Customer Reviews

Just Standards Real Book, C

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent fake that was well thought out. First the song selection is an excellent cross section of Standards.While it contains the "standard" standards such as Moonlight in Vermont, it also has pieces that are often over looked, like "A Sunday kind of love" and "I had the craziest dream". But even if you have these peieces in other compilations, the alternate chording is exciting. I made many new discoveries of great chords.

Each song takes up a whole page large easy to read notes, but one never has to turn a page to finish a song. If it takes two pages they are always face to face. A song like "Evergreen" always seems to require a page turn but is avoided in this book. The sections of the piece are divided by letters. the verse is noted, than the chorus is A the mid section is B and a repeat of the chorus is C. There are some songs with a Section D and E denoting major shift in the melody. This is a big help when singing and playing and in identifying repeats.

I would really like to see VOL.II of the standard series.

In my 20 years of experience, music fake books have always been plagued with wrong chord changes, incorrectly notated melodies, and very few of them have tunes you would actually need on a gig in the real world. They generally have lots of filler tunes you will never use.

This fake book is unbelievably well thought out. It looks great, you get verses to most tunes, you get lyrics to most tunes, and the chords area absolutely right meaning you can whip this out on a gig without any reservations. As soon I a thumbed though it at the local book store I knew I had to have it. I hope this sets the standards for all future fake books.

Well done Warner Bros!!! Finally a fake book that I can actually use on a gig with confidence because it is correct and it is extremely easy to read. I can't wait for many more volumes like this!!!

Dave morehead
Arranger/Composer/Trumpet(...)

I agree with the other reviews. This is a terrific book. Great songs with the best type I have seen - very readable.

One note of caution: If you are considering the Just Jazz book with this one be aware that some tunes are repeated in both books so look before you purchase both to see if the tunes you want are repeated.

Personally, I've found this to be an invaluable reference
for 'the standards', but, I would caution any beginners out there against purchasing this one just yet (get some time under your belt playing from the "easy fake book" type books before taking this one one).
Otherwise, it's a great reference.

The "Just Jazz Real Book" was one of my favorites. Many of the songs include the verses, the chords (including alternates) are well thought out, the song selection is good, and I've found very few errors in notes or chords. I figured I'd love the "Just Standards Real Book" even more. There's a fair amount of overlap between the two books, but this one suits me even better, as it replaces famous Coltrane riffs, etc. with songs I can actually do justice to on the piano. I must have 20 or more fake books, but this one is quickly becoming my favorite.

Exactly as the cover of the book states. Many great standards for musicians and lovers of great tunes to perform at the keyboard. Standard chord changes have been replaced with substitute changes. Music is easy to read. Verses for some tunes that you've heard at shows are present. Lyrics are clear and easy to read. A job well done with the standards of old.

I just started playing piano for an oldies singer. 90% of the stuff we do comes out of this book. 250 songs can't possibly cover everything, but these songs were chosen VERY well. The chords are "interesting" (not just vanilla major/minor/7th that you get in some books), although a few songs have chords that are clearly wrong, so avoid sight-reading on the job if you can. My singer owns an extra copy of this book to share with his accompanists, but I liked it so much that I bought one for myself. I may even get my rock band to buy some copies so we can play dinner music before the party gets going. There's even Bb and Eb versions for the sax player. It doesn't get much better than that.

I bought this book after using the 'New Real Book' for a while.
I quickly started building a sizable repitoire of standards at my performances. I play solo piano, but singers and bassists could follow it as well. There are E flat versions too for horn players. I especially liked the Cole Porter and George Gershwin selections.

This is exactly what I wanted. One page for each song. Chords large so the piano player can see. And the words included for the singer.

"Just One of Those Things" has a typo. It says B-flat minor 7 flat 5 -- "crazy" in "crazy flings." But it should be B minor 7 flat 5, or perhaps B diminished, as it is later in the song. I guess it's a measure of how good this book is that I was dismayed that my ear couldn't make musical sense out of the original chord notation. I am posting this review just in case someone else runs into the same thing. It's the first one I have found.