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Jazz

Resources and information for jazz scholars, performers, and listeners

Transcriptions and Fake Books

Search Tips for Songs

Many of the songbooks owned by the Music Collection are published by Hal Leonard, which has a song search on its site: http://www.halleonard.com. After finding the songbooks that contain the song, you can search for Ball State copies in OneSearch.

A song index to the Jamey Aebersold Play-A-Long series (lead sheets with CDs) is available as a .pdf from jazzbooks.com

If Ball State does not own a song or songbook you need, fill out an Interlibrary Loan form to borrow it from another library.

Transcriptions

Transcriptions are note-for-note representations of recorded solos by famous artists. Search "Jazz and Transcriptions" on OneSearch to find more.

Piano:

Saxophone:

Other Instruments:

Fake Books

A "fake book" consists of one stanza of melody and words, with indications for chord changes above the staff line. These enable a musician to "fake" a song they don't really know, but has come to be the standard notation for learning new songs too. An essential series plays on the notion for the title "The Real Book." The style of notation for the song is called a "lead sheet."

*All fake books are for instruments in the key of C unless otherwise noted*

To find all available fake books, search Popular Music -- Fake Books in OneSearch and limit to Music Score as the content type if necessary.

How to Play from a Fake Book, by Blake Neely (for keyboard)
MT239.N44 H6 1999

Selected Fake Books:

  • The Hal Leonard Real Jazz Standards Fake Book
    M1630.18 .H223 2011
  • The Real Book, 6th ed.
    M1630.18 .R42
  • The Real Book, Volume II, 2nd ed.
    M1630.18 .R42 V.2
  • The Real Book, Volume III, 2nd ed.
    M1630.18 .R42 2006 V.3
  • The Ultimate Broadway Fake Book
    M1508.1 .U48 2009
  • The New Broadway Fake Book
    M1508.1 .N48 2018
  • (This is the) Ultimate Fake Book
    M1630.18 .T55 2006
  • The Ultimate Pop Rock Fake Book, 4th ed.
    M1630.18 .U586 2001
  • The Best Fake Book Ever, 2nd ed.
    M1630.18 .B39 1990z
  • Gospel's Greatest
    M2198 .G659 2000
  • Wedding and Love Fake Book, 5th ed.
    M1977 .W4 W43 2006

Artist Transcriptions and Fake Books:

Omnibooks are dedicated to the solos of just one artist, with lead sheets for their famous tunes.  They are shelved with the music for that instrument, for example the Miles Davis Omnibook is shelved with other scores for B-Flat trumpet.  There are also artist-oriented scores plus CD within the Aebersold play-along series.

Miles Davis Omnibook:

Charlie Parker Omnibook:

John Coltrane Omnibook:

John Coltrane: Giant Steps:  M1366.C65 G5 2013

Songbook / CD Sets

The Music Collection owns many songbooks that come with accompanying CDs. Each of the following series has several volumes:

Jamey Aebersold Play-a-Long. Published by Indiana native, Jamey Aebersold, this series is designed to give students experience in improvisation but can be used for "gigs" as well. Each of the over 100 volumes comes with a CD of the background (rhythm section) for practice or performance. Some of the early volumes are devoted to improvisation in general, e.g., improvisation on standard chord progressions rather than specific songs. For an index of specific songs, click here (.pdf)

Hal Leonard Pro Vocal is a recent series with songbooks and background CDs that can be transposed. Some of this series is jazz-oriented.

The Singers Musical Theatre Anthology is comprised of five volumes (so far!) for each by voice type (Soprano, Mezzo/Belter, Tenor, Bass/Baritone) and volumes for duets. Each volume comes with a CD of an accompaniment arrangement. Many of the most famous "jazz" standards came from Broadway musicals, and this series has most of the popular songs from musicals.

Interlibrary Loan

Users are encouraged to search for items beyond University Libraries' catalog via RILM Abstracts of Music Literature and WorldCat. Materials not available in print or online may be requested through Interlibrary Loan. Please allow up to seven days for electronic delivery and up to fourteen days for delivery of physical items.