be in keys with 5-6 accidentals, I feel most uncomfortable in keys with only 1-2.
I managed a music store from ‘94-‘04 and our owner was real weird about stocking any fake books. We had our ordering manager get us some despite his reluctance. I sold many copies of “The Real Book” not realizing it was illegal and wished now I would have bought one myself. Now, we carried many fake books from major publishers like Hal Leonard but we kept ALL of them hidden from our 70 year old owner just to avoid him some stress.
I'm all about the flats also, rather than the sharps. This is partially because Iearned music in school band, playing low brass instruments, which were bass clef, B-flat pitched instruments. For the last 30 years, I have not played a horn, but only piano. I can certainly read and play sharps but, like Charles, flats feel more like home to me, for whatever reason. Except C-flat and F-flat, which really annoy me when I rarely run across them.
Well, I think, aside from just the original Real Book writers transcribing the book from random arbitrary recordings that they liked, the real reason for the strange or "wrong" chords changes that weren't found in the "original" recordings (in quotes, because why is the recording the original and not the composer's original manuscript?) is that the chord changes are purely for the function of having chord changes to play when improvising and taking turns soloing over the song.
That's a good point. I played by RB on sax in Eb. Maybe they had too many work with transpositions. Thruth is I learned a lot from them. Now chods and everything are on the net. Thank you
I've never learned "But Not For Me" because the Real Book changes seemed weird. As I'm watching this, I paused it and grabbed the original sheet music. There's some amazing stuff in the sheet music that never quite makes it into the Real Book and sometimes not even into most recordings. Gershwin's (and other composers') sheet music is often overlooked by jazz players because some jazz recording is seen as the "definitive" source. I think if you combine the sheet music with some great jazz performer's interpretation of a song and use the Real Book as a sort of Cliff Notes reminder, you can create your own arrangement of the song. Sadly, sometimes the official sheet music has mistakes in it..... Many Sources!!!!
Re other musicians knowing if you learned a tune from the book and not from recordings: In college (~1994) everyone seemed to play There Will Never Be Another You. There was one bar (maybe #10) that gave away whether you’d learned it from albums or just read the book. BTW the original has a beautiful verse/intro; it’s from a 1942 movie musical called Iceland, a romcom about skaters.
I find flats generally easier to read than sharps. It may be partly due to some of the Jazz repertoire I've played, but getting into some of the Classical music that's in C-sharp Major and my brain is sometimes saying, Nope! Yes, I can try to trick it by thinking of the enharmonics, thinking of some of the notes and chores as flats instead, but then that only works to a degree. Yes, going back and taking a better and proper look, I can break it down and it makes sense -- at a quick glance or reading something down for the first time, flats over sharps (anything from like B Major or higher number of sharps) any day!
Please cover Donald Fagen when you get a chance. The Nightfly in particular has some wild chords and harmony. Kamakiriad's second half is also fantastic.
The Nightfly is brilliant - when I was a kid, I figured out New Frontier after seeing it on MTV - It was a step towards being the chord hound I am now. I am self taught on piano, so I had to spend some time with it, but I learned so much from that one song.
The most popular among jazz musicians versions of "Like Someone in love" are made by Bud Powell and Dexter Gordon. Dexter surely did the best and incomparable version so the music sheet based on it
Yeah, I bought the car trunk version in undergrad like everyone else in the middle 80s, but I quickly learned that there were a lot of issues with it. The problem is, so many people learned things out of it that even if it was wrong, that's what most people (in the circles I was in, at least) were playing. Even if you did the research and dug up the original sheet music or show score or even composer's manuscript (yes, I was that nerd) it didn't matter because everyone knew it the "wrong" way. (I also got a copy of the Spaces set from the same trunk ~35 years ago and I still consult it from time to time for obscure tunes and unusual contrafacts.) It wasn't until I got to jazz grad school and got a withering stare from my adviser along with "You learned that from the Real Book, didn't you?" when we listened to my audition tape together that I learned to stick to my guns and at least learn the composer's original intent before going too far afield. He also threw out one of my early big band charts because I got the changes wrong because I was following the Real Book and not looking up the original.
Bear in mind, too, that on many recordings you're hearing the arranger's intent, not the composer's. The Ella But Not For Me is Nelson Riddle's interpretation of those changes, not Gershwin's. Riddle didn't go too far afield, but they're not the same. There certainly can be problems with the original sheet music, but it's always worth a look when you're learning a piece that comes from that tradition. If you can get your hands on the original show score, so much the better. (The internet is great for doing that kind of digging.) Of course you can modify it from there, but it does help to know the original.
Had no idea this was illegal! We always had one, but it was always just.....there. I don't remember anyone buying it, nor do I recall seeing in a store, so this sure explains a lot
Hard to argue though how important this earliest, if illegal, reference book was to those of my boomer generation. It soon became the essential standard jazz player wannabe repertoire list, and it enabled welcomed access to an entire generation of musicians, many of whom, like myself, would not have had the time to "sort it all out" without the information it offered. We should also not forget the role it seems to have played in providing life-support to what had become a rapidly dying form of popular music. I'm admittedly reaching here, but The Real Book (the product of students and faculty at Berkeley?) is IMHO was as important to the devotion of jazz musicians then as the Bible was to early Christianity. Sure...both contain errors requiring continued study, reinterpretation and refinement, but in the end both are supremely important works...their impact and importance should never be underestimated.
@@moirbasso7051 it’s true. No matter how true something is, if it was made that long ago it probably has a lot of mistakes. The telephone game x10000000 generations.
I used the real book when my friends and I played in a jazz combo during high school. It was good fun and was a great book to get us familiar with a lot of the standards! A video on the history of the Arban’s book would be cool. That is the trumpet players bible
Also… our jazz instructor always made us listen to the original songs and made us write and figure out the chords by ear then have us play the chords on the piano. He wanted us to understand all the various styles the musicians used so we can borrow licks from them in our improve lol
as a guitar player and Someone who plays metal music, Metal musicians really like working with Sharps over flats. It's very typical that we will use them. The reason being is because we will play keys in the tunings of the guitar/Bass. So Typical keys we will play would be E, D, C, A, B and G. Depending on how many strings you have. What the lowest note is, will be the key of the song that will be wrote.
I still have my Real Book sold out of the trunk of a car in Ft Lauderdale Docks in 1979 (working my first cruise contract). A lot of the standards are favorite versions of the compilers (from Boston I gather) . So they weren't looking for the original versions, they were looking for the hip jazz versions. These days I look at the RB occasionally, but I've been doing my own versions for years.
A large part of the job of pianists, guitarists and arrangers is to re-harmonise standard tunes/songs, and sometimes to put them in different time signatures, or different rhythmic feels - salsa instead of swing, for example. My gripe with the use of the Real Book is that instead of being used as a guide, is used as though it were 'gospel' - with no thought as to the relationship between melody and harmony, harmony to bass line, etc. All too often the chords provided in the Real Book are not as good either as the orignal - or more importantly, as the *could* be. This is where Kurt Elling, Dianne Reeves, Gretchen Parlato, Cécile McLorin Salvant and others really stand out, from my POV. The great singers - such as Kurt Elling, Dianne Reeves, Tierney Sutton, Gretchen Parlato,Salvant, etc. - all work with pianists/arrangers to put their own stamp on any given song. The same is true of other great musicians - such as Keith Jarrett, Jacob Collier, John Taylor, McCoy Tyner, bands like Snarky Puppy - all these artsists go to great lengths to produce a version of any given song or tune which is unlike anyone else's version. IMO this is where so many work-a-day jazz musicians are being lazy, and merely follow what's in the Real Book. It means the musicians don't have to think. Indeed, a lot of people are not gifted in re-harmonising tunes. But they should acquire this skill, and use it, if they wish to be elevated to a higher level.
I wouldn't call the arrangement of "Like Someone in Love" in the Real Book "wrong". It's just a different arrangement, with some different passing chords that employ various II-V changes. I've always liked the Real Book version, and frankly I wouldn't play the version arranged for Ella unless trying to play THAT particular arrangement. The Real Book version lends itself to a jam session much more easily, probably its intended purpose.
