Best jazz songbooks according to redditors

We found 34 Reddit comments discussing the best jazz songbooks. We ranked the 8 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

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Top Reddit comments about Jazz Songbooks:

u/Yeargdribble · 26 pointsr/piano

First, you need to lower your expectations. Learning jazz is very similar to learning a new instrument. People picking up something new when they are already better at something else always get frustrated that they can't replicate in a week what previously took them years... and then they give up.

Realize that you're just going to have to put the training wheels back on. You won't sound good immediately, and it will be much harder. Actually learning something new is very mentally taxing. Most people either polish stuff they are already good at or they stick to things that are slightly more difficult, but still in their wheelhouse so they aren't absolutely mentally draining the way learning something new can be.

You have to be willing to work through that and use a lot of mental energy digesting hard concepts for a very long time before you get any good at any of it.

So let's see what I can manage to answer. The obvious answer is to get a jazz teacher and everyone will say that. But of course, obstinate and/or poor people won't, so I'll throw out a lot of resources. The caveat being you still need to buy stuff. Youtube can be helpful for adding little nuggets of knowledge here and there, but is basically useless for following any sort of progressive, systematic method of improving.

> What voicings do I play

This is a complicated question. I usually recommend Intro to Jazz Piano for people getting started. It will start with 3-7 voicings in every key written out (which is nice for people coming from a classical background). That's your pre-req stuff and then it starts putting them into use in actual context. Adding slowly increasingly difficult bass motion and