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    How To Use A Lead Sheet (Fake Book) - The Jazz Piano Site

    Uploaded by

    Mbolafab Rbj

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    How To Use A Lead Sheet (Fake Book) - The Jazz Piano Site

    Uploaded by

    Mbolafab Rbj
    225 views6 pages

    Original Title

    How to Use a Lead Sheet (Fake Book) - The Jazz Piano Site

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

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    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

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    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    225 views6 pages

    How To Use A Lead Sheet (Fake Book) - The Jazz Piano Site

    Uploaded by

    Mbolafab Rbj

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 6
    At a glance
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    The key takeaways are that lead sheets contain the basic melody and chord progression of songs but leave out other important musical elements like harmony, embellishments, chord voicings, and vamps. They also may contain errors.

    Problems with lead sheets include that they are incomplete, only show basic chords without substitutions or alterations, may not reflect the actual chords used in recordings, simplify complex chords, and don't deal well with modern jazz or non-standard harmony.

    Information typically not included in lead sheets are harmony, embellishments of the melody, chord substitutions or alterations, chord voicings, vamps/riffs/ostinati, and errors may be present.

    (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/)

    How To Use A Lead Sheet (Fake Book)


    Fake Books & Lead Sheets

    A Fake Book (also called a Real Book) is a collection of lead sheets used by Jazz musicians. They are
    so-called because they allow a Jazz musician to ‘fake it’ even if he/she doesn’t know a song.

    Lead sheets contain the skeleton of the song, speci cally the:

    Basic Melody; and


    Basic Chord Progression; and
    NOTHING ELSE!

    They are designed for ease. Sight reading a lead sheet is much easier than sight reading a full written
    out transcription or score. A lead sheets simplicity is its greatest strength.

    Pentatonic Practice Session - Improve your solo playing


    Get the pentatonic scale into your muscle memory and you have a great tool for OPEN
    soloing. reiff.dk

    Problems with Lead Sheets

    But the greatest strength of a lead sheet is also its greatest weakness. Lead sheets are by de nition
    incomplete, they contain the following problems:

    They only show the basic melody – NO harmony


    (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/jazz-piano-lessons/the-
    basics/harmonisation/) or embellishments
    (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/jazz-piano-lessons/jazz-
    improvisation/embellishing-the-melody/).
    They only show the basic chords – NO substitutes
    (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/jazz-piano-lessons/jazz-chords/chord-
    substitution/) or alterations (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/jazz-piano-

    lessons/jazz-chords/extensions-alterations/).
    The chord written out on the lead sheet may not necessarily be the actual chord used in
    the recording.
    Lead sheets use simpli ed chords – they may write a CMaj7 instead of a CMaj9#11.
    And they don’t deal well with Modern Jazz (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/jazz-
    piano-lessons/modern-jazz-theory/) and ‘non-standard’ harmony.
    Lead sheets simplify complex chords and just show you an approximation of the
    ‘real’ chord.
    For example, in the song Iris by Wayne Shorter the lead sheet indicates an
    A♭Maj7#5, while the recording uses a more complex A♭Maj7#5, 5 chord.
    Lead sheets do not contain Chord Voicings (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/jazz-
    piano-lessons/jazz-chord-voicings/).
    For example, a lead sheet won’t tell you to use Quartal Voicings
    (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/jazz-piano-lessons/jazz-chord-voicings/quartal-
    voicings/) over a Modal Jazz (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/jazz-piano-
    lessons/modern-jazz-theory/modal-jazz/) song.
    Lead sheets do not contain Vamps/Ri s/Ostinati.
    Some Jazz songs have a classic vamp or ri that is integral to the song (such as Take
    Five by Paul Desmond, or Watermelon Man by Herbie Hancock). You generally won’t
    get this from a lead sheet.
    Lead sheets (at least the original ones) contain errors.
    Desa nado by Jobim is missing 4 measures after bar 32.
    Orbits by Shorter has the melody and chords written out in the lead sheet, but the
    recording itself doesn’t actually have chords at all.
    And then there’s Blue Train by Coltrane…

    Errors:

    The title is wrong (it should be Blue Train)


    The chords are wrong (they should be V7#9 chords, NOT m7 chords)
    The melody is wrong (two notes in bar 8)
    The key is wrong (it was transposed from an E♭ Blues to a C Blues for no particular
    reason)
    The Vamp is not stated

    Pentatonic Practice Session - Improve your solo playing


    Get the pentatonic scale into your muscle memory and you have a great tool for OPEN
    soloing. reiff.dk

    History

    The original Fake Books, released in the 1970’s, have lots of mistakes and were illegal because they
    didn’t pay royalties to the copyright owners. The more recent Fake Books are of a much higher
    quality – they aren’t illegal and there are fewer, if any, mistakes. But the earlier ones are still widely
    available and widely used.

     

    Lots of Jazz musicians are disparaging of ‘lead sheet’ players because:

    Using a lead sheet means you aren’t forced to memorise a song.


    Lead sheets can be used as a musical ‘crutch’ – and your playing can become boring and
    repetitive if you rely on them too much.

    Now, of course, listening and transcribing a song from an actual recording is much better, but I
    personally don’t see a problem in using a lead sheet. As long as you don’t completely and solely rely
    on the lead sheet, and you do actually have a listen to the actual song to hear what’s going on. Take
    lead sheets with a grain of salt and treat them as but one of many possible resources.

    How to Use a Lead Sheet

    So in summary, below is a brief list summarising how to use a lead sheet. Make sure you follow these
    tips/rules/advice.

    NEVER play them exactly as written!!!


    ALWAYS LISTEN to the recording
    Harmonise/Embellish the melody as necessary
    Substitute/Alter the chords as necessary (Reharmonization
    (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/jazz-piano-lessons/jazz-reharmonization/how-to-
    reharmonize-a-song/))
    Add Chord Voicings as necessary
    Add Vamps/Ri s/Ostinati as necessary
    Be mindful of errors

    Free Guitar Chords


    Includes over 3000 of the most commonly used guitar chords. guitaristsreference.com
    How to Use a Lead Sheet (Fake Book) 

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    Free Guitar Chords


    Includes over 3000 of the most commonly used guitar chords. guitaristsreference.com

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