As a a Jazz musician in the UK, who has grown up with the Real Book, and even run my own successful jam session for over a decade ... My parents bought me a Hal Leonard "New Real Book Vol. 1" (It cost them £25 - the price on the cover was $35 US) ... for my 16th birthday. But when I got to University, a new world of illicit publications tempted and consumed me ... including Real Books 1, 2 & 3, all on a single CD. All of the very best jazz songs on a single CD. (heaven!) A very few songs were the same as in my favoured legal New Real Book - most of the chords in the old Real Book were approximations at best (your "Blue Trane" example is amazing - surely NOBODY could be that inaccurate with such an easy song!) But the New Real Book is often "too" accurate - exactly the sort of nonsense that led to substitutions being put into old Real Book songs from the get-go, and taken as fact. But - I need to work with other people ... My tablet now contains Old Real Books 1, 2 and 3, New Real Books 1,2 and 3; plus the extenstions of the New Real Book .. "The Standards Real Book" and "The All Jazz Real Book" ... plus Rebecca Mauleon's brilliant Salsa Real Book (by Hal Leonard - in the same style as all of the New Real Books, with explanation of chord symbols at the beginning, as usual) I applaud the Hal Leonard series of "new" real books for attempting to standardise chord symbols. I went along with it, because there's nothing better - and they achieved their goal: C means C major CMI means C minor CMI7 means C minor 7 CMA7 means C major 7 (no triangle needed) The only thing that isn't easy to read in Hal's books is the way the bars are set out. Even the easiest 16-bar melody often has 3 bars on the first line, 2 bars on the next, 5 bars on the next, 4 bars at the bottom of the page, and 2 bars - the ONLY 2 bars - on the next page, with a repeat mark back to the first page. Really poor - for a publication that wants to be the go-to for jazz sight-readers. Anyway "New" Real Book is still my go-to ... but most of the people I know only do "Old" Real Book .. doesn't matter .. just before we play the tune, I get them to snap-shot the music on their phone. So we know we're in the same key!
The late great West Coast composer and pianist Dick Hindman (not Dick Hyman from the East Coast, another master jazz pianist) would right out a model arrangement. Starting with simple lead sheet of original melody and chord changes. Then arrange it for a simple model arrangement which is a basic arrangement (for piano) using simple but nice voice leading, maybe 4 parts. Then branch out with a more developed arrangement with a beautiful reharmonization all written out. Then transpose these arrangements into the keys and write that out accurately. We learn so much from doing this from just one tune that you can take forward to other tunes.
Growing up as a kid playing the Trombone, the flat keys were easier because Bb is first position and the first note we learned to play. That is my guess. For Brass instruments, the flat notes are typically in a first position. ?
This explains why Desafinado always sounded off to me when I played it with this book. Still a worthy while purchase for any Jazz musician, though. Huge time saver, and you can still learn a lot from it.
In the pre-Internet early '90's I bought my "Real Book" from the keyboard player in a local jazz band. I will cherish it forever. It is true that a bunch of stuff is wrong. It is also true that at the time it was head and shoulders above anything else available.
I still have my fifth edition. It's extremely banged up. And yes I totally find it more natural dealing with flats. Everything rolls counterclockwise around the cycle, it's just the way it is. Sometimes I practice around-the-cycle stuff going the other way, but it's definitely "the other way". For me, anyway.
The thing about the flats and sharps is that the brass / some woodwinds are instruments in a flat key. So the play with an instrument in C, your average clarinetist will add 2 sharps. So, if you play F, Bb or Eb, we just have 1 sharp, no sharps/flats or 1 flat. Great! For some sax players with Eb, this is even more the case. I don't think many instruments in a typical jazz combo are in a sharp key. (Edit: also, on the piano, those black keys are relatively easy to hit, so win-win?)
I've still got my car trunk version of the Real Book from back in the 70's old yellowed, pages falling out, but it's history so I keep it. I've heard a lot of the myths about the Real Book and how it came about over the decades, I heard someone outline the Real history of the Real Book a couple years ago that sound like the real story. It was two Berklee students that like most needed money. They saw that students were running around all the time with handfuls of crumpled up lead sheets for the common tunes they jammed on and practiced. So the two got the idea to make a book with all those tunes so it would be easy to carry around. The one guy was an experienced copyist so he'd redo all the leadsheets. The other guy's job was to collect lead sheets for the book based on ones he found laying around and suggestion from students and other "staff" at Berklee. This was why there are a lot of certain Berklee instructors tunes and also why some songs are in wrong keys. The guy grabbing leading at time was grabbing transposed lead sheet no concert key. So they made the first Real Book and started selling it. Then the Real Book got popular and being illegal other people started copying and selling the Real Book. So the two broke student who created the original Real Book didn't make that much money because of all the copy cats. The guy who did the copying for the original did eventually design the now famous Real Book font the books are printed in and made some money there. He is still in the music business doing all sorts of music services. The other guy who collect all the leadsheet supposedly threw in the towel on the music business. To me that is the most believable story on the beginnings of the Real Book. But I do remember the days of going into certain music stores and whispering... Got any Fake books??? Then they'd pull some out from under the counter.
IMO, this is why it's important to learn as many tunes as you can from records and move on from real book as soon as you can. The more you learn tunes by ear, the more you realize that chord changes aren't really set in stones, and they tend to evolve over time. This is true especially for classic renditions by Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and other singers, and IMO it's reflective of how people treated how many at the time(i.e Less ii-V's and more stepwise bass motion using diminished chords to connect to the next chord). But I've also found plenty of instrumental recordings by Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Art Farmer..etc where the chord changes aren't really like what we are used to from the real book. Heck, I've recently checked out a live rendition of Sam River's Beatrice where the bass player was playing very different changes on bar 5-8. IMO if you do this long enough, you can pick up a different set of changes very quickly and understand how those changes work while following certain structures, and I've found that having this ability is very helpful when I am playing with people I am not familiar with and they play different changes than I used to. Again, chord changes aren't set in stones, and it can be arranged/tweaked on the spot as part of improvisation, as long as everyone has the ear to be able to follow along. And just like learning licks, you can learn "vocabulary" to chord changes that can free up your playing in that regard.
My uncle was a bebop drummer who played in NYC in the 50s. I inherited a bunch of really weird illegal fake books, some of them with pretty obscure songs.
Why you as a pianist play with so many flats is because of the transposing wind instruments. Bb instruments have two more sharps and the Eb saxes even have theree more sharps. So when you see a tune with two sharps it's five for me, and that's quite more challenging to finger ^^
One reason with music in flat keys is that it is easier to translate to brass instruments like trumpets and horn, since they are tuned in B flat or E flat.
My copy of the sixth edition has a completely different, and more like the original, version of Blue Train than presented here. Like Someone in Love restores the straight ii V I starting at measure 5. All that said, point taken about how we all learned different versions of these tunes because of the real book. You have to listen to the tunes, and I was taught that learning the lyrics is step one.
Yeah flat keys are simpler for most non-C brass and woodwinds, since they’re flat key instruments, which means to adjust from concert you have to add sharps - they usually add somewhere between 1 and 3 sharps to the key, so it’s not entirely fun to be like “oh yeah A is a nice concert key… too bad I have to play F# major 🙃” (alto/bari sax in Eb, and no even if written in Gb that’s also not that fun) Of course, that isn’t an excuse to not be able to play in those keys - so higher level music should challenge those, but for lower and middle level players it will create headaches.
This is sort of extra exasperated on saxophones, where 90% of the sharp and flat fingerings are essentially sharp fingerings - you take a normal fingering and add a key that makes it sharp. So to go from F to Eb to D is already kind of a weird feeling since you essentially play F D# D, and this gets highly exasperated at high flat keys like Gb, hence what I said above
Hey man, could you do a video on James Blakes "Retrograde" ? Specifically the live version (Live on KEXP) where he plays the really juicy but kinda abstract chords? I've always found that piece really unique with a strange blend of styles that work great together. Would love to hear your insight on it!
My understanding of the discrepancy in chord changes in the real book was that students of varying degrees of talent put it together. So you get “jazz” versions of what were originally pop songs at that time…I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but a lot of standards started out as musical theatre or straight up pop songs and were “altered” by guys like Parker and Miles to be a lot hipper. The “Blue Trane” chart is clearly written by a kid who hadn’t gotten to the Coltrane part of his education
I always found flat keys to be much easier on the piano, which I somewhat attributed to the fact I played trumpet as well, which is generally a flat instrument. A friend of mine who played sax and piano found sharp keys to be easier and more natural. Could just be a coincidence, but it made some sense to me. I always just felt my hands fit into the shape of flat keys better than sharp keys.
