How to use the Real Book?

[Fassa Albrecht]

OK, I've been learning jazz theory and OK, I've managed to do a serious study of some standards. But I'm very off-put by the Real Book.
My problem is this: I just don't know where to start. The real book I'm using is probably an inch thick, with probably at least 200 songs in it. I'm completely puzzled as to where I even begin to learn these.

Anyone know how I can integrate the Real Book into my practices in a way which isn't going to be completely offputting and frustrating?

[JTE]

First, find some titles to stuff you like, or are very very common. For example, find "Autumn Leaves", "Four", "Satin Doll", etc.

Then use what you're learning from your jazz studies to work through them. Look for ii V I progressions in the songs, work out the arpeggios of the chords and how the chords related to each other, practice your walking skills with the progressions, learn the melody on bass, sing the melody while working through the arpeggios, etc. One good method is to start with the first chord and play through the chord tones from the lowest available (NOT NECESSARILY THE ROOT) for as many beats as that chord lasts. When the chord changes start the next chord on the next available chord tone (again, doesn't need to be the root). Keep doing that through the progression until you get to the 12th fret or so and then descend. Keep going up and down playing chord tones without regard to where the root lands until you've gone through the whole form three or four times. This is purely an exercise to get you hearing and finding chord tones all over.

Also, here's something I pulled from an old TB thread, it's by Ed Fuqua.

First let me say that this isn't anything that I came up with on my own, this is the approach my teacher uses that he got from his teacher, Lennie Tristano. And for what it's worth, I think ANYBODY at ANY LEVEL will benefit from studying one on one with a player who has a deeper understanding than they do. The following set of exercises work BEST when you have some objective, knowledgeable person who can listen to what you are doing and provide guidance to keep you moving in a focused and progressive direction.

I. PICK A TUNE - something from the "standard" repertoire; my 4 tunes are STELLA BY STARLIGHT, THESE FOOLISH THINGS, BODY AND SOUL and ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE. When you pick a tune, you want to find the most vanilla version of the melody that you can. Look in older "fake" books, pull it off some Judy Garland record whatever. The idea is to get as close to the composer's concept of melody and changes than you can. The REAL BOOK (old ones, not the Sher or Leonard versions) tend to contain somewhat dubious transcriptions of specific recordings; again the idea is to get the composer's idea, not Sonny Stitt's version of the composer's idea. Kind of like the game Telephone or doing a book report from reading somebody else's book report; you stand a better chance of coming up with "your" interpretation if you know what the actual original was.

II. LEARN THE MELODY - set the metronome at quarter note=60bpm and PLAY the melody through. Over and over and over and over and over and over so that you can SING the melody if somebody drags you out of your bed at 4am. Get off the paper as soon as you can, I've found that learning the lyric that goes with the melody is a great way to internalize the melody.

III. PLAY A CHORD LINE - what do I mean by "chord line"? Simply this, a line that arpeggiates the changes but with a couple of important parameters:
A. PROXIMITY - you want to use not only root position arpeggios but also all inversions to maintain "close" fingering and common voices through the tune. For example, a progression of D-7 G7/ Cmaj7 - instead of D F A C G B D F C E G B (root position, root position, root position) one choice could be D F A C D F G B C E G B (root, 2nd inversion, root).
B. IN TIME - the chord line should reflect the harmonic rhythm of the tune. If the chord lasts one bar, the chord line is quarter notes. If half a bar (two beats) the chord line is eighth notes. One beat would be 16ths, two bars would be half notes. Let me know if this is not clear.

