"Real Book", "Fake Book", what does it mean?? Fake book?? Are the pages blank? Is it hollowed out?

[smurfco]

I see these terms and I never understand anything because I am so stupid as to be almost comatose. What does this "real book" mean and what is a "fake book" as they call it, that makes no sense? They all look like real books to me, is a fake book like a cardboard box that is glued shut and painted to look like a book for a movie set or a high school play? (Godspell) Please help me to understand this as I am asking seriously what these things are!

 

[Devil is Dill]

"Fake book? You mean like THE BIBLE?!?!?" *tips fedora, wonders why girl at the coffee shop next to the comic store never notices me*

 

[Honkridge]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_sheet



Fake Doll? Real Doll?

 

[ColourofFire]

I've never heard it, but it sounds like something only pretentious douchebags would say to somehow tell you the book you're reading is not as intellectually valid as whatever edgelord book they're into.

 

[dodgechargerfan]

Fake books are real.
Real books are real.

There is no real fakery in music.
Except Milli Vanilli.
If you’re playing’, you’re playing’ for real.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Book

 

[Tralfaz]

I assumed everyone has at least one of the Fake Book volumes or the non-bootleg Real Book equivalent. They're handy for old jazz standards and corny old tunes that you'll play halfway through once and then never again.

 

[Rick 381]

 

[dodgechargerfan]

I did actually learn something in all of this.

At some point, a long time ago, I was taught that a fake sheet was a representation of the song structure, the chords, the changes, etc... enough for someone to fake their way through the song.
From that, I assumed a fake book was a collection of fake sheets.

No specific genre of music was mentioned.

 

[dodgechargerfan]

Yeah. Like that.

 

[DdBob]

mods...can we please move this to the political forum....thganks

 

[smurfco]

Wwwhhhyyyyyyy

 

[B Valley]

 

[Rick 381]

Wwwhhhyyyyyyy

Why not?

 

[smurfco]

Why not?

Why is it fake?? What is fake about these???

 

[Help!I'maRock!]

Why is it fake?? What is fake about these???

They’re shorthand charts instead of real charts. None of the really expensive chords are included.

 

[Rick 381]

They allow you to fake your way through a song if you don't know it. I've seen bands that take requests use them when people want songs they don't know. Although now you can just pull the info up on your iPad.

 

[smurfco]

Ohhhhhh ok that makes sense

 

[Modern Saint]

Real Book -

For more than 40 years, the Real Book has been the go-to resource for jazz musicians playing jazz standards and classics from the Great American Songbook. You’ll find this ubiquitous tome on music stands the world over, from club and “society” gigs to practice rooms and jam sessions. This is its story.

In 1975, a few students at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, tired of the illegible and somewhat irrelevant fake books available to music students at the time, set about transcribing popular jazz tunes pertinent to the time into handwritten charts. Riffing on the title of a popular Cambridge street paper called the Real Paper and the concept of taking “fake” books to the next level, the Real Book was born.

https://officialrealbook.com/history/

Fake Book -

A Fake book is book that contains music sheets for songs. Usually they contain chords and melody, but sometimes lyrics as well. These kind of books are really famous for jazz repertoire, but there have also been fake books for blues/latin/rock etc

 

[335clone]

It's about jazz, so nobody cares.

 

[Tralfaz]

I have that Ultimate Fake Book. The back cover lists a handful of tunes like "My Funny Valentine" and "You'll Never Walk Alone," but when you crack it open it's 90% shit like "My Yiddish Momme" and "The Tinker Polka."