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Reddit mentions of The Real Book: Sixth Edition

Sentiment score: 30
Reddit mentions: 55

We found 55 Reddit mentions of The Real Book: Sixth Edition. Here are the top ones.

The Real Book: Sixth Edition
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    Features:
  • The Real Books are the best-selling jazz books of all time
  • Since the 1970s, musicians have trusted these volumes to get them through every gig, night after night
  • The problem is that the books were illegally produced and distributed, without any regard to copyright law, or royalties paid to the composers who created these musical masterpieces
  • Hal Leonard is very proud to present the first legitimate and legal editions of these books ever produced
  • You wont even notice the difference, other than all the notorious errors being fixed the covers and typeface look the same, the song list is nearly identical, and the price for our edition is even cheaper than the original! Every conscientious musician will appreciate that these books are now produced accurately and ethically, benefitting the songwriters that we owe for some of the greatest tunes of all time! The Real Books are the best-selling jazz books of all time
Specs:
Height10.8 Inches
Length9 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateSeptember 2004
Weight2.85 Pounds
Width1.1 Inches

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Found 55 comments on The Real Book: Sixth Edition:

u/meepwned · 21 pointsr/Guitar

My suggestion is to learn on your own, and if you choose to go to college, pursue a major that has more profitable career options. Minor in music theory and invest your free time in practicing your instrument. Here is a reading list I recommend to start getting into serious music study and guitar playing:

u/el_guerro · 17 pointsr/Guitar

http://www.amazon.com/The-Real-Book-Sixth-Edition/dp/0634060384

It's a collection of jazz standards. A must-have for anyone who plays even a little bit of jazz, but it's definitely not something you could learn jazz guitar from without another aid.

u/InSomeOtherWords · 11 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

So many people seem to have this idea that they're just going to "learn theory." Like that's it.

Like there will be this AHA I NOW KNOW THE MUSICAL THEORY I CAN NOW WRITE THE MUSIC.

But in all seriousness. Yeah you will learn theory. If music is going to be a life long pursuit you will never STOP learning theory. Unless you're not serious about it. Then you might just learn what I IV V means write some pop songs and stop there. I digress..

First thing. Learn to read music. DO NOT READ TAB. Learn all the notes on the fret board. Not like you can count up to it and realize that something is a C. Like you KNOW IT. Point to it and you know what note it is. Start reading music here.

Another good way to learn the notes on the fretboard is to pick 4 triads of different qualities. One major, one minor, one diminished, and one augmented triad and play them in all inversions in all positions on the neck while saying the note names. And then pick 4 new triads the next day. Do not just learn the shapes. This will probably take you 2 hours on your first day if you're as thorough as you should be.

If you don't know what any of that means that's fine for now. Those are some pretty basic concepts that you'll learn pretty soon if you're serious about this.

This guy knows his shit. Learn from him. Take it slow. Don't just watch the video and go "Yeah that makes sense." You need to KNOW IT. Drill the concepts a few hours a day.

You could buy a music text book.

Or get an actual guitar teacher. I'd recommend learning jazz because unlike a lot of rock or pop players they actual know their shit about theory and their instrument. You kinda have to know your shit to play jazz. Either that or classical. But jazz theory is more in line with modern music.

Segway: Buy a Real Book

Start off in there with Autumn Leaves or something else easy.

If you're really beginner-y start here.

While that guy's course is good it really focuses on technique. You learn basically no theory from that guy. Just shapes and tabs. Doesn't even use standard notation. His jazz course is ok. It's on his side bar.

This guy's stuff is good for a beginner in jazz. But a beginner in jazz is not exactly beginner level for some other genres. I think you need a pretty solid level of understanding to understand what he's talking about.

That should get you started..

[Edit] Some people have this disconnect. They think that learning theory is somehow separate from song writing. Learning theory will open so many doors to you and show you why and how things work. So that you can actually understand what you're doing.

If I wanted to build a house I could just jump in and start building a house. I'd probably come across a lot of problems. My first house might suck and have a leaky roof or bad plumbing or something. But I could probably learn a long the way. Maybe after I build a ton of crappy houses I could figure out for myself why things work.

Or.. I could look through the writings of the millions of house builders that came before me and see what they found out works and what doesn't. Then maybe my first house will have some issues and it might not be so easy to pull off but I'd be better off learning from the people who came before me than trying to figure it out myself. By doing this I have just saved myself the time of trying to rediscover the wheel so to speak.