IV. THE EXERCISE
A. With the 'nome at quarter-note=60bpm( and without the sheet), play one chorus of the melody and one chorus of the chord line, then one chorus of the melody. This is getting the sound of the melody and the sound of the changes in your ear.
B. For the purposes of this exercise, use the major scale for all major7th chords, the mixolydian for all dominant 7th chords and the Dorian for all minor chords. Play one chorus of melody, one chorus of chord line and then improvise one chorus of half notes, ending with one chorus of melody. The half note chorus should try to emphasize MELODY over BASS LINE, you are not "walking two feel" but building a melody. It may be a little mechanical at first, but once you relax and let your ear start telling your fingers what notes to use, you can really get to some nice melodic material. Again, this is MUCH harder to do without somebody listening to your progress form the outside, if you insist on doing this without a teacher, RECORD all of your exercises and listen to them without your instrument in your hands. When you get to the point that you are consistently creating some nice music with half notes, move to the next part of the exercise.
C. Play a chorus of melody, a chorus of chord line and then play 1 chorus in the following manner: the first 3 bars of each 8 bar section play the melody and then starting on beat ONE of bar 4 begin your improvised line of half notes. So you will have (in a 32 bar tune) 3 bars melody, 5 bars improvised, 3 bars melody, 5 bars improvised, 3 bars melody, 5 bars improvised, 3 bars melody, 5 bars improvised. Again, don't move on the first time you get this to sound like music, wait until you hit that every time.
D. As above, but the improvised chorus will have the 3 bars of melody dropped into a different place for each 8 bar segment( moving melody). That is, if you start the first 8 bars with melody, NO OTHER 8 bar section can start with melody.
E. As above, the improvised chorus now becomes only improvised half notes and rests. You should play (approximately) as many beats rest as you play measures of half note per 8 bar section.

V. When you've made it through this whole exercise, you start over and use quarter notes for the improvising rhythmic "denomination". And so one through accent 1 eighth notes, accent 2, accent3 , accent 4, accent 1 triplets, accent2 accent 3, 16ths etc.

This AIN'T quick; I've been studying with Joe for about 10 years now and I'm only up to accent 3 triplets with moving melody. But after about 7 or 8 months of starting this exercise (and a few others) , the amount of sense I made while improvising increase exponentially. And all the work I've put into really tearing apart these 4 tunes has translated into me being able to learn and play SO many more tunes. And has increased (along with the other ear training I'm doing) my ability to play tunes by hearing my way through them. If the piano player really knows the tune or if I can hear the melody in my head clearly enough , I can pretty much hear my way through the tune.


From Ed Fuqua, on Talk Bass
REALLY Learning a tune - TalkBass Forums

[Fassa Albrecht]

Thank you, that's very helpful!

[odin70]

I think you should begin with the music you like and not the idea that you need to learn all the tunes in real book. If you are into the music then you now which tunes you like...Work on them.Its better to know a couple of tunes really well. The real book can be handy on the bandstand, but other than that...i dont know.

[Ed Fuqua]

It seems like most people use the Real Book to replace those things on the side of their head. They're also very good for propping doors open....

[T-MOST]

Start with songs you like or at least have heard of... kinda Blue, Autumn leaves, Green Dolphin Street etc. I like to play the chords from the music. I'll pull the chords out of my bass chord dictionary and learn the songs that way too. I have a very good "fake" Book I use. I never play standards in my music circles but they are fun to know.

[MalcolmAmos]

Originally Posted by JTE

First, find some titles to stuff you like, or are very very common. For example, find "Autumn Leaves", "Four", "Satin Doll", etc.

Then use what you're learning from your jazz studies to work through them. Look for ii V I progressions in the songs, work out the arpeggios of the chords and how the chords related to each other, practice your walking skills with the progressions, learn the melody on bass, sing the melody while working through the arpeggios, etc. One good method is to start with the first chord and play through the chord tones from the lowest available (NOT NECESSARILY THE ROOT) for as many beats as that chord lasts. When the chord changes start the next chord on the next available chord tone (again, doesn't need to be the root). Keep doing that through the progression until you get to the 12th fret or so and then descend. Keep going up and down playing chord tones without regard to where the root lands until you've gone through the whole form three or four times. This is purely an exercise to get you hearing and finding chord tones all over.

Also, here's something I pulled from an old TB thread, it's by Ed Fuqua.

First let me say that this isn't anything that I came up with on my own, this is the approach my teacher uses that he got from his teacher, Lennie Tristano. And for what it's worth, I think ANYBODY at ANY LEVEL will benefit from studying one on one with a player who has a deeper understanding than they do. The following set of exercises work BEST when you have some objective, knowledgeable person who can listen to what you are doing and provide guidance to keep you moving in a focused and progressive direction.