What other things in the Real Book do you know about that are just plain wrong?? Also, the Harmony 101 course is available right now for 30% off, no code required! cornellmusicacademy.com/harmony
It would be quicker to make a list of correct charts
My jazz professor at ACU in Texas had an original Real Book. His name is Mike Rogers. He’s an incredible musician and director.
please review the new tlt "this comes from inside"
I think all the Metheny stuff was based on Pats original charts so is accurate. They don’t yet have the titles they’d be given for Bright Size life. Interestingly that didn’t always match up with what was recorded, but it’s how Pat wrote them.
@@EricHVela basically all of the Parker tunes are full of errors. The Omnibook isn’t great either, but it is better.
In the early 90's I walked into a music store and I said (too) loudly "I need a Fake Book. I was told you sold them". The shopkeep put his hand up and said "shhhhh....those are illegal". Then he took me to the backroom and sold me one for $25 cash. No shit.
Ha! By the mid 90’s they were $35! Ask me how I know.. 😁
I bought one the same way in 1977 or so in Boston. My piano teacher told me about it. Got the same initial response from the store guy. I think I paid $20. Still have that book. I believe I heard about and bought the legit one just within the last year or so (2022). I have not taken the time to compare them though.
@@stephenrothman6058 They left a few things out and there are a couple of different tunes in the new one, Vol. 6 from Vol. 5, which was the last of the illegal ones. Not too bad though. I like Vol 5 better, but maybe that’s just because I’m used to it. That cool that you have your original! And from Boston, that must have come to you hot off the press. I still have my original paper copies of Real Book 1 and 2 as well. The copies I have now are pretty rough though and both are “re-buys” that I picked up after my first set got destroyed over the years at gigs and jam sessions. Such is life. I’m sure I’m a little rougher now too.
@@demonmonkeypoop There are scanned PDFs of each of the first three Real Books, Third Edition, floating around online, and they've been there for at least a decade. (I helped put them there.) The catch is, they're all in C treble clef, so not suitable for sight-reading on a B♭ or E♭ instrument. You'll have to do your own searching, I wouldn't drop a link here even if I was allowed to.
Got my first real book in '85, fifth edition, I think I paid $20. Walked into the music store, went to the counter an asked. Guy got real quiet and asked "Who sent you?" ... "Umm ... nobody, I just know they exist." He wasn't that happy with the answer but since I was only 19 he was pretty sure I wasn't a narc. Pulled one from under the counter.
Charles: "...The Real Book, at least until about 2004, was illegal."
Me: *slowly turns and gives the sideeye to my 1999 copy of The Real Book on the shelf behind me*
I’ve got “side-eye” on a 1982 and a 1991 copy. So glad I don’t use my real name on my channel or the police would be knocking my door down.
I'm calling the Jive Police!
@@MisterTingles I’m not scared of the Jive Police. It’s the Jazz Police that terrify me!! 😳😨😰😱😱😱😱😱🎷🎺🎼🎵🎶🎹🎸🎻
@@geocosmicvalentine
*knock knock knock*
Son, just put the book dow-NO, son you can't have it - you can't say you like jass unless you respecc jass"
@@russellzauner 🤣🤣🤣👍🏽
all the keys you mentioned for jazz are all trumpet and especially saxophone-friendly. that's the reason they're used so often in jazz.
Yeah, as a string player, I much prefer the sharp keys, and that flows over to Piano to me too.
@@caidthackeray8896 I can't stand sharp keys just because I played bass in a band with alto sax and my hands just default on Bb and Eb frets every time
trombone is in the same boat
they’re wind instrument friendly, so it’s easier to work around. i often default these easier keys when playing piano because i played trombone and defaulted to those flat kets (Bb, Eb, Ab, etc.)
Was coming to comment exactly that. I play drums though, so I guess it doesn't matter.
I can't tell you how much I questioned my ear when I used The Real Book to try and learn Anthropology. "Wait, there's a B natural on the 2nd beat? ....waaaaaait" and ran like I was on fire to some old recordings of it with Bird and Satch and slowed them way down. There's no Cb in that head, but it's on the paper. After seeing a handful of other "choices were made" notes in the transcriptions I realized the Real Book is indeed "close enough for jazz" and basically just treat it like a suggestion.
Big deal that’s nothing
OMG, I struggle with that so much too! I often listen to the tune many times, and then try to learn the sheet music and combine the stuff, and it is so annoying when it doesn't match! I start to question whether it is me who read it wrong, or is it them who wrote it wrong.
For me, a person who is not that good at reading the sheet music, this is sometimes a really painful experience to try and figure out if I am right or wrong (especially on old recordings where the sound is hard to hear when slowed down).
@@oresthopiak8609 I'm not educated in music theory but I remember reading guitar tabs once in a while, and trying stuff out, and there's SO MUCH WRONG. Like I could tell that a solo note was played way up on the fretboard with a darker string than what was transcribed just from the tone of the guitar in the recording. And how the original made it more logical fingering wise for what comes next etc. And I wondered how someone transcribing stuff like this could make such a mistake.
Made me stop using tabs altogether and just listen and try to figure it out myself like I'd always done.
@@computer_toucher I often try to combine tabs and transcribing by ear. If I hear stuff at full speed and they seem to match, then I learn it from the tab. If they don't match, then I have to slow down the song and transcribe by ear.
Even if there are videos of someone teaching a song and I don't like the fingering, I change it to git my needs. This could happen to the person writing tabs, as most often people do this for themselves. My guess is that you wouldn't really like fingerings of Django Reinhardt, for example =D
I learned the Anthropology head using the Real book and played it to my guitar teacher. He looked at me and said, good but what the hell are you doing there in the beginning, it's not only hard to play it's also wrong 😅
My band director had this massive stack of real books in the back, easily like 100 of them and each and every one was in pristine condition (most of our other music books or sheet music copies were pretty beat up) and yes each and every one was treated like the holy grail lmao
I love that 😁 as it should be done
I hope the "pristine condition" was temporarily put aside to allow the errata page to be applied to the relevant charts.
@@mal2ksc the what?
Just a note to the editor: the piano levels are maxing out the UV meter in this video - coming out a tad distorted (clipping) through the whole range.
This was interesting but my comment has nothing to do with The Real Book. I get a sense of pride when a younger person finds the voice and styling's of Ella Fitzgerald "beautiful". My mother sang in collage and Fitzgerald had a lot of influence on my mom. She worked hard to recreate that throaty resonance of Elle's voice. What I hear in my memory are tunes my mother sang while working in the kitchen, or sang sitting on my bed to sing me to sleep, sounding a lot like (what I realize now as) the recordings of Elle. I can not hear Elle Fitzgerald sing without confusing the sound with my own mother's voice. Beautiful, indeed!
ooh, and here I was wondering if my headphones were giving up
noticed it too the audio sounds awfully low res in this vid
Loving the big words here buts it’s a VU meter 😅
@@Guy84_ Haha. Yep. Brain fart! I actually looked at that and let it go anyway.
I was FREAKING SCARED I though I got my laptop speaker broken 😂
It was always my understanding that the changes used in Real Book I were taken directly from the specific recordings listed at the bottom of each lead sheet (or interpolated from multiple sources if so listed). That's what we did anyway, 30-some years ago! So for "Like Someone In Love" the idea was that if you listened to Coltrane's version from the "Lush Life" album, you could here the changes he and his group used and see them go by as well. I double-checked that this was still the case just now, it is still is... with an asterisk!
You are absolutely right about the different key change, even from the lead sheet to Coltrane's recording. His is in Ab and the lead sheet (as you mentioned) is in Eb!! I never knew that! LOL! However, adjusting for the key change, the chords are exactly right.
On the other hand, when I played Blue Trane for the first time in high school, I was just playing straight from the record. (Honestly can't remember if we had an Aebersold record at the time...)
As far as "But Not For Me" (RB II), I couldn't tell you where those changes came from. The record they used isn't listed at the bottom like it is in RB I.
And yeah, I bought my first Real Book in 1988 from another college student for $30. Still got it, too!! And yeah, it was kind of like buying pot - you had to know a dude who knew a dude! LOL!
Bill Evans's take on Like Someone in Love is one of the main tracks that got me into jazz
Me too, bill Evans is a legend have you ever listened the album "alone"?
that cut is AMAZING i've listened a million times
I know it from the version Björk did on Debut. Love that version ever since.
For me is, his When You Wish Upon a Star that got me into jazz.
Actually the Like Someone in Love score in the Real Book is the way Bill Evans played it. It is even written on the bottom of the page in some editions...