That's what learning theory will do for you.

u/mafoo · 8 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

I'm assuming you're in high school. If you get a chance, go see your All-state (or All-region) Jazz Band. See how you fare against those guys. Also, chances are you are going to need to know how to read music, have some chart-reading skills, and improvisation chops. For guitar, bass, or drums, they are going to expect you to know jazz fundamentals. Pick up a Real Book, learn some charts and be able to hold your own in a combo.

u/CrownStarr · 8 pointsr/piano

Thing is, that sort of thinking doesn't really work too well in jazz - there isn't really "repertoire" in the same sense as in classical music. Some standards are more complex than others, sure, but the difficulty is really what you make of it. In jazz, you generally work from what are called "lead sheets", where all you have is the melody and the chords. Here's one for When I Fall in Love. Pretty simplistic, right? Here's Oscar Peterson playing it. The lead sheet is the basic framework for what he's playing, but all the embellishment and runs and extra chords and everything is just coming from him. So you can't really say whether When I Fall in Love is an "easy" standard or not.

As for how to learn, the single best way is to get a teacher. But if you just want to start dabbling, I would suggest getting some books of transcriptions of famous jazz pianists, just to start getting the feel and sound of it in your mind. Those books will have real performances transcribed note-for-note, so you don't need to know how to read lead sheets or improvise to play them. I would also check out Mark Levine's Jazz Piano Book to start learning the theory behind it all, and a Real Book to start practicing with. If you're good at teaching yourself things, the combination of those two books will give you years and years of material.

But I want to re-emphasize that getting some kind of teacher or mentor will help enormously. It's good for classical music, as you know, but jazz is even more like learning a foreign language, because it's improvised. If you just want to dabble for fun, that's fine, but if you get serious about jazz, find someone to guide you, even if it's just an hour a month.

u/Jongtr · 6 pointsr/musictheory

Listen to as much as you can.

Play as much as you can. I.e., ideally, listen and copy.

Books are OK to learn from, but make sure they are songbooks. The Real Book (Vol.1) in particular is the bible of jazz repertoire. There's years (a lifetime?) of work and learning there.

I really don't recommend any jazz theory books, although there are some good ones out there. Just remember the old jazz masters - everyone's heroes - didn't have jazz theory books, or jazz college courses. They learned on the job. Listening and copying, trial and error.

Improvisation is about (a) learning your instrument thoroughly (chords especially), and (b) amassing plenty of melodic vocabulary. That consists of two kinds of stuff: (1) composed melodies from jazz standards (hence the Real Book); (2) licks from favourite jazz solos (hence all the listening and copying).

Whatever tune you improvise on, you don't need any additional theory knowledge. You need to know how to play the tune (melody and chords - not necessarily both at the same time), and the ways in which jazz musicians typically play around with that material: the kinds of sounds and phrases and embellishments they typically play. The material you need - the "what" - is all in the tune, and what you do with it - the "how" - is in all those jazz recordings.

In particular, you can add passing chromatics pretty much anywhere you like - a lot of jazz theory is about various concepts or systems of chromaticism, but you can use your ear, especially if you've heard enough jazz to know the "accent of the language".

But lastly, the fundamental thing you will really miss if doing all this on your own is the interaction with other musicians. Jazz is a conversation. Soloists improvise against a backing, but that "backing" (rhythm section) is constantly responding to the soloist too. Moreover - as a pianist in a band - you need comping skills, which is about being economical, minimal, behind a soloist. I definitely recommend finding at least one other musician to jam with - a horn player is ideal, but any other instrument would do.

Apologies to those who've seen this guy too many times already, but take a look at some of these videos.

u/hhtm153 · 5 pointsr/Guitar

If you're into jazz, get yourself a Real Book! It's reasonably basic sheet music, and full of classics.

u/pianoboy · 5 pointsr/piano

The word you're probably looking for is "accompaniment". However, you probably don't want to search using this term.

Any popular music that is published is usually arranged for "Piano/Vocal/Guitar", and I don't really know of a standard term for this type of sheet music. For what this looks like, check out any of the popular sheets on http://musicnotes.com. These are arranged so that you can play the song as a piano solo if you want, but if you want to just accompany someone else or play in a band, you would just look at the guitar chords placed above each line of music (e.g. "G", "Cm7", "D", "Bsus4").

The other type of notated music used for accompaniment is called a "lead sheet". This has only the solo line (the tune/melody of the song) and the chords. So it's basically just the top half of what you see in a "piano/vocal/guitar" arrangement.

