Fake book

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A fake book is a collection of musical lead sheets intended to help a performer quickly learn new songs. Each song in a fake book contains the melody line, basic chords, and lyrics - the minimal information needed by a musician to make an impromptu arrangement of a song, or "fake it."

The fake book is a central part of the culture of playing music in public, particularly in jazz, where improvisation is particularly valued.

Fake books are not intended for novices: the reader must follow and interpret the scant notation. However, fake books can be an avenue to playing songs quickly; a few chords and a one-note melody line can allow an amateur to play a passable version of any song with relative ease.

Despite the name, fake books are often unbound, consisting of a thick, loose stack of sheets.

[edit] History

The origins of transcriptions were often murky and not always of the best musical quality. But the sheer amount of the tunes more than compensated for this drawback, especially since skilled musicians could always improve the sound. At some point, there came The Real Book, which claimed to fix all problems of poor design, although it was riddled with errors which were gradually corrected by generations of players. It was extremely popular and in its turn spawned a number of "fake Real Books".

Fake books originally infringed copyrights, and their circulation was primarily underground. The 6th edition of the 'Real Book' is legally published, unlike previous versions, and remains a standard resource for professional musicians.