As an aside, fake books are a great way to get your feet wet learning how to extemporize while still having some guidance around the chord progression and melody.
If you have an iPad, there's an app called iReal Pro with loads of lead sheets that add in some accompaniment (drums, guitar, etc.) so you can "play along" as well.
iReal Pro is awesome. When playing music with new people (especially jazz), it feels like everyone has it, and you can quickly make sure you're playing the same charts.
It's also available on Android, and it's a one-time payment, no-subscription app. Easily one of the most valuable music purchases I've made.
iReal Pro is a great resource, but what it provides are not lead sheets, they are just chord charts. Lead sheets have the melody of the song in standard notation, along with chord names and sometimes lyrics. iReal Pro's charts give chord names only.
The Real Book was pretty fundamental helping me learn jazz. I think a lot of jazz people look down on it (or those who need it), but I didn't really get deep enough to see that. There's a short video from Adam Neely that opened my eyes to that a bit.
This brings up a lot of memories. I got lost on the way to jazz school and studied CS instead. Still went to school on a partial music scholarship. Wound-up playing so much anyway that it killed my grades. Worked out in the end, lol.
If you have a copy of the "illegal" Real Book you'll notice that there are a lot of Steve Swallow tunes in there :-)
There are definitely people that look down on using the Real Books/iReal as a crutch. IMHO it's not a huge deal. But, it is widely encouraged to learn as many commonly called tunes as you can though. You can find lists of those in various places: https://www.shermusic.com/1883217040.php and https://www.shermusic.com/1883217482.php for example. The reason for that honestly is that you will find yourself in a scenario where something called isn't in your book. Popular chord changes get re-used a lot, so the more material you know can help you "figure out" the unknown tune quickly. Called tune just rhythm changes? Blues changes? So What/Impressions changes? etc.
It's insane to think that so many owe so much to an contraband book.
There's a very good podcast about (music) copyright and how it's used and abused. The podcast is mainly about Men At Work's "Down Under" and the crazy copyright case that hit them: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-xqda4-23ebff8b
Someone I know who went to Berklee in the early 90s said that it was a required text for certain jazz classes, and you had to buy it from a bootlegger.
I was at Berklee in the late 80s and that's a pretty accurate statement both for the requirement and procurement.
Your friend was there close enough to the time that I was there that it was probably the same thing. There was "a guy" that hung out around the school... I'd usually see him somewhere around the intersection of Mass Ave and Boylston... And he was known as the guy to talk to if you wanted a real book (and probably other stuff as well). Every once in a while you'd see him just running off down the street like he was being chased or something (never saw a pursuer) though it was said every once in a while they'd try and busy him.
I didn't actually get my copy from him ... My high school band teacher was a pretty accomplished bebop guy that burned out playing in the house bands in Vegas and "retired" to teaching.... So he hooked those students of his up that had an interest in small group playing or gigging. So had my copy before going to Berklee.
I remember a friend managed to get a copy of a real book in the 90s and was so excited about it. When I sat down to play some tunes out of it, I was unfamiliar with the notation where Cmin7 was written C-7 and CMaj7 was C△. I figured out the latter, but thought the former was Cdim7 which led to some weird harmonizations before I figured it out.
I went to school in Minnesota and we had to go to a certain music store and ask a specific employee for the book. I believe it was $50. It was basically required to play jazz.
Guy decides to go deep into Africa up the Congo River. After getting to the last easily accessible entry into the river, they board the smallish boat to begin the arduous trek deep into darkest Africa.
A day or three into the journey they start hearing distant drums, then as they continued after some days it got slowly louder. The guy started getting spooked and asks the Captain, "What's up with those drums?"
The Captain replies, "Don't worry. Everything's perfectly fine so long as they continue."
After more days of journeying, suddenly, one night, the drums just stop cold.
Fearfully, the guy inquires, "WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!"
A married couple hasn't spoken to each other in 10 years. Their daughter seeks out the best marriage counselor she can find and gets her parents to agree to go to a session.
After their first visit the daughter follows up with the therapist and asks if he could get them to talk to each other. "Not this time, but we have another appointment next week. I'll take another crack at it."
The parents show up to their next appointment. The therapist is trying everything he can think of to get them to speak to each other. Because he has a reputation to uphold he's getting a little worried. He tells the daughter, "We've got another appointment next week and I've got one last thing I can try."
When the married couple steps into the therapist's office, therapist doesn't say a word but pulls out an upright bass out of his closet and starts playing a solo. They immediately start talking.
This drummer is sick of everyone ribbing him about not being a real musician, so he goes to the music shop to buy a proper instrument.