Flat keys are preferred because it works much better for the transposing wind and brass instruments like trumpet and tenor sax in Bb and alto sax in Eb, so a piece in Eb (three flats) would be in F for trumpet and tenor and in C for alto, as opposed to say a piece in A (three sharps) which the horns would have to play either in B (five sharps) or F# (six sharps!)
my theory professor went to -Berkley- Berklee and told us about how it was illegal and the proceed to ask us for a flash drive so we can have a digital copy
Jazz musicians like flat keys because wind instruments are more accustomed to flat keys. trombones and trumpets are both in Bb, and alto saxes are in Eb. Flat keys are therefore wayyyy easier to play in.
It always confused me how wind instruments are so often pitched in a flat key, despite natural-key alternatives existing. Trumpets in C are a thing, as are clarinets in A. Trombones are already almost always in C.
@@InventorZahran there are a variety of reasons that wind instruments are pitched how they are pitched, but the single best answer i can muster up for you is that if they changed the fundamental pitch, they’d also change the timbre of the instrument. idk if you’ve heard a C trumpet and a Bb trumpet played side by side, but the C horn has a much brighter tone even though it’s just one tone higher. and on the trombone front; i’ve been playing trombone in my city’s orchestra and brass band for a very long time and not once have i seen a C trombone.
@@shiquote That actually makes a lot of sense! As for the C trombones, the music notation software I use (Notion) will select a C trombone by default, rather than a Bb transposing one. Since it also defaults to Bb trumpets, Bb clarinets, and Eb or Bb saxophones, I just assumed that C must be the most common pitch for trombones.
It happens everywhere. Ever tried looking up online guitar tabs or chords to something? Sometimes you start playing and you're like... wtf were they smoking? This is not even close. And then there are like 7 versions of it with different amounts of "upvotes".. each with their own problems and you kinda have to mix and match... but hey.. it's free.. for the most part.
I was thinking while watching this how an unofficial book like this wouldn't become so prolific under the current tech. Everyone puts their written-by-ear versions simultaneously on half a dozen different websites and their constantly being tweaked and adjusted based on feedback. And if one version doesn't work it takes seconds to back out and check another one. No need to go to a store much less ask under the table.
As an amateur guitarist (which I still am), we used to buy second-hand compilations of simplified chords to sing various pop/rock songs. They were pretty much the same accuracy level as most of the online tabs/chords which were written for the same purpose. Official or not, we haven't bought one of those in years. We just print out or write down what we want in physical form, often with minor adjustments.
@@BonaparteBardithion Oh yea for sure, it's very easy to look these things up for free nowadays. But more often than not I have to take it as a base and do a lot of fixing for myself to get to be actually accurate. In tabs it's usually a little bit better, but with chords it can be all over the place and not correct; not even close. As if they figured it out by ear without playing to the actual song around a campfire somewhere "oh good enough whatever".
@@ruadeil_zabelin
For sure. I basically go in knowing it's not going to sound anything like the original or well known versions. Good enough for recreational and open mic, but at some point you need to listen to and play with the recordings if you want any accuracy.
I always use those as scaffolding, and then cross-check against the recording and fix the errors. It's still faster than starting over, as long as they're 80% correct or better.
@@mal2ksc Yea
Man, i’m a musician and I just recently have been getting into your vids. I’ve been busy and bogged down by life recently and i’ve not had time to play any kind of music. But watching your videos kinda sparked something in me that was like “hey, play some piano when you get home from work, arrange a song, get a jazz combo together.” So thank you for helping me feel that feeling again. Keep doin what you’re doin! Boom, subscribed.
This is one of many reasons my jazz teachers DESPISED the real book. (even though a lot of us used it) They always pushed having us learn the melodies (and changes) by ear, in all 12 keys. I remember hearing stories of some of the musicians calling tunes but in completely wild keys, like F# or B, as a way to "weed out" anyone who really couldn't hang.
I'm still pretty weak on transcribing chord changes, but I definitely go for the recordings as a better way of "how it goes."
I see carving on the bandstand now (and calling weird keys is part of carving) as abusive bullying, and I seriously think it dissuades many people from even trying, and many others from ever trying more than once. If they can't hang with the group yet, they're sure as hell not going to learn from someone calling Cherokee in F♯ at 400 bpm.
I've had it done to me -- and I actually _did_ hang with it (the tune called in a strange key in my case was "Caravan") and afterward the leader said "We didn't really expect you'd know the tune, let alone in that key."
@@mal2ksc see, for them, it's not about teaching or learning. One of my directors said, "You either know the tune, or you don't." Harsh, yeah. Absolutist? Absolutely.
@@nickbell8353 Used to be that way myself. Then I got the chance to run a band for a little while, and it was... well they weren't great, but shouting at them wouldn't have helped matters any. And when I tried to bring in a ringer to solidify things, and the ringer told them they all sucked and left, I was able to say in all honesty, "Don't worry too much... he sucked three years ago. I know, I was there. Don't let it get to you."
If you let the assholes dictate the working conditions, don't be surprised when the job attracts more assholes and drives away people who might be great, they just aren't on board with that Buddy Rich style. Unfortunately this was more the rule than the exception for a long time. To quote Stan Kenton: "I don't care if he's a nice guy, give me an asshole who can play!" And of course Ellington had Juan Tizol who loved to threaten people with knives. Those who complained got fired.
All 12 keys?! I’d be terrified
@@in.stereo I get the hesitation, but it's not so bad; the trick is figuring out which scale degree the notes fall under, once you find out where the tonic is.
3:30-3:40 Because it’s easier for horn players to play flat keys as opposed to sharp keys.
When so many jazz tunes are played in b-keys (F, Bb, EB and so on), it’s probably because the horns playing jazz are tuned in Bb or Eb (saxes, trumpets, clarinets).
Well yes, The Real Book is full of faults. It goes for melodies and especially for chords.
Another thing about Real Book is the selection of tunes. There are so many weird pieces in Real Book nobody ever plays and there are so many lovely jazz tunes that are just not there.
I always had some mental questions about the “Real Book” as some of the arrangements seem to be pointlessly complex but challenging. Fascinating stuff. Thanks for reminding me how a great Ella was
not a jazz musician here but im from bangladesh and a student of indian classical music and nazrul sangeet. this video gives me so much more appreciation for what my music teacher always used to tell us - gaan holo gurumukhi bidya, which literally means you learn singing directly from the mouth of a guru or teacher, which i guess can be generalized as something along the lines of, music is always learnt from an instructor first hand. he always told us that the shwarolipi or sheet music is for when you already know the song, but forgot the melody in a specific place or got confused about a specific part. basically to help you brush up on or confirm something you already know, never your first or initial source of receiving instruction. only after we had learnt how to sing a particular song would we attempt to play it too and it would always be by ear. to this day i have shelves upon shelves filled with shwarolipi books but i only consult them when i need to, and never learn directly from them. but i understand it might be very different for instrumentalists as opposed to how it is for me, primarily a vocalist. also, this of course completely disregards the never ending debate of which the "real" or "true" melody is for individual pieces that have not been standardized as certain genres have historically been better documented than others, but that subsequently brings in the question of what the acceptable extent of artistic interpretation is in terms of the level of freedom given to the performer, but im rambling now so ill stop because like i said my point was that i have a little newfound appreciation for my (otherwise very strict) ustad thanks to this
On the flats vs sharps thing, I grew up doing voice so it didn't matter to me at all, ever. Then I started teaching myself guitar, and sharp keys were always easier because you could play more of their chords in standard tuning without having to barre. Then I started teaching myself keys and they're all kinda the same, though I prefer flats because I feel like sharps are cliche due to the tendency of guitar-focused music to use those keys. From what I understand, flat tunings are preferred among jazz circles because it's easier to work with brass and woodwind instruments in them.
In the appendices of the Real Book the author cites the versions of the recording used to write out the changes to the song , and in some cases the recordings used. They transpose the music to more horn friendly keys which is why .
Back in 1968, when I was 13 years old, my Dad bought me three fake books. The cover prices were $50, $50, and $35 but they actually sold for about half that. I still have them.
I used the Real Book in college to help me understand what I was hearing on records. It helped me solidify the voicing, progressions and rhythm into my own playing .
I'd love to watch an entire video of you just correcting all the mistakes from the Real Book with the recordings. Love your content!