I. PICK A TUNE - something from the "standard" repertoire; my 4 tunes are STELLA BY STARLIGHT, THESE FOOLISH THINGS, BODY AND SOUL and ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE. When you pick a tune, you want to find the most vanilla version of the melody that you can. Look in older "fake" books, pull it off some Judy Garland record whatever. The idea is to get as close to the composer's concept of melody and changes than you can. The REAL BOOK (old ones, not the Sher or Leonard versions) tend to contain somewhat dubious transcriptions of specific recordings; again the idea is to get the composer's idea, not Sonny Stitt's version of the composer's idea. Kind of like the game Telephone or doing a book report from reading somebody else's book report; you stand a better chance of coming up with "your" interpretation if you know what the actual original was.

II. LEARN THE MELODY - set the metronome at quarter note=60bpm and PLAY the melody through. Over and over and over and over and over and over so that you can SING the melody if somebody drags you out of your bed at 4am. Get off the paper as soon as you can, I've found that learning the lyric that goes with the melody is a great way to internalize the melody.

III. PLAY A CHORD LINE - what do I mean by "chord line"? Simply this, a line that arpeggiates the changes but with a couple of important parameters:
A. PROXIMITY - you want to use not only root position arpeggios but also all inversions to maintain "close" fingering and common voices through the tune. For example, a progression of D-7 G7/ Cmaj7 - instead of D F A C G B D F C E G B (root position, root position, root position) one choice could be D F A C D F G B C E G B (root, 2nd inversion, root).
B. IN TIME - the chord line should reflect the harmonic rhythm of the tune. If the chord lasts one bar, the chord line is quarter notes. If half a bar (two beats) the chord line is eighth notes. One beat would be 16ths, two bars would be half notes. Let me know if this is not clear.

IV. THE EXERCISE
A. With the 'nome at quarter-note=60bpm( and without the sheet), play one chorus of the melody and one chorus of the chord line, then one chorus of the melody. This is getting the sound of the melody and the sound of the changes in your ear.
B. For the purposes of this exercise, use the major scale for all major7th chords, the mixolydian for all dominant 7th chords and the Dorian for all minor chords. Play one chorus of melody, one chorus of chord line and then improvise one chorus of half notes, ending with one chorus of melody. The half note chorus should try to emphasize MELODY over BASS LINE, you are not "walking two feel" but building a melody. It may be a little mechanical at first, but once you relax and let your ear start telling your fingers what notes to use, you can really get to some nice melodic material. Again, this is MUCH harder to do without somebody listening to your progress form the outside, if you insist on doing this without a teacher, RECORD all of your exercises and listen to them without your instrument in your hands. When you get to the point that you are consistently creating some nice music with half notes, move to the next part of the exercise.
C. Play a chorus of melody, a chorus of chord line and then play 1 chorus in the following manner: the first 3 bars of each 8 bar section play the melody and then starting on beat ONE of bar 4 begin your improvised line of half notes. So you will have (in a 32 bar tune) 3 bars melody, 5 bars improvised, 3 bars melody, 5 bars improvised, 3 bars melody, 5 bars improvised, 3 bars melody, 5 bars improvised. Again, don't move on the first time you get this to sound like music, wait until you hit that every time.
D. As above, but the improvised chorus will have the 3 bars of melody dropped into a different place for each 8 bar segment( moving melody). That is, if you start the first 8 bars with melody, NO OTHER 8 bar section can start with melody.
E. As above, the improvised chorus now becomes only improvised half notes and rests. You should play (approximately) as many beats rest as you play measures of half note per 8 bar section.

V. When you've made it through this whole exercise, you start over and use quarter notes for the improvising rhythmic "denomination". And so one through accent 1 eighth notes, accent 2, accent3 , accent 4, accent 1 triplets, accent2 accent 3, 16ths etc.

This AIN'T quick; I've been studying with Joe for about 10 years now and I'm only up to accent 3 triplets with moving melody. But after about 7 or 8 months of starting this exercise (and a few others) , the amount of sense I made while improvising increase exponentially. And all the work I've put into really tearing apart these 4 tunes has translated into me being able to learn and play SO many more tunes. And has increased (along with the other ear training I'm doing) my ability to play tunes by hearing my way through them. If the piano player really knows the tune or if I can hear the melody in my head clearly enough , I can pretty much hear my way through the tune.


