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Real Book

S

SullyMan

Feb 10, 2007
5
0
#1
Hello All,
I'm looking to get my hands on my first real book. I noticed on eBay there are sellers that will sell you a link to download a .pdf file of the book. This leads me to believe that there may be a website out there where you can download it for free. Does anyone know of such a site. Also, I noticed that trhey sell real books for just bass. Would you reccomend that I get a bass book or a standard book and just read the chord progressions. Thanks all.

SullyMan
 
#2
SullyMan said:
Hello All,
I'm looking to get my hands on my first real book. I noticed on eBay there are sellers that will sell you a link to download a .pdf file of the book. This leads me to believe that there may be a website out there where you can download it for free. Does anyone know of such a site. Also, I noticed that trhey sell real books for just bass. Would you reccomend that I get a bass book or a standard book and just read the chord progressions. Thanks all.

SullyMan
Click to expand...

You can get the real book in treble cleff or bass cleff. It's up to your preference. Basically it has a bunch of songs which are chord charts with the melody written over top of em. The difference between the bass and treble versions is only the cleff the melody is written on.

I can't speak for a place online to find em.

They are very much illegal in terms of copyright stuff, so I'd be weary of buying them somewhere you aren't sure of. Many local music stores carry them, but not knowing where you live, it's hard to tell you where to go.
 
#3
Personally I'd recommend you get it in treble clef.

1) If you go to the gig and yer the only one with the book to throw on the stand it'd be better for everyone else if it's in treble.

2) It's a GREAT way to learn to read treble clef which is what 99% of the music world reads anyway. Great to know treble if you are going to pursue any advanced music education.

pssst -- available at most music stores. Ask for Barney out back
 
#4
Well I have one of each clef in book 1. Volume 2 and New Real Book I have in treble. I guess its good like you say to practice reading treble but I like having the bass book for good old wood shedding the heads.

I see online pdf versions pop up on the internet everyonce and a while but they get taken down in pretty short order. I think Hal Leonard's lawyers are doing their due diligence. For me it was worth it to plunk down the bux for the version 6 (current and legal) as the people I jam with tend to use those versions. I have versions 5 on CD in case I jam with some guys that want to go old school. (Version 5 has tunes in it that didn't want to participate in Hal Leonard's copyright arrangement). The pre-version 6 books you get the old fashion way. You find another Jazz musician who is willing to let you copy his.:hiding: :ninja:
 
#5
There are now legal versions of the old Real Book available. You can find them at any Sam Ash. If you're gonna buy one, you might want to buy those. I'd buy one in treble clef if I were you--it makes things easier if somebody else wants to read off your book, and it can only help you to be comfortable with treble clef.

IMO, however, the various books put out by Chuck Sher's company (the New Real Books etc.) are noticeably superior in just about every way. Better copying, better production, and more accurate/better changes and notes. And there's never been any question about the legality of those--they've been on the up-and-up since the very first one (The World's Greatest Fake Book).

www.shermusic.com
 
#6
fish slapper said:
I guess its good like you say to practice reading treble but I like having the bass book for good old wood shedding the heads.
Click to expand...
If you're replying to my post I was talkin' killing two birds with one stone. Learning the tunes and learning to read the heads in treble clef so as to get fluent sight reading treble.

I copied a bunch of tunes from my piano player's Aebersold books in bass clef (since one has this option with Aebersold stuff). I was sitting there learning the heads and saying to myself, "Self - you shoulda copied these in treble so's you could be learnin' to sight treble at the same time".

Just a suggestion, YMMV!
 
#7
ryco said:
If you're replying to my post I was talkin' killing two birds with one stone. Learning the tunes and learning to read the heads in treble clef so as to get fluent sight reading treble.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but as a DB player I spend a fair amount of time with Simandle so my brain on upright is wired for Bass clef. I'm working on the switching back and forth. I agree that sight reading treble clef is great skill but hey, we're BASS players.:smug:
 
#8
I got a disk of all the Real Books from a guy on eBay. Its worth it. 25 years ago I got a Real Book and I suppose its not the legal kind. It has been a constant resource for me, invaluable...and it cost $30 in 1979. Now for the same number of dollars I got all three volumes of Real Book in Treble, Bass, Bb and Eb transpositions... plus 7 other fake books. I love it.

I guess some players are taking laptops to gigs and reading the sheets from that, sounds OK to me. The only downside of the Real Books on disk is you have to do that, or print each chart that you want. But that's not so bad, you can make a book that is smaller in size than a Real Book, and it has only the tunes you are using at the time.
 
#9
Hey all,
I ordered a CD from ebay with 45 different fake books on it. It has all th versions in all the keys plus the bass versions. If anyone wants any books i'll be happy to try and e-mail you the .pdf files. Let me know.
 
#12
Richard Lindsey said:
There are now legal versions of the old Real Book available. You can find them at any Sam Ash. If you're gonna buy one, you might want to buy those. I'd buy one in treble clef if I were you--it makes things easier if somebody else wants to read off your book, and it can only help you to be comfortable with treble clef.

IMO, however, the various books put out by Chuck Sher's company (the New Real Books etc.) are noticeably superior in just about every way. Better copying, better production, and more accurate/better changes and notes. And there's never been any question about the legality of those--they've been on the up-and-up since the very first one (The World's Greatest Fake Book).

www.shermusic.com
Click to expand...


++ 1
check it out
and you can get a play-along for the whole volume
 
#13
I'm already fluent on treble (I learned music on clarinet)...

My store has a Real Book 6th edition bass clef in Volumes one and two... with my employee discount, I'd get both for about 24 bucks. Is it worth it to get two volumes?

-Ted
 
#15
if you're going to get one, you might as well get all three - there's a lot of obscure stuff in each one. there's also a "standards" real book out now that just has the most commonly played tunes - I haven't checked it out yet but it sounds like a great idea.
 

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