The first time I came across one of these jazz fake books was way back in 1973. I was playing a B3 in the noon/afternoon session in this club. The main player who played organ for the main attraction in the evening used to leave this binder on the music rack. When I checked it out, it was full of mimeographed sheets of hand written fake sheets (melody lead and chords) of jazz tunes arranged in alphabetical order. To a musician who just started gigging at that time, it seemed like such a treasure trove. I used it while I was there but wasn’t able to take it out of the venue to xerox it. I later found out that the binder full of fake sheets could only be bought privately through special contacts. I never found the right connection at the time. I believe that that was one of the earlier renditions of the Real Book. Much later in the 90’s, a musician friend of mine gave me a PDF containing 12 of these fake books including the Real Book and something called the New Real Book. This type of fake books is good to use when you’re in a jam. One could hardly expect absolute fidelity in terms of the transcriptions in this kind of publications. Many people must have been involved in the compilation of these sheets, with some transcribers better than others. Besides, like others mentioned in this thread, jazz tunes have different renditions performed by different artists. Even with the same artist, sometimes they would use different chord substitutions and different phrasing of the melody on different recordings.
First lesson from my jazz piano teacher in college was, "Throw out your Real Book." Thanks to him my transcription skills improved dramatically. The RB is a good guide, but trust your ears...
It's foolish to throw out the real book before one has ears. Its best to use it as a way to get acclimated and then learn how to hear mistakes. You learn Spanish faster if you have a book plus immersion that just immersion without any basic resources
My transcription skills are more than adequate, writing things down for other people to play was how I made a living for couple years. But I still very much appreciate having a Real Book around. I can generally tell where it's "wrong" (compared to the version I have in mind at least) and make the corrections much faster than I could write down the chart from a blank page.
I am so fascinated with music theory and the relationships between certain chords in certain instances and how changing a very tiny detail will suddenly change the overall mood of the music. that said, I do not understand it at all even though I've listened to hundreds of hours of people playing examples and explaining it.
I couldn't tell the difference between the RB version and Ella's version until he stopped and played the two parts side-by-side.
flat keys in concert pitch transpose easier for Bb and Eb instruments (horns)
for example, Bb concert is C for a trumpet, but G concert is A (more sharps therefore percieved to be more difficult to play)
strings are the opposite, and prefer sharp keys because they fit the open strings better. a lot of beginner violinists aren't actually taught flats or f naturals until much later on because they haven't developed the ear to listen for the difference in pitch that early on, something I learnt the hard way when a bunch of beginners tried to play an arrangement I did and had no clue how to play Ab :D
3:39 We like to play with more flats because the most used solo instruments like trumpet and saxophone are transposing to Bb or Eb. The trombone is also a Bb instrument, but is written in C for whatever reason. In our brass band we also have a lot more flats than sharps wich also is due to the fingerings in Bb on trumpet is (to me and some other trumpets I know) easiert than in a key with too many sharps. In classical orchestras it is inverted. They focus on the string instruments with the violin being tuned to G D A and E, so they prefer keys with way too many sharps. As Bb trumpet I have to play in E when the concert pitch is D and I really dislike it. I love my flats.
I 100% agree with your argument. It's hard at times because there are so many people who are ignorant of trumpet. Some Pianist or guitarist or Bassist even try to do 'All the things you are' at F# or B or E during a jam session. And if you don't do well, they say you're not a pro. Guitar, piano, and bass players who are familiar with 12 scales do not know the plight of especially trumpet players. So when I have jam sessions, I don't play the trumpet, I sing or play the piano. But you know what? Each instrument has its tough parts. The jazz trumpet master already knows the part, so before they tell the trumpeter to play at F# or B or E, the trumpeter instructs the other instrumentalist to do the hard part for them. Damm! Not every trumpet player is Wynton, Arturo, Tom Harrell who can play without problems, no matter how many # appear.
@@delicious9824 I think for Guitar it is the same as with other string instruments, the open strings are easier. Couldn't they tune it down a half step or is that a problem?
@@yannnique17 yes. That's what I talking about.
@@yannnique17 Yes. That's what I talking about.
In jazz, there are quite a few string players who know it and abuse it. Although he is comfortable with open strings, it is not to the extent that he is uncomfortable just because he is not, but because he thinks he is practicing uncomfortable things and accepts it. However, sometimes they unaware that it is a great inconvenience to trumpet players. or Sometimes even knowing it, they abuse it to 'Let's see how good playing you are at F# or B or E'.
Between this, and many websites that provide chord charts for various contemporary genres getting the chords 80% correct (most of them always skip the bass of the chord, or misinterpret chord voicings), I’ve grown to trust my ear and just make my own charts for gigs.
In the Alaska the musicians who run the local jazz festival recently put together the AK Real Book made up of Alaskan jazz musician's and composer's songs. We eached waved the copyright for print in favor of it becoming an educational tool to help grow the local music scene. I have several songs in the book and it was great to play this year's festival with an entirety original set between myself the trumpet player. The pianist, who was someone I respected immensely and had been wanting to work with for at least 20 years, ended up telling me he only said yes to the festival gig because we were doing original music. I'm not saying we are going to give away the royalties to recording or other situations, but I think it's a great tool for jam sessions and community building. Love you channel by the way!!!
Interesting point at 3:40 about finding flats easier... as a classically trained musician, I find that less accidentals is always easier regardless if it is flats or sharps. I guess it is just easier when you are playing always from what's written in the score. So G would be easier than Eb. I wonder if jazz musicians find flats easier because they are not constrained to sheet music
Flats are more common because the horns that play jazz are tuned in flat keys (Bb, Eb) so people just gravitate to playing in the flat keys like F, Bb, Eb, and Ab the majority of the time since, as you said, playing with less accidentals is easier in general. If you look at tunes that have other origins (e.g. the bossa nova tunes) you'll see the sharp keys popping up more often like G, D, and A since they come from styles where other instruments reign (like guitar or violin).
As someone who just grew up playing trombone in concert bands, any time there is a B-natural (or any sharps) it is harder. Slide positions on a trombone, and correspondingly on valved instruments, are tuned such that the nominal position plays Bb - all the way in on the slide, no valves pressed down.
I don't find Eb any harder to read or play than F or Bb, but once you get to Ab it starts to get harder - mostly due to the first time you need to use the 5th slide position.
3:36 Wind instruments are built in flat keys, so it's easier for them. Just as guitar players tend to like sharp keys because their instruments are built with the open strings E, A, D, G, B, E.
Personaly I tend to start the song 'Like Someone In Love' (in Eb major) not with the tonic at all, but instead with the chords Dm7(b5) then G7(#11, +5) then Cm7, followed by Fmaj7 (add 2)/A, then chromatically descending Ab7 (#11) Gm7, Gb 13 (#11) Fm7, etc. Although Bill Evans didn't actually do this, it's the sort of thing he often did do...
Great video Charles. I’ve discovered a few songs in TRB over the years that I realized were wrong but unfortunately none come to mind at the moment.
What really got me excited was when you “added a few chords” to the turnaround in “But Not For Me.” Those chords you added were beautiful and it’s that part of jazz that seems to elude my ability to understand even after more than 50 years of playing piano. Is what I’m describing something that your Harmony 101 course covers?
I’m just a hobby player but those kinds of tricks are what I really crave to know how to pull off. You make everything look easy but of course it’s not.
The reason Jazz musicians favour the flat keys is that they are more natural for the horns. Guitarists, on the other hand, far prefer sharp keys, as they give access to more open strings- but jazz guitar, being mainly a rhythm instrument, has had to suck it up and adapt to the flat keys. It's been said of Parker that, being self-taught, he didn't realize that saxophonists played mainly from C to Ab, and learned equal facility in all keys- which, of course, put him ahead of the pack.
I think a big reason jazz is often in flat keys is because it's old old old beginnings came from marching music, which was often done in flats. But I'm not a music historian and that might be wrong.
As a trombonist turned bass player, my take on the F# =/= Gb is;
"flats are easier on brass instruments than sharps are because you typically learn/think of the harmonic series from the top down, and sharps are easier on string instruments than flats because you learn from the root note, up"
For beginning bands, the key of Bb is easier than C (B natural suuucks on a trombone, for example; I literally couldn't reach that far when I started playing because my arms weren't long enough), and Eb and Ab are about the same, with some transposing instruments doing better or worse, depending. Orchestras sometimes start with the key of C, but are generally very comfortable in G or D as well, which is something that's also true for banjo/guitar folk groups as well.
