Members filtersweep Posted January 14, 2008 Members Share Posted January 14, 2008 Any suggestions on downloadable sheet music(mainly rock)? Have tried sheetmusicdirect.com but very expensive and only allowed to print one copy, can't save file to be read from laptop. Fakebooks OK but most seem to have about 98% "filler" music (I realize it's a matter of taste) - like the 250 greatest hits of the nineties might have about 10-15 actual songs I would play. Any fakebooks people strongly recommend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jez Posted January 14, 2008 Members Share Posted January 14, 2008 Learn to play by ear and save yourself the money that's my recommendation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members akliner Posted January 14, 2008 Members Share Posted January 14, 2008 WTF is a fake book? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jez Posted January 14, 2008 Members Share Posted January 14, 2008 It's like, lyrics and piano/guitar chords so you can busk along to something without really knowing it I prefer to just download a bunch of mp3s of songs I want to play, and listen until I know them well enough to play them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RHA Posted January 14, 2008 Members Share Posted January 14, 2008 A good compromise between fake books and learning strictly by ear is a site like Chordie.com. You can search by song name or artist, and site users submit the chords and lyrics to the songs. Its all very basic and geared mostly to guitar, with both tabs and just the chords listed. Then you use your ear to figure out the keyboard parts. It even has a transpose feature if you're unable (!) or just plain too lazy to figure it out on your own. Its a good way to troll for new covers to try with your band as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gribs Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 WTF is a fake book? AFAIK, based on what my first jazz guitar teacher told me (back in the 70's) it is an old term that comes from sheets of music paper with chord progressions, melodies, and sometimes lyrics collected and traded by performing musicians for a large number of standard songs. Companies started putting them together and selling them as "fake" books because they were not the "real" music as published. I have the Just Jazz Real Book which is pretty good and fun to play through, but not as complete as advertised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MartinHines Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 Hal Leonard (music publisher) website search on "Fake" yields 131 matches:http://www.halleonard.com/search_items.jsp?keywords=Fake&catcode=00&type=product Another variation on "fake" book is a "Real" book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members memphis Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 These are mostly produced in Canada and I picked one up around 5-7 years ago on Ebay for about 20 bucks. The one I got was for jazz and recommended by a bass instructor. In fact, the "Real" books that are produced actually suck (i.e. wrong changes etc.). I thought the jazz fake book originated out of Berkley, but I could be wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members filtersweep Posted January 15, 2008 Author Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 Fake book is really just a generic term along the lines of what Gribs said. A few companies have commercialized them (e.g., the Real book series) and in fact most of these suck because they often have only a limited number of worthwhile tunes and a few hundred that you might never want to play. As for me, I do mostly play by ear but sometimes it's nice to have the chord changes laid out for you, especially for me because I seldom play with a singer and often don't pay close attention to the verse-chorus-bridge pattern. When I have someone singing I like to have the music to follow. I don't really need the melody line so I'll check to see what chordie is all about. One thing fake books are good for is classical music. If, like me, your training is not classical but you want to play a few favorites, the chord progressions in the fake books are all you need to sound pretty good. Note I said "pretty good". I don't try and convince anyone I'm a classical pianist because I'm not - but a lot of the music can still be very enjoyable interpreted through chord progressions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members polar69 Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 I hate guitar fake books, or "Buskers books" they always seem to have stange chords like Ebm7 or something Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Meatball Fulton Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 What's so strange about Ebm7? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members polar69 Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 Hey if its not G C or D I'm buggered Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gribs Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 I hate guitar fake books, or "Buskers books" they always seem to have stange chords like Ebm7 or something Um... That is a joke, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members polar69 Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 Um... That is a joke, right? Weeeeell, yes to be honest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jez Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 Sorry for the massively OT post here, but would anyone care to hazard a guess why my browser crashes every time I try to reply to one of tonyrobbins' threads? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members akliner Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 Weeeeell, yes to be honest :relief: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members polar69 Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 I meant E#dim7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dan88z Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 e-chords.com is pretty good too, they often have keyboard charts you can cut and paste. I use them to get an idea of the song, but a lot of times there are wrong chords, the same as when you use the tab guitar charts. I've been "wtf?" at some of the charts I've found, they aren't even close, while others are pretty much right on the money. I like to use excel to make charts that don't need any notation, each cell is a measure and you can put bars in with the outline function. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pink floyd cramer Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 In fact, the "Real" books that are produced actually suck (i.e. wrong changes etc.). I've heard that too. I have the New Real Book and it's very accurate though- tells you which recordings the song charts came from. It has alot of Yellowjackets, Jeff Lorber and other fusion stuff as well as jazz standards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cygnus64 Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 Learn to play by ear and save yourself the money that's my recommendation. For people who do gigs, chances are that you will sight-read songs that you have never heard before, live, before a paying audience. Playing by ear isnt going to help you in that situation. Fake books also put everyone on the same wavelength in performance as far as song structure. Maybe you are used to playing a chorus twice and someone else plays it once. With a fake book, you do what it says structure-wise. Originally, they werent really designed for "cheating" or accuracy, they were for gigging jazzers who need hundreds or 1000s of songs instantly. The chords are basically a guideline, its not the definitive chart. They are somewhat like "Cliff Notes" versions of songs, they give you a very basic melody, some changes, things like Da Capo (go back to the top), Codas (endings), etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members able Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 The Hal leonard "real book" refers to itself as the sixth edition. Hal Leonard is a legit company that has to follow copyright laws when publishing. There are a lot of songs missing in the Hal Leonard real book. They also cleaned up some of the hand written charts. If you search "real book" on ebay you'll find some folks selling a disc with PDF files of all the underground books ( colorado cookbook, the slick book and more) "the real book" 1,2 and 3 are there as well. They are the fifth edition. Nice if your books are tattered like mine. When you sit in with the heavy jazz cats you will need to know the "real book" versions of the tune. Otherwise you might start "Stella by starlight" in the wrong key. able Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pink floyd cramer Posted January 16, 2008 Members Share Posted January 16, 2008 For people who do gigs, chances are that you will sight-read songs that you have never heard before, live, before a paying audience. Playing by ear isnt going to help you in that situation. I agree- and I have as good an ear as anyone I know. Last year my band had to learn the shows of 4 different singers and we wasted alot of time in rehearsal, still didn't nail it- because nobody could - or would- read charts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fdelvecchio Posted January 16, 2008 Members Share Posted January 16, 2008 A possible alternative is to use a DAW program like Sonar, Cubase, Logic, and download MIDI files, then view them in staff view. While some of the MIDI files are not great, the majority I find to be OK, and it can get you started. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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