He says to the owner "I'd like to see some guitars, please".
The owner says "you must be a drummer".
The drummer says "How did you know that?".
The owner says "This is a fish shop".
The drummer wanders down the street and finally finds the music shop. He's in there for hours, overwhelmed by the choice, weighing up all the different options.
After much thought, he musters up all of his courage and says to the owner "I'd like the big red trumpet and that accordion over there".
The owner says "Well, you can have the fire extinguisher, but I can't sell you the radiator".
[+] [-] vunderba|1 year ago|reply
If you have an iPad, there's an app called iReal Pro with loads of lead sheets that add in some accompaniment (drums, guitar, etc.) so you can "play along" as well.
https://www.irealpro.com
[+] [-] bobbiechen|1 year ago|reply
It's also available on Android, and it's a one-time payment, no-subscription app. Easily one of the most valuable music purchases I've made.
[+] [-] neonscribe|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] CephalopodMD|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] junebash|1 year ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] WorkerBee28474|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] pvg|1 year ago|reply
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34536638
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26737142
[+] [-] sintezcs|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] sieste|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] etyp|1 year ago|reply
https://youtu.be/dD0e5e6wI_A?feature=shared
[+] [-] xanderlewis|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] seabre|1 year ago|reply
If you have a copy of the "illegal" Real Book you'll notice that there are a lot of Steve Swallow tunes in there :-)
There are definitely people that look down on using the Real Books/iReal as a crutch. IMHO it's not a huge deal. But, it is widely encouraged to learn as many commonly called tunes as you can though. You can find lists of those in various places: https://www.shermusic.com/1883217040.php and https://www.shermusic.com/1883217482.php for example. The reason for that honestly is that you will find yourself in a scenario where something called isn't in your book. Popular chord changes get re-used a lot, so the more material you know can help you "figure out" the unknown tune quickly. Called tune just rhythm changes? Blues changes? So What/Impressions changes? etc.
[+] [-] titaphraz|1 year ago|reply
There's a very good podcast about (music) copyright and how it's used and abused. The podcast is mainly about Men At Work's "Down Under" and the crazy copyright case that hit them: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-xqda4-23ebff8b
[+] [-] mirawelner|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] pjdesno|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] sbuttgereit|1 year ago|reply
Your friend was there close enough to the time that I was there that it was probably the same thing. There was "a guy" that hung out around the school... I'd usually see him somewhere around the intersection of Mass Ave and Boylston... And he was known as the guy to talk to if you wanted a real book (and probably other stuff as well). Every once in a while you'd see him just running off down the street like he was being chased or something (never saw a pursuer) though it was said every once in a while they'd try and busy him.
I didn't actually get my copy from him ... My high school band teacher was a pretty accomplished bebop guy that burned out playing in the house bands in Vegas and "retired" to teaching.... So he hooked those students of his up that had an interest in small group playing or gigging. So had my copy before going to Berklee.
[+] [-] dhosek|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] evereverever|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] MrMcCall|1 year ago|reply
Guy decides to go deep into Africa up the Congo River. After getting to the last easily accessible entry into the river, they board the smallish boat to begin the arduous trek deep into darkest Africa.
A day or three into the journey they start hearing distant drums, then as they continued after some days it got slowly louder. The guy started getting spooked and asks the Captain, "What's up with those drums?"
The Captain replies, "Don't worry. Everything's perfectly fine so long as they continue."
After more days of journeying, suddenly, one night, the drums just stop cold.
Fearfully, the guy inquires, "WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!"
The Captain replies, "Bass solo."
[+] [-] h-c-c|1 year ago|reply
After their first visit the daughter follows up with the therapist and asks if he could get them to talk to each other. "Not this time, but we have another appointment next week. I'll take another crack at it."
The parents show up to their next appointment. The therapist is trying everything he can think of to get them to speak to each other. Because he has a reputation to uphold he's getting a little worried. He tells the daughter, "We've got another appointment next week and I've got one last thing I can try."
When the married couple steps into the therapist's office, therapist doesn't say a word but pulls out an upright bass out of his closet and starts playing a solo. They immediately start talking.
[+] [-] jdietrich|1 year ago|reply
He says to the owner "I'd like to see some guitars, please".
The owner says "you must be a drummer".
The drummer says "How did you know that?".
The owner says "This is a fish shop".
The drummer wanders down the street and finally finds the music shop. He's in there for hours, overwhelmed by the choice, weighing up all the different options.
After much thought, he musters up all of his courage and says to the owner "I'd like the big red trumpet and that accordion over there".
The owner says "Well, you can have the fire extinguisher, but I can't sell you the radiator".