Jazz is often written in flat keys because the saxophones transpose in Bb and Eb (so playing a C major scale on an alto sax sounds like an Eb major scale). So flat keys are just more natural for them to play.
We do love those keys expect for 1, I nevvvverrrr seen a jazz musician who likes playing in C. Even c jam blues ends up getting modulated lol
I think it should be noted that a lot of people (including me) would "obtain" cassette copies of Aebersold play-along records and then use the Real Book to play over them. The key would be different from time to time though. So double-illegal. Also there are tunes that aren't even in the same key across all editions of the Real Book -- in particular I remember _On Green Dolphin Street_ as being in E♭ in the first edition, but in C in the third edition. So it was often necessary to note on the set list what key we were playing a song in.
On the flat/sharp thing... I actually prefer sharps because for whatever reason, the fingering patterns are generally less awkward on a woodwind. The one real exception is flute, but being a C instrument it's not playing in sharps nearly as often, and it's not like sharp keys are _bad_ on flute in any way. It's just that they're not any easier than the flat keys, and you tend to see the flat keys more unless you're in orchestra.
If given a choice between reading a part in C♯ and a part in D♭, I'm going to choose C♯ in spite of having more in the key signature (7 vs. 5). Of course it matters how complex the part is -- I don't really care whether you write it in F♯ or G♭ if it's easy to read either way. This has nothing to do with the difficulty of performing it, the audience is not going to know or care what's on my page. My fingers are going to do the same thing either way (ideally). I just have a slight preference for sharps over flats, which only really kicks in at the F♯/G♭ side of the circle of fifths.
I’ve been wanting someone to do a video on this for forever. Fantastic job as always! I’ve run into this problem so many times.
I feel like flats are easier than sharp's because it sounds better to move the route note down a 1/2 step than it does to move it up. Therefore you hear that half step key change in a lot of western music, so naturally we have more practice in it.
It must be noted (don't know if someone else has pointed this already in the comments below, haven't read them all yet) that "Real Books" come in more than one key. There is the C version (supposedly the "correct" one) but also the Bb version, the Eb version, etc. which are usually meant for wind instruments in the said keys since they can't be tuned, whereas the C version is usually meant for the piano. Versions other than the C version have all their songs transposed from C to said key.
That being said, it was interesting to learn from this video that transposition alone doesn't account for the differences between the "Real Book" (henceforth called just RB) version and the original version. I've struggled with that issue when learning Bill Evans's "34 Skidoo". The version that hooked me onto this piece was the "Montreux II" version (which has a really cool intro), whose harmony in the RB version only matches the recording in the main theme. Later on I found out the RB version I had was actually the one from the album "How My Heart Sings", but even there I notice differences in the chords between the recording and the RB.
Blue Train is actually corrected in the sixth edition of the real book.
yeah if he actually LOOKED at the 6th edition instead of posting some version from the bootleg day.
@@thepostapocalyptictrio4762 Doesn’t change the fact that they used the Cedar Walton version of Blue Train up until the sixth edition. But, feel free to continue to purposely miss the point, sweetheart
@@DefenestrateYourself miss the point? Realistically a new player is just going to buy the legal version off Amazon and not know the old versions were worse. Why bring up issues that don't apply to the Real Book anymore anyways? Im a believer in transcription myself, but I think the book has some value, especially for a beginner in jazz.
As someone else mentioned, flat keys are horn players' favs. In a middle school band you start off with the concert Bb scale. Then F, then Eb.
In the early 80's a friend of mine told me to go to this particular music store, wait till I was the only customer, then tell the guy working there I was interested in a jazz fake book, and tell him Rex (my friend's name) sent me. I did, the guy took me in the back room, unlocked a big drawer and sold me the Real Book for 25 bucks cash, He put the book in a brown paper bag, and then put it in the store bag. I later went back and bought Real Book vol. 2 and Vintage Jazz Standards vol. 1 and 2 (in one vol.) Really. I still have them!
You should look at the music for both Blade Runner movies. They’re both really interesting compositions.
I was really hoping for a Vangelis tribute video from Charles or Rick after he passed in the spring. Sadly, we got nothing.
That'd be great!
Oh god yes, seconded!
Yesss I love Vangelis. The Soundtrack for BR is a masterpiece. I hope your comment blows up!
@@brianspenst1374 definitely a lot of Vangelis tracks would be amazing. Sadly, Charles doesn't seem to respond much to comments :/
I love how much your videos have taught me about music. I've played for 20 years and used to throw theory aside for the sake of time, and I've never had an easier time learning than watching your videos. Thank you!
Miles Davis quintet starts “But not for me” on the the V of V on the 1954 “Bag’s Groove” album,
Some of the mistakes in the book are from specific instrumental recordings (not based on the original composition).
Yeah - I wouldn't call them mistakes in that case. They are simply based on a different version. And all in all, the original version isn't always the most "important" version. For example the original version of Fly Me to the Moon was in 3/4, but the 4/4 version by Sinatra is the one that everyone uses as a point of reference - that is the "source material", even though it isn't the original version.
Great piece. These 'approximations' are prevalent in printed music. Back in the nineties when Becker and Fagen decided to tour again after 20 years (resulting in the album "Alive In America") they decided to "re familiarize" themselves with their back catalogue by going through the various notated versions of their work. Such were the inaccuracies, they decided to go back, dig out the recordings and brush up by ear...
Adam Neely wasn't wrong when he said that the Real Book is a "jazz shibboleth." (If you don't know what that means, check out his own video on the Real Book from a few years back.)
You mentioned you find flat keys easier to deal with than sharp keys. This changes per instrument. Violin, viola, and cello are tuned in 5ths and are generally easier in sharp keys.
I find sharps way easier to deal with than flats- but that’s because my primary instrument is guitar, which people tend to conceptualize in sharps (and also keys with sharps tend to have more open strings than keys with flats)
I’m sure if I started as a trumpet player it would be the opposite
I play concert percussion in three concert bands and a brass band. I almost never see key signatures with sharps.
I suspect that it is because of transposing instruments like trumpet and clarinet.
If the music is in the key of Bb major, then the sheet music for Bb instruments is in the key of C major. For transposing instruments, major scale key signatures with sharps always end up with more sharps or flats, but major scale key signatures with flats always end up with fewer.
For "Like someone in love" or "Blue Train" you could argue that there are "original" versions by virtue of the tunes being introduced to the public in recorded form. For a tune like "All the things", it's not so simple. This tune was written for the musical "Very warm for May". In the musical versions I've heard, it is performed with a verse, and as a rubato type ballad. In jazz, the verse is omitted, and I'm not even sure who came up with the "jazz intro". It's still very much a cycle of fifths tune whatever version is being played, but for a lot of those old Broadway tunes, both the rhythm and harmony, as well as the phrasing of the melody, is very different from the original Broadway sheet music. The point is that many of these tunes were appropriated by jazz musicians at the time. They were tunes that everybody "knew", hence the term "standard", so you could have a common repertoire to play on a jam session. By the 70s, when the book was made, a lot of these common references had been lost among musicians. Sure, it's weird that they didn't use the original version of "Blue Train", but I'm not sure that chart was written with the idea of the Real Book becoming a standard reference, it was probably some guy's transcription of whatever version he liked. My point is that in some ways it's unfair to say that the the Real Book is "wrong".
That’s super interesting to hear the preference for flat keys is a jazz pianist thing too. I’ve played almost exclusively classical pieces (especially romantic era) my whole life, and most of my life I felt like flat key pieces were much easier to both read and learn. Lifelong friend who also plays feels the same way.
Now, though I feel relatively comfortable with each, though flat keys still feel more “intuitive”. Oddly, I think just because my all-time favorite pieces tend to be in keys with 5-6 accidentals, I feel most uncomfortable in keys with only 1-2.
I managed a music store from ‘94-‘04 and our owner was real weird about stocking any fake books. We had our ordering manager get us some despite his reluctance. I sold many copies of “The Real Book” not realizing it was illegal and wished now I would have bought one myself. Now, we carried many fake books from major publishers like Hal Leonard but we kept ALL of them hidden from our 70 year old owner just to avoid him some stress.
I'm all about the flats also, rather than the sharps. This is partially because Iearned music in school band, playing low brass instruments, which were bass clef, B-flat pitched instruments. For the last 30 years, I have not played a horn, but only piano. I can certainly read and play sharps but, like Charles, flats feel more like home to me, for whatever reason. Except C-flat and F-flat, which really annoy me when I rarely run across them.