The other term you'll see is "Fake Book". A Fake book is just a book containing a large number of lead sheets. If you're playing jazz, the most popular book of lead sheets for jazz standards is called "The Real Book".

Finally, on many "guitar tab" sites, you can find just the chords for songs (although there are often lots of errors). Look for versions that say "chords" instead of "tabs". Here's an example

No matter what type of sheet music you're looking at, if you're playing with others, you'll need to learn to play by reading chord symbols instead of notes on a staff. When searching for music, you'd want to include one of these terms: "chords", "tabs", "sheets", "lead sheet", "fake book", "piano". Don't worry too much exactly what type of sheet music you get, even if it's for solo piano; as long as there are chord symbols on it, that's all you need.

Here is a list of links for you to get started:

u/aderra · 5 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

Get a copy of The Real Book and start learning songs. This isn't a hardcore technique workout but more of a way to A)build repertoire and B)get your hands more familiar with playing jazz changes.

u/OnaZ · 5 pointsr/piano

Well it sounds like it's time for you to learn a new skill: accompaniment. Just because the melody is written out for you doesn't mean that you have to play it.

Start by playing bass notes in your left hand and two or three note chords in your right hand. Find a fakebook (or some online leadsheets) and figure out how to play from chords. You need to start moving away from printed sheet music and towards understanding how chords and accompaniment work.

If you find a specific song you would like to work on, feel free to post it and I would happy to talk you through how to approach accompaniment.

u/tmwrnj · 5 pointsr/Guitar

I'd recommend Jazz Guitar: Complete Edition by Jody Fisher. It covers all the important topics in a fairly straightforward way and comes with a CD of examples and backing tracks. It's aimed at intermediate guitarists, but your experience should be sufficient.

The old standard was Mickey Baker's Jazz Guitar, but I'm not a huge fan. The learning curve is extremely steep and there's not a great deal of theory or explanation. It'd be a really useful companion to lessons with a teacher, but I think that most beginners would really struggle with it.

A good alternative to the Jody Fisher book is A Modern Method For Guitar by William Leavitt. The learning curve is fairly gradual, but it's tough going - everything is written in standard notation and there's no real instruction as such. It seems to be inspired by the Suzuki method. Everything is taught through progressively more demanding examples. You probably won't get stuck on anything, but you will need to do a bit of thinking to figure stuff out for yourself.

If you want to learn jazz theory in depth, I'd strongly recommend Jazzology by Rawlins and Bahha. It's the clearest, most elegant explanation of how everything fits together in jazz. It's not specifically written for guitar, but the theory is universal. The Jody Fisher book covers all the theory that you really need to know, but Jazzology would be a really good supplement if you like to understand things in detail.

In your jazz guitar journey, you'll probably come across The Real Book. It's an essential reference text, containing lead sheets for hundreds of the most popular jazz tunes. It's how most of us learned our repertoire and most of us still have a copy in our gig bag pocket. Today, you have a huge advantage in learning tunes because of the fabulous iReal Pro. It's an app version of The Real Book, but it can also play backing tracks for any tune in any key and at any tempo. It's an absolute boon when you're learning to play solos.

Finally, I'd suggest just listening to a whole bunch of jazz, not just jazz guitar. You should know Joe Pass, Ted Greene and Wes Montgomery, but you should also know Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie.

u/TauRads · 4 pointsr/piano

The Real Book is what most people that I know use when jamming with other musicians.

u/xtracounts · 4 pointsr/AskReddit

This + This

also

http://www.learnjazzstandards.com/

plus listen a bunch

(not a pianist, just fiddle with piano enough to help myself)

u/Marionberry_Bellini · 3 pointsr/jazzguitar

There are a ton of fake books out there, I would suggest buying one called The Real Book Sixth Edition. It's the most popular one to my knowledge and is a great resource. I'd say its a little better for developing harmony than it is melody (since most melody that actually gets played in jazz is soloing), but it's a great tool for familiarizing yourself with jazz standards as well as seeing what kind of chords appear in jazz and how they function

u/MeisterKarl · 3 pointsr/piano

Jazz is a very wide subject. There are some good Real Books you might wanna buy to learn some jazz standards:

The Real Book
http://www.amazon.com/The-Real-Book-Sixth-Edition/dp/0634060384

The Real Book vol. 2 Low Voice
http://www.amazon.com/Real-Vocal-Book-Vol-Voice/dp/1423451236/

u/Broomoid · 3 pointsr/Bass

I'd probably suggest this one, or maybe this one

In terms of walking bass, the only to get better at it is unfortunately just to keep working at it. Start on a not-too-complicated tune such as Satin Doll, or something else with lots of II-V-I progressions in it, or a 12-bar blues, and work up to more complicated charts.