From Ed Fuqua, on Talk Bass
REALLY Learning a tune - TalkBass Forums

Excellent post. Yes pick your favorite songs and then go from there. Perhaps only 8 to 10 selections in the book will be of interest. Those should keep you busy for months. I especially liked; play a portion of the melody line then play a portion of the bass line, i.e. play both lines. I would not have done that, have to add that to my wood shedding.

[So Low Bass]

The Real Book, for example, is invaluable when the Uncle of the Brides mother comes up and asks you to play a tune that you never hear before. You can "fake it" and the Uncle will probably be pleased no matter what. (That's why I always had a large tip bowl. already primed with a couple of fins, within reach of the "Uncles".)

My 17 yr. old keyboardist son wants to pursue some aspect of music in College. He as a Nord 3 and a big old Yamaha that has a drum section. We sit down with the Real Book several times a week and do, for example "Girl from ipanema". He'll set the drums for bosa Nova, slow at first and we'll read through the tune as written... repeats, DS, codas, whatever. I know the tune in my sleep, but he's still learning.

For you, get a hold of a keyboard or drum machine that will lock you in to the box, start out slowly, don't allow yourself to stop and fix things, don't get lost! You'll get knocked off balance, as even a pro will, but don't fall! Do you have a keyboard or guitar buddy to practice with?

[enricogaletta]

I agree with the previous post, the best way to study the real book is find the tunes that yu like it, and then study the chord progression, memorize it, then work on the groove, usually jazz style and than work to improvising on it. for a best support you can use software as Band In a Box. Will be helpful to follow these steps.
Have a good work :-)
Cheers. Enrico
YouTube
WebSite

[Fassa Albrecht]

Originally Posted by So Low Bass

The Real Book, for example, is invaluable when the Uncle of the Brides mother comes up and asks you to play a tune that you never hear before. You can "fake it" and the Uncle will probably be pleased no matter what. (That's why I always had a large tip bowl. already primed with a couple of fins, within reach of the "Uncles".)
*snipped*
For you, get a hold of a keyboard or drum machine that will lock you in to the box, start out slowly, don't allow yourself to stop and fix things, don't get lost! You'll get knocked off balance, as even a pro will, but don't fall! Do you have a keyboard or guitar buddy to practice with?

I'm a keyboardist myself, so I could possibly record some sort of backing track on my keyboard's inbuilt recorder and use it as backing. I can even export it as MIDI to my friend's laptop and ProTools set up and then plug my bass into his interface and play 'live' as such.

[wrench45us]

there are a variety of real books out there -- real standrds etc.
I find it a lot easier to learn a song if the fake book has the lyrics

I really like the Sinatra fake book that's available (with lyrics)
BUT the keys have been changed -- generally lowered for Mr Sinatra's voice and the chords follow the Sinatra arrangements with upper structures noted rather than the 'vanilla' fake books. It's a bit of an eductaion in itself when I compare 'arrangements'
And for standards there's very little chaff in the selection

maybe consider for the next step

[PocketGroove82]

Step 1. Burn your Real Book.
Step 2. Check out Jazz CDs from your local library.
Step 3. Learn the tunes you like by ear.
Step 4. Collect Underpants.
Step 5. ...............
Step 6. Profit.

[shastaband]

Pick songs you like, as many have suggested. Then play them.
Over and over. Then play them some more. Repeat as needed.

I'm lucky to have an adventurous keyboardist and a soloist who plays flute, sax, and EWI wind synthesizer. We use an Alesis SR-18 drum machine and we play classic jazz songs with all kinds of beats. In a given evening, we'll play and record a single song as a bossa nova, a salsa number, a rock song, a funk groove, reggaeton, hiphop, even polka beats sometimes. It's a real challenge to make the changes work in different rhythms, but very rewarding . Also comical sometimes :-) And the beauty of really good jazz songs is that they WORK in all kinds of different arrangements and with different beats. The more times you go through the changes, the better you know them. The better you know them, the more you can improvise. Musical and jazz bliss . . .

[fdeck]

Don't let anybody beat you up for using a fake book. I developed a pretty good sized repertoire from fake books. I already had a good ear. Recently, I went back to my fake books, to practice reading treble clef.

Being able to perform directly from a lead sheet is also a good skill to practice.