Well, I think, aside from just the original Real Book writers transcribing the book from random arbitrary recordings that they liked, the real reason for the strange or "wrong" chords changes that weren't found in the "original" recordings (in quotes, because why is the recording the original and not the composer's original manuscript?) is that the chord changes are purely for the function of having chord changes to play when improvising and taking turns soloing over the song.
That's a good point. I played by RB on sax in Eb. Maybe they had too many work with transpositions. Thruth is I learned a lot from them. Now chods and everything are on the net. Thank you
I've never learned "But Not For Me" because the Real Book changes seemed weird. As I'm watching this, I paused it and grabbed the original sheet music. There's some amazing stuff in the sheet music that never quite makes it into the Real Book and sometimes not even into most recordings. Gershwin's (and other composers') sheet music is often overlooked by jazz players because some jazz recording is seen as the "definitive" source. I think if you combine the sheet music with some great jazz performer's interpretation of a song and use the Real Book as a sort of Cliff Notes reminder, you can create your own arrangement of the song.
Sadly, sometimes the official sheet music has mistakes in it.....
Many Sources!!!!
Re other musicians knowing if you learned a tune from the book and not from recordings: In college (~1994) everyone seemed to play There Will Never Be Another You. There was one bar (maybe #10) that gave away whether you’d learned it from albums or just read the book.
BTW the original has a beautiful verse/intro; it’s from a 1942 movie musical called Iceland, a romcom about skaters.
I find flats generally easier to read than sharps. It may be partly due to some of the Jazz repertoire I've played, but getting into some of the Classical music that's in C-sharp Major and my brain is sometimes saying, Nope! Yes, I can try to trick it by thinking of the enharmonics, thinking of some of the notes and chores as flats instead, but then that only works to a degree. Yes, going back and taking a better and proper look, I can break it down and it makes sense -- at a quick glance or reading something down for the first time, flats over sharps (anything from like B Major or higher number of sharps) any day!
Please cover Donald Fagen when you get a chance. The Nightfly in particular has some wild chords and harmony. Kamakiriad's second half is also fantastic.
favorite album (other than morph) by my favorite artist!!!
The Nightfly is brilliant - when I was a kid, I figured out New Frontier after seeing it on MTV - It was a step towards being the chord hound I am now. I am self taught on piano, so I had to spend some time with it, but I learned so much from that one song.
I absolutely adore Gershwin, and it was so cool to see someone else raving about the beauty of his music. Made my day. Thank you!
The most popular among jazz musicians versions of "Like Someone in love" are made by Bud Powell and Dexter Gordon. Dexter surely did the best and incomparable version so the music sheet based on it
Yeah, I bought the car trunk version in undergrad like everyone else in the middle 80s, but I quickly learned that there were a lot of issues with it. The problem is, so many people learned things out of it that even if it was wrong, that's what most people (in the circles I was in, at least) were playing. Even if you did the research and dug up the original sheet music or show score or even composer's manuscript (yes, I was that nerd) it didn't matter because everyone knew it the "wrong" way. (I also got a copy of the Spaces set from the same trunk ~35 years ago and I still consult it from time to time for obscure tunes and unusual contrafacts.)
It wasn't until I got to jazz grad school and got a withering stare from my adviser along with "You learned that from the Real Book, didn't you?" when we listened to my audition tape together that I learned to stick to my guns and at least learn the composer's original intent before going too far afield.
He also threw out one of my early big band charts because I got the changes wrong because I was following the Real Book and not looking up the original.
Bear in mind, too, that on many recordings you're hearing the arranger's intent, not the composer's. The Ella But Not For Me is Nelson Riddle's interpretation of those changes, not Gershwin's. Riddle didn't go too far afield, but they're not the same. There certainly can be problems with the original sheet music, but it's always worth a look when you're learning a piece that comes from that tradition. If you can get your hands on the original show score, so much the better. (The internet is great for doing that kind of digging.)
Of course you can modify it from there, but it does help to know the original.
this channel is just great, man! Well done!
Had no idea this was illegal! We always had one, but it was always just.....there. I don't remember anyone buying it, nor do I recall seeing in a store, so this sure explains a lot
Talking "Right" chords and "Wrong" chords in a jazz context- very funny!
oh the irony
Hard to argue though how important this earliest, if illegal, reference book was to those of my boomer generation. It soon became the essential standard jazz player wannabe repertoire list, and it enabled welcomed access to an entire generation of musicians, many of whom, like myself, would not have had the time to "sort it all out" without the information it offered. We should also not forget the role it seems to have played in providing life-support to what had become a rapidly dying form of popular music. I'm admittedly reaching here, but The Real Book (the product of students and faculty at Berkeley?) is IMHO was as important to the devotion of jazz musicians then as the Bible was to early Christianity. Sure...both contain errors requiring continued study, reinterpretation and refinement, but in the end both are supremely important works...their impact and importance should never be underestimated.
Thanks for the insult to Christianity.
@@moirbasso7051 Insult? None intended.
@@moirbasso7051 it’s true. No matter how true something is, if it was made that long ago it probably has a lot of mistakes. The telephone game x10000000 generations.
I used the real book when my friends and I played in a jazz combo during high school. It was good fun and was a great book to get us familiar with a lot of the standards!
A video on the history of the Arban’s book would be cool. That is the trumpet players bible
Also… our jazz instructor always made us listen to the original songs and made us write and figure out the chords by ear then have us play the chords on the piano. He wanted us to understand all the various styles the musicians used so we can borrow licks from them in our improve lol
as a guitar player and Someone who plays metal music, Metal musicians really like working with Sharps over flats. It's very typical that we will use them. The reason being is because we will play keys in the tunings of the guitar/Bass. So Typical keys we will play would be E, D, C, A, B and G. Depending on how many strings you have. What the lowest note is, will be the key of the song that will be wrote.
I still have my Real Book sold out of the trunk of a car in Ft Lauderdale Docks in 1979 (working my first cruise contract). A lot of the standards are favorite versions of the compilers (from Boston I gather) . So they weren't looking for the original versions, they were looking for the hip jazz versions. These days I look at the RB occasionally, but I've been doing my own versions for years.
A large part of the job of pianists, guitarists and arrangers is to re-harmonise standard tunes/songs, and sometimes to put them in different time signatures, or different rhythmic feels - salsa instead of swing, for example. My gripe with the use of the Real Book is that instead of being used as a guide, is used as though it were 'gospel' - with no thought as to the relationship between melody and harmony, harmony to bass line, etc.
All too often the chords provided in the Real Book are not as good either as the orignal - or more importantly, as the *could* be. This is where Kurt Elling, Dianne Reeves, Gretchen Parlato, Cécile McLorin Salvant and others really stand out, from my POV.
The great singers - such as Kurt Elling, Dianne Reeves, Tierney Sutton, Gretchen Parlato,Salvant, etc. - all work with pianists/arrangers to put their own stamp on any given song.
The same is true of other great musicians - such as Keith Jarrett, Jacob Collier, John Taylor, McCoy Tyner, bands like Snarky Puppy - all these artsists go to great lengths to produce a version of any given song or tune which is unlike anyone else's version.
IMO this is where so many work-a-day jazz musicians are being lazy, and merely follow what's in the Real Book. It means the musicians don't have to think. Indeed, a lot of people are not gifted in re-harmonising tunes. But they should acquire this skill, and use it, if they wish to be elevated to a higher level.
This was such an interesting video! I'd love to see more jazz history on this channel 😁
Loved this video! Thank you Charles! 💚
I wouldn't call the arrangement of "Like Someone in Love" in the Real Book "wrong". It's just a different arrangement, with some different passing chords that employ various II-V changes. I've always liked the Real Book version, and frankly I wouldn't play the version arranged for Ella unless trying to play THAT particular arrangement. The Real Book version lends itself to a jam session much more easily, probably its intended purpose.
As a a Jazz musician in the UK, who has grown up with the Real Book, and even run my own successful jam session for over a decade ...
My parents bought me a Hal Leonard "New Real Book Vol. 1" (It cost them £25 - the price on the cover was $35 US) ... for my 16th birthday.
But when I got to University, a new world of illicit publications tempted and consumed me ... including Real Books 1, 2 & 3, all on a single CD. All of the very best jazz songs on a single CD. (heaven!)
A very few songs were the same as in my favoured legal New Real Book - most of the chords in the old Real Book were approximations at best (your "Blue Trane" example is amazing - surely NOBODY could be that inaccurate with such an easy song!)