Here's a "quick and dirty" method to work out some walking bass lines. It's a bit simplistic perhaps, but it will at least get you started, and it does work. Assuming a 4/4 time sig:

ON BARS WHERE THERE ARE TWO CHORDS PER BAR:

Beats 1 & 3: On the beats where the chords fall (1 & 3) play the root (at least at first).
Beats 2 & 4: On the other beats (2 & 4) play an approach note that gets you to the root of the next chord, so a note either a half-step or whole step above the note you want to get to. Use your ear to judge which is best. So if the chord on beat 3 is G7, on beat 2 you could play either A, Ab, F# or F.

ON BARS WHERE THERE IS ONLY ONE CHORD PER BAR:

Beat 1: Play the root (again, at first)
Beat 4: Play an approach note as above, so either a half or whole step above or below, whichever sounds best.
Beats 2 & 3: You have a few options:

a. outline the chord notes. For example root, 3, 5 then, or root, 3, 5 then to your approach note.

b. move by step (don't be afraid of chromatic notes, you'd be surprised how often they work). So going from Dmi7 to G7 you could move up be step playing D, E, F, F#.

c. Try going from the root on the first beat up or down to the 5th on the second beat, then keep going in the same direction to the root an octave above or below on the third, before hitting your approach notes.

d. Do something else entirely.

So a sample bassline for the first 8 bars of Satin Doll might look something like this. Note that in the last bar it moves completely by step while in the three bars before that it uses that root-fifth-root pattern. Obviously that's just one way to do it. When you're new to walking bass and learning a tune don't try and go right through straight away. Get from bar 1 to bar 2, then from 1 to 4, and so on. Build it up in stages, and try different ways to get there. If you can figure out how to get up by step to the next chord, then try moving down by step the next time.

Now, before anyone tells me that I am the awful spawn of satan and I have killed Jazz by explaining things this way and thus downvoting me to the diminished 7th circle of Hell, I know it's a very simple way of explaining it, I also know that walking bass can be a wonderfully nuanced thing with infinite variety. But we've got to start somewhere and the above will work. As with everything, the ear has to be the final judge.

u/byproxy · 3 pointsr/Guitar

Pick yourself up one of these and start playing around with the tunes.

u/Poes_Law_in_Action · 3 pointsr/Learnmusic

A fake book is just a book of lead sheets. A lead sheet is the chords and melody of a song with usually little else. They're called fake books because they can be used to fake a tune one does't really know. By and large, the most popular jazz fake book is called the Real Book. There are 3 volumes and 5 editions; it was produced by students at Berklee School of Music in the 70's. That jazz style that is so often in music notation software is based on the Real book's handwritten sheets. It's illegal as the songs are unlicensed, but Hal Leonard has created a 6th edition that is updated and fully licensed. You can get it at amazon. You can find versions of the original at your local seedy music store and online with a bit of searching. There are a whole bunch of others. One really excellent one is the New Real Book published by Sher. The tunes are dead accurate and contain most of the arrangements.

u/sinemetu1 · 3 pointsr/Guitar

For jazz get a Real Book.

u/Xnense · 2 pointsr/piano

I live on the pacific coast so I can’t help with the teacher part but I have just started jazz piano about a six months ago after playing piano for a year, I feel that you should first familiarize yourself with piano in any way you can before moving into jazz and paying for lessons, once you’re experienced you should buy the sixth edition of the real book and learn how to read jazz standards. These are songs that are in the book (400+ songs) are classics that pretty much all experienced jazz musicians can pick up on and can play along to. It’ll only have the melody on the chords to go along with it, you should learn the melody and play it the way you feel is best and play around with it and then harmonize it with the chords. Once you get familiar with this you should try your best to solo over it along with the chords, you might sound like ass but you’ll have to practice to get an ear for soloing, eventually you’ll get better and pick up and learn techniques. One of my favorite jazz pianist YouTubers made a great video that gives a list of some of the easier jazz standards that are mostly in the real book, they are great for gaining a foundation in jazz. It’s important that you know how to play all types of chords to best play jazz standards, if you’re interested message me and I’ll send you directions for a good exercise for this. Lastly when learning jazz standards it’s best to listen to the song and the chord changes a lot first to get a feel for the song, learning the vocals also helps with expression. Once you get a foothold for all of these basics then you should look for a teacher, I suggest taking a few months before that.

u/stanley_bobanley · 2 pointsr/guitarlessons

Get The Real Book and work on the easy-to-read stuff.

