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"fake" book?!

#3
Originally posted by LoJoe
...or "fake" your way through them with some degree of competence.
Click to expand...

I was under the impression that the "fake" aspect came into play as they were mostly illegally made- that is, they were songs copied down and sold (or traded) without copyright consent, etc. Thus, the "legit" copies became "real" books.

But I very well could be wrong.
 
#4
You're probably right and that is probably the real reason they are called "Fake", I just came up with the "fake your way through" expression on my own since that is what I have used them for sometimes when given 5 minutes notice to have a song ready to play that I've never played before. For example our keyboad player has a Christmas Fake Book that has allowed me to fake my way though several times in the past couple of weeks.
 
#6
i believe (could be wrong) that the real book is exactly from the recordings of the songs. The fake book parts have the songs in different keys. they no longer sell true real books because there was a big copywrite problem. the fake book avoids this problem. that is my understanding of it. I can play along with my real book to cd's etc. but not with a fake book without chankging the key.
 
#7
'the real book' is the black listed, illegal one of myth, most music stores have them, but you gotta ask under the counter like.

however, 'the new real book' series, offer legal alternatives, most of the transcriptions and lead sheets have been redone, and are more complete and useful than the days of 'the real book'

there are many different fake books, and those provide the skeleton structure or some changed notes/chords/key so that you can 'fake' your way thru a song.
 

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