But the New Real Book is often "too" accurate - exactly the sort of nonsense that led to substitutions being put into old Real Book songs from the get-go, and taken as fact.
But - I need to work with other people ...
My tablet now contains Old Real Books 1, 2 and 3, New Real Books 1,2 and 3; plus the extenstions of the New Real Book .. "The Standards Real Book" and "The All Jazz Real Book" ... plus Rebecca Mauleon's brilliant Salsa Real Book (by Hal Leonard - in the same style as all of the New Real Books, with explanation of chord symbols at the beginning, as usual)
I applaud the Hal Leonard series of "new" real books for attempting to standardise chord symbols.
I went along with it, because there's nothing better - and they achieved their goal:
C means C major
CMI means C minor
CMI7 means C minor 7
CMA7 means C major 7 (no triangle needed)
The only thing that isn't easy to read in Hal's books is the way the bars are set out.
Even the easiest 16-bar melody often has 3 bars on the first line, 2 bars on the next, 5 bars on the next, 4 bars at the bottom of the page, and 2 bars - the ONLY 2 bars - on the next page, with a repeat mark back to the first page.
Really poor - for a publication that wants to be the go-to for jazz sight-readers.
Anyway "New" Real Book is still my go-to ... but most of the people I know only do "Old" Real Book .. doesn't matter .. just before we play the tune, I get them to snap-shot the music on their phone. So we know we're in the same key!
The late great West Coast composer and pianist Dick Hindman (not Dick Hyman from the East Coast, another master jazz pianist) would right out a model arrangement. Starting with simple lead sheet of original melody and chord changes. Then arrange it for a simple model arrangement which is a basic arrangement (for piano) using simple but nice voice leading, maybe 4 parts. Then branch out with a more developed arrangement with a beautiful reharmonization all written out. Then transpose these arrangements into the keys and write that out accurately. We learn so much from doing this from just one tune that you can take forward to other tunes.
Growing up as a kid playing the Trombone, the flat keys were easier because Bb is first position and the first note we learned to play.
That is my guess.
For Brass instruments, the flat notes are typically in a first position. ?
This explains why Desafinado always sounded off to me when I played it with this book. Still a worthy while purchase for any Jazz musician, though. Huge time saver, and you can still learn a lot from it.
I think your the piano sound is clipping on high volume parts, for example at 14:29
I compose more in keys with flats because when I started, I found it easier to write flat symbols than sharp symbols on paper...
In the pre-Internet early '90's I bought my "Real Book" from the keyboard player in a local jazz band. I will cherish it forever. It is true that a bunch of stuff is wrong. It is also true that at the time it was head and shoulders above anything else available.
I still have my fifth edition. It's extremely banged up.
And yes I totally find it more natural dealing with flats. Everything rolls counterclockwise around the cycle, it's just the way it is. Sometimes I practice around-the-cycle stuff going the other way, but it's definitely "the other way". For me, anyway.
The thing about the flats and sharps is that the brass / some woodwinds are instruments in a flat key. So the play with an instrument in C, your average clarinetist will add 2 sharps. So, if you play F, Bb or Eb, we just have 1 sharp, no sharps/flats or 1 flat. Great! For some sax players with Eb, this is even more the case. I don't think many instruments in a typical jazz combo are in a sharp key. (Edit: also, on the piano, those black keys are relatively easy to hit, so win-win?)
I've still got my car trunk version of the Real Book from back in the 70's old yellowed, pages falling out, but it's history so I keep it.
I've heard a lot of the myths about the Real Book and how it came about over the decades, I heard someone outline the Real history of the Real Book a couple years ago that sound like the real story. It was two Berklee students that like most needed money. They saw that students were running around all the time with handfuls of crumpled up lead sheets for the common tunes they jammed on and practiced. So the two got the idea to make a book with all those tunes so it would be easy to carry around. The one guy was an experienced copyist so he'd redo all the leadsheets. The other guy's job was to collect lead sheets for the book based on ones he found laying around and suggestion from students and other "staff" at Berklee. This was why there are a lot of certain Berklee instructors tunes and also why some songs are in wrong keys. The guy grabbing leading at time was grabbing transposed lead sheet no concert key. So they made the first Real Book and started selling it. Then the Real Book got popular and being illegal other people started copying and selling the Real Book. So the two broke student who created the original Real Book didn't make that much money because of all the copy cats. The guy who did the copying for the original did eventually design the now famous Real Book font the books are printed in and made some money there. He is still in the music business doing all sorts of music services. The other guy who collect all the leadsheet supposedly threw in the towel on the music business. To me that is the most believable story on the beginnings of the Real Book. But I do remember the days of going into certain music stores and whispering... Got any Fake books??? Then they'd pull some out from under the counter.
IMO, this is why it's important to learn as many tunes as you can from records and move on from real book as soon as you can. The more you learn tunes by ear, the more you realize that chord changes aren't really set in stones, and they tend to evolve over time. This is true especially for classic renditions by Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and other singers, and IMO it's reflective of how people treated how many at the time(i.e Less ii-V's and more stepwise bass motion using diminished chords to connect to the next chord). But I've also found plenty of instrumental recordings by Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Art Farmer..etc where the chord changes aren't really like what we are used to from the real book. Heck, I've recently checked out a live rendition of Sam River's Beatrice where the bass player was playing very different changes on bar 5-8.
IMO if you do this long enough, you can pick up a different set of changes very quickly and understand how those changes work while following certain structures, and I've found that having this ability is very helpful when I am playing with people I am not familiar with and they play different changes than I used to. Again, chord changes aren't set in stones, and it can be arranged/tweaked on the spot as part of improvisation, as long as everyone has the ear to be able to follow along. And just like learning licks, you can learn "vocabulary" to chord changes that can free up your playing in that regard.
I remember trying to learn "but not for me" after listening to chet baker's version and being so confused and let down by the real book chords
My uncle was a bebop drummer who played in NYC in the 50s. I inherited a bunch of really weird illegal fake books, some of them with pretty obscure songs.
Why you as a pianist play with so many flats is because of the transposing wind instruments. Bb instruments have two more sharps and the Eb saxes even have theree more sharps. So when you see a tune with two sharps it's five for me, and that's quite more challenging to finger ^^
One reason with music in flat keys is that it is easier to translate to brass instruments like trumpets and horn, since they are tuned in B flat or E flat.
My copy of the sixth edition has a completely different, and more like the original, version of Blue Train than presented here. Like Someone in Love restores the straight ii V I starting at measure 5. All that said, point taken about how we all learned different versions of these tunes because of the real book. You have to listen to the tunes, and I was taught that learning the lyrics is step one.
Yeah flat keys are simpler for most non-C brass and woodwinds, since they’re flat key instruments, which means to adjust from concert you have to add sharps - they usually add somewhere between 1 and 3 sharps to the key, so it’s not entirely fun to be like “oh yeah A is a nice concert key… too bad I have to play F# major 🙃” (alto/bari sax in Eb, and no even if written in Gb that’s also not that fun)
Of course, that isn’t an excuse to not be able to play in those keys - so higher level music should challenge those, but for lower and middle level players it will create headaches.
This is sort of extra exasperated on saxophones, where 90% of the sharp and flat fingerings are essentially sharp fingerings - you take a normal fingering and add a key that makes it sharp. So to go from F to Eb to D is already kind of a weird feeling since you essentially play F D# D, and this gets highly exasperated at high flat keys like Gb, hence what I said above
Hey man, could you do a video on James Blakes "Retrograde" ? Specifically the live version (Live on KEXP) where he plays the really juicy but kinda abstract chords? I've always found that piece really unique with a strange blend of styles that work great together.
Would love to hear your insight on it!
My understanding of the discrepancy in chord changes in the real book was that students of varying degrees of talent put it together.
So you get “jazz” versions of what were originally pop songs at that time…I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but a lot of standards started out as musical theatre or straight up pop songs and were “altered” by guys like Parker and Miles to be a lot hipper.
The “Blue Trane” chart is clearly written by a kid who hadn’t gotten to the Coltrane part of his education
My dad told me about how he bought his original book out of the back of a van in the 70s and it’s still crazy to think about
I always found flat keys to be much easier on the piano, which I somewhat attributed to the fact I played trumpet as well, which is generally a flat instrument. A friend of mine who played sax and piano found sharp keys to be easier and more natural. Could just be a coincidence, but it made some sense to me. I always just felt my hands fit into the shape of flat keys better than sharp keys.