Most tunes don't stick to a single key, but many do feature an A section in a single key at least. So you could work on reading in the easier keys of C, G and F major at first, and just sticking to the parts you can read. A byproduct of this will be your increasing awareness of where the white keys are on your fretboard, which is a phenomenal skill to develop.

As you grow increasingly comfortable reading, you can add keys with up to 4 sharps and flats (D, Bb, A, Eb, E, Ab). Many of the tunes in the Real Book are in F, Bb, Eb and Ab (and their respective relative minors) so you'll have a ton of options here =)

u/scippie · 2 pointsr/piano

Several years ago, I was in your same position. I finished my classical training and wanted to learn to play exactly this same kind of music I had been hearing in my head for years. Sadly enough, it's not as easy as it sounds...

You already have a basic understanding of music. This is really the basics. When you are going to play jazz, you need to know a lot more: chords, scales, chord progressions, chord substitutions, fillers, rhythm (and playing out of rhythm while having an inner rhythm), ear training, ...

You can't learn that from sheet music or even books about jazz. Find a teacher! He will most likely talk about The Real Book that is filled with this kind of music. You will first learn to play exactly what's on the sheet, but then the important stuff starts, knowing how to change the sheet so that it becomes your own jazz piece with improvisation and things like that. It will take years to get there, believe me. But it's absolutely worth it.

Good luck with it! Don't waste your time (cos that's what you will do) and find a teacher!

u/redderritter · 2 pointsr/piano

Get a copy of the Real Book and look up what the songs should sound like on youtube, then play them. http://www.amazon.com/Real-Book-Hal-Leonard-Corporation/dp/0634060384

u/jbachman · 2 pointsr/makinghiphop

Get a Real Book and find progressions in there. Use them directly or let it inspire you to create lines of your own. You can also find a lot of jazz lead sheets online.

u/ChuckEye · 2 pointsr/Guitar

Yes, they've got both the lead line (melody) and the chords above them. They're really the industry standard for jazz — you'll see them on any music stand for a gigging combo. 6th Edition is probably the best place for you to start. (A given song might look like this.)

u/cbg · 2 pointsr/Guitar

Get a Real Book. There isn't anything in the way of explanation or instruction, but you'll learn many tunes and you'll begin to see common progressions (e.g., ii-V-I) and modulations (e.g., between relative minor and major) quickly. Also, you'll expand your chord vocabulary substantially if you master the many alterations and interesting extended chords that show up in there. Substitutions are a little harder to see w/o direction, I think, and sometimes aren't included in the charts.

u/danw1989 · 2 pointsr/Woodshed

Get your hands on some improvisation books. Doesn't necessarily mean they all have to be just guitar books...jazz theory books will come in handy for any musician. Get your hands on a Real Book Listen to great performers - I'll suggest Pat Metheny, John Scofield, and Herb Ellis for starters. Become really familiar with their music and the way they improvise... when you hear little bits and pieces of things they do and you like them, write them out - transcribe. Hearing and practicing these will enable you to incorporate them into your improvisation, and the more you study and 'shed your heart out, the more you will pick up on how great improvisors do their thing.

Also, practice all your scales... slowly. When you are transcribing, you'll be surprised how much easier it is when you have a good understanding of every type of scale and how they are used (theory books will explain).

Hope this helps. Cheers.

u/valier_l · 2 pointsr/explainlikeimfive

You say you play an instrument so I'll work under the assumption you have a basic understanding of chords/chord professions.

There are many different types of "jazz" music and ensembles- big band, Dixieland, Latin fusion, etc. but based on your question I'm guessing you're asking more about small combo-improv-heavy Jazz.

The basic idea is that you have a chord progression and typically a melody is played once or twice, then followed by improv solos. These solos work within and around that same chord progression.

A good way to get started is to pick a song you like, find the chord progression, and start practicing the notes on repeat. Don't try to play in tempo, just go through each chord and play the scale. Then start over and do the same thing but do scale in thirds instead. Then do arpeggios. Then start to embellish a little. Another great learning technique is to listen to pros solo on a song you like, then try to mimic their licks.

If you're looking for a good place to find chord progressions for pretty much every jazz standard, get yourself a [Real Book](The Real Book: Sixth Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0634060384/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_sI1oxbFVNBDBW)

Fair warning: improv has a VERY long learning curve. You'll probably suck at first. That's okay.

u/carrypikring · 2 pointsr/Bass

I think this is what's meant:

https://www.amazon.com/Real-Book-Fake-Books-Leonard/dp/0634060384

It's a book full of literally hundreds of 'standards' and songs for around ~20 dollars. I am also starting to learn some jazz, and it's one of the most helpful things I've found. What I like to do is find versions of the songs on YouTube, and listen to how the bass player fits in their line with the other parts, and try to play along -- even if it's just the root notes from the chord diagrams!

The history of the book is fascinating, too - Adam Neely has an interesting vid on YouTube.

Have fun!

u/jaeger_meister · 2 pointsr/drums

Yeah, the particular album with Oscar Peterson isn't the best for study - as you won't be able to listen to what an experienced jazz drummer would do in those situations - but it is a great practice tool since drumless jazz recordings are so rare. In particular I love "Pennies from Heaven", it's a great mid-tempo swing to jam along with. And if you can work up to up-tempo swing, "I want to be Happy" is a serious workout. 7 minutes of 250 bpm spang-a-lang to really build those chops.

Oh, and if you haven't yet, invest in a copy of the real book and encourage your friends to as well. You can flip to almost any random page and have a great jam sesh. And with a little rehearsal you can gig those tunes as well. Not the most avant-garde stuff, but you've got to start somewhere :) Now go give that ride a good spank for me. Happy jazzing!

u/mscman · 1 pointr/Music

Autumn leaves!

Seriously though, this is a hard one to say what the "bread and butter" progressions are. Everyone has their own taste. I would do what theStork said and get yourself the Real Book and start there. Vol. I and II are usually what most musicians have, but there are other real/fake books too. That, combined with listening to lots of jazz should help a lot.

You might also look into getting some of the Aebersold books or some other guitar books on voicings, they would help you out getting started. Finally, a good mentor/teacher is irreplaceable...

u/dudebrahman · 1 pointr/Jazz

Link to The Real Book in case you're interested.

u/saksofonisti · 1 pointr/saxophone

You can never go wrong with getting a real book but make sure you order it in the right key

u/BachStrad700 · 1 pointr/trumpet

I'd suggest picking up Arban's method, as that contains a pretty good range of abilities. You can probably find it online. As well, the Real Book contains melodies and chord changes for many different jazz standards. You're going to want the Bb edition.

u/chunter16 · 1 pointr/musictheory

Oh, good point. It would amount to a lot of import tax depending on where you live.

If you're really just starting, have you exhausted all the stuff in The Real Book yet?

https://www.amazon.com/Real-Book-Hal-Leonard-Corporation/dp/0634060384

I'd at least expect Girl From Ipanema, Speak Low, and some Bacharach tunes to be in it.

As another starting point, learn how to finger shapes like Amaj7 and Amaj9 and such, but still be able to finger or open string play the root and fifth as your own bass line. What makes it tricky is that the bass is playing root-5 quarters while the other strings are playing the clave. You'll want to have this down before you play a song.

If you don't know how to play fingerstyle, I'm not sure how to teach that in a Reddit comment.

u/Astrixtc · 1 pointr/Bass

I was in a similar position a few years ago. I grew up playing trombone and guitar. I went to theory camps, and studied in college. In jazz, it's all mental at first. You have to know your theory and know it well. For now, go buy a real book, not a face book, or Steve's collection of jazz standards, or any other book. You need This one. It's the one everyone else will be using, so you might as well be on the same page. I'd recommend by looking it over, and making sure you understand what all of the chord symbols mean, and how to play over them. Once you figure that out, you can start putting together lines. If you have the budget for two books, then the other one you need is This one.

u/hansgreger · 1 pointr/piano

Once again, thanks for the fantastic reply! I understand perfectly fine now (I think). I hadn't heard of this Real Book you mention at the end, I assume it's this one: http://www.amazon.com/The-Real-Book-Sixth-Edition/dp/0634060384 ? Is it just jazz chord sheets with the melody written on or how do they work? Because I suck too hard to improvise the rest anyways so it's probably not worth it anyways in that case haha

u/Run_nerd · 1 pointr/piano

The Real Book is a popular one. I've also heard good things about the New Real Book.

u/[deleted] · 1 pointr/Guitar

To be honest I got previous editions back when they were all illegal for free as a uni student a long time ago, but I'll find the good ones for you or the purchasable equivalent, hold up.

Alright, from what I can see these look virtually the same as my 5th edition ones, and have the added benefit of not looking like they were written by a 12 year old with a black texta.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Real-Book-Sixth-Edition/dp/0634060384/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414545331&sr=8-1&keywords=real+book+1

http://www.amazon.com/The-Real-Book-Volume-Edition/dp/063406021X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414545817&sr=8-1&keywords=real+book+2

http://www.amazon.com/The-Real-Book-Instruments-Edition/dp/0634061364/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414545881&sr=8-1&keywords=real+book+3

The first book has like 420 pages or something worth of tunes, so I probably wouldn't bother buying the other ones until much later.

There's also stuff like the colorado cookbook, although I don't like them as much because I think they're a bit too graphic in terms of chord placements/rhythm etc.

u/Issac_ClarkeThe6th · 1 pointr/piano

Can’t comment on the Hanon, but I do have a recommendation you may be interested in. I’ve been playing classical for a while, but in the last year decided to take jazz improv on top of it. There are a few things that if you really work at then will show stellar results.

First thing is chord voicing, these are truly your bread and butter as a jazz pianist. If you ever play in a group, then these will give you a great sound with many many options to choose from.

It would take a very long time to write out a bunch of voicings, but here’s an example. For major chords there are two main interchangeable voicings which we’ll simply refer to as A and B voicings..
-A voicing is formed by starting at the root, then moving up a major third, then building a minor 7th chord. For example C root, then E minor 7. If you look at it, you’re really just playing the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th. You can drop the root once you learn minor and dominance chord voicings, but seeing not only the expanded C major chord, as well as the chord writhin a chord (E Minor 7 within the C major 9) is extremely helpful.

-B voicing is a major third up from the root, then a minor 7th chord, finally inverted twice. This will give you another voicing option so you don’t use the same chords over and over. Now for any major chord, you have three options (Root, Rootless A, Rootless B).

There are more chord voicing beyond that, but that brief example should give you an idea of what’s out there. There are A and B voicings for Major, Minor, and Dominant chords, with Dominant chords having many many options.

For now I would recommend learning you major 7th, dominant 7th, and minor 7th chords in all 12 keys. Play the root an octave lower, then with both hands play the given rootless voicing above it. This will give you an excellent foundation to build from.

Next most important thing is Modes and Scales. Each chord has a corresponding scale with notes that will sound great over a particular chord. Again due to the vast array of options, I’ll give you a starting place to go from.
-Major chords can be paired with major scales. Pretty cut and dry.

-Minor chords will be paired with the mode Dorian. Dorian is similar to a minor scale, but instead of being formed with a flating the 3rd, 6th, 7th Of any major scale, it’s formed by flating the 3rd and 7th of any major scale. So D Dorian would be all white keys.

-Dominant chords can be paired either the Mixolydian Mode. Mixolydian is formed by flating the 7th note in a major scale. So G Mixolydian would be all white keys.

Now there are many MANY options just like with chords, but this will give you a very firm place to begin improvising. As an exercise to get you playing the right scales with the right chords, play in your right hand a particular scale up two octaves and a third, while playing in your left hand the corresponding chord every 8 notes. You’ll see it line up perfectly. When you can do that reliably at 80 bpm with you major, minor, and dominant chords/scales, you’ll be in a great places.

Last but not least is basic Roman numerals theory. If you know what Roman numerals sound good going to each other, then you’ll be in a great place to not only improvise, but to even write and improvise your own songs on the fly. Again, there’s a whole lot we could cover, but to give you a taste, we’ll talk about probably the biggest progression in Jazz. The ii-V-I.

If you break it down a ii-V-I is the culmination of what we’ve talked about so far in this post. First, why this progression. Well the V-I is a common pull in music. The dominant is one of the first in the overtime series, and it’s pull to I is extremely strong. Almost if not more in some cases powerful than the pull of a vii-I. That’s cool, but what about the ii? The ii-V is actually a very strong pull in its own right. So ii now leads us into V, which then takes us home to I.

For great examples of this in action listen to Afternoon In Paris, and Take The A-Train.

Now once you have those chords in place from earlier, you can fill in the minor 7th chords for the ii, the dominant 7th chords for the V, and the Major 7th chords for the I. So in the key of C this would look like d minor 7th for ii, g dominant 7 for V, and C major 7 for I. Once you can do a ii-V-I in every key, practice playing the corresponding scales while you ii-V-I. Or you could also add rootless voicings to the ii-V-I by doing ABA voicings (Minor A, Dominant B, Major A), or BAB voicings (Minor B, Dominant A, Major B).

I would highly recommend buying a copy of The Real Book. This is a set of over 150 standard lead sheets for famous and great jazz songs. Both songs I mentioned above are in the book. Take the book, find a song, and break it down using Roman numerals. After a while things will make sense as far as what chords go where, and things will really start to click.

If you’re interested in further reading, I would highly recommend The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine. This book covers many many topics, and will take you far. I like the book a good bit because by any topic, it will show a real excerpt from a jazz standard of a chord used so you can see how what you’re learning is utilized.

I know this is a lot to do, but just pace yourself. You can’t build a house in a day, but if you’re patient and diligent, the world of Jazz Improve is a fun and exciting one. Best of luck, and if you have any questions feel free to comment or shoot me a dm.

u/everettmarm · 1 pointr/Jazz

Get a "fake book." A big book of charts for standard tunes. Like this one: The Real Book: Sixth Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0634060384/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_SBHxub14QHMNV

u/Sesquipedaliac · 1 pointr/Jazz

This one is pretty much the standard Real Book, based on my experience.

Personally, I'm partial to this version, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone else actually use it.

u/haploid-20 · 1 pointr/drums

Hap hap hello there! I am a bot and you linked to Amazon.

This comment contains 1 pricing graph(s)

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Product 1: The Real Book: Sixth Edition (0634060384)

Imgur pricing graph

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|Cur|$20.22|$20.58|$15.29|
|Hi|$27.50|$22.48|$22.68|
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u/calebcharles · 1 pointr/drums

Are you familiar with The Real Book? I am in the process of learning it, and instead of just looking up videos that are in tune I am cataloging it for me and you and everybody. Some really nice jazz covers and some not so nice ones. :) Thanks for the feedback it's going to take some time.

u/bubbleboy222 · 1 pointr/guitarlessons

Studying Jazz lead sheets is the most helpful, and the most commonly used book is the Real Book. The real book has Jazz Standards, and it gives the lead sheets with the melody written in sheet music, and the chord symbols written above the staff.

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Looking at chords is mostly seeing what the quality of it is (minor, major, dominant, ect.), and then just looking at the extensions. Once you understand the types of chords, everything else is pretty simple.

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I've made a guide to reading chord symbols, and it goes over all the common types of chords with common extensions. Here you go: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G9GsGFRwS_2VqbyKma1JL8nti3OMTHZm5eGZ7nTU1zY/edit?usp=sharing

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One last thing, you want to figure out chords yourself, or you'll never be able to completely understand chords, but if there are just some things that you can't figure out, here's a book I use that has chords galore in all keys: https://www.guitarcenter.com/Proline/Picture-Guitar-Chord-Pocket-Guide-Book.gc Think of it more as a something that helps, not your go-to thing for figuring out chords.

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Hope this helps!

u/pianomancuber · 1 pointr/piano

Get the Real Book. Hundreds of great charts in one place, with super high quality. There are three volumes, but I and II are all you really need IMO. If you are able to sightread most charts with melody and improvise accompaniment, then you just need more practice. See if you can find some friends to jam with and just read charts. In my opinion, jazz can only really be learned by doing it over and over again with other live musicians.

u/beepboopblorp · 1 pointr/AskReddit

The sixth edition of the Real Book.

wiki: The Real Book can refer to any of a number of popular compilations of lead sheets for jazz tunes, but is generally used to refer to Volume 1 of an underground series of books transcribed and collated by students at Berklee College of Music during the 1970s.
Whether the book used is the older "illegal" edition or the newer, Hal Leonard "legal" edition, at least one edition of The Real Book has become an indispensable resource for all aspiring and current jazz musicians. Musicians find it convenient to work from "the book", because it is available in different editions to suit B♭, E♭, and C (concert-pitch) instruments, as well as a bass clef edition. A band leader can conveniently call out page numbers, since each edition is also paginated identically.

u/_mach · 1 pointr/synthesizers

The Real book.

If you just want "chops" and don't want to know how jazz works, you can fake it by learning the standards.

u/ahipple · 1 pointr/Jazz

I've used SongTrellis to find chord changes quite frequently (look for the link to the GIF for a chart), and the MIDI "backing" tracks are kinda useful for practicing sometimes. They don't include melodies though, as the melody is the copyrightable part of the tune and they'd be on the hook for infringement.

For melodies, more tunes, and just a generally useful resource, The Real Book is truly indispensable. There are a few more volumes, but that first one (linked) includes all the tunes PropositionJoe_ mentioned and then some. This is the Sixth Edition, the first "legal" version, which is arguably less complete than the Fifth (which you can find laying around some dark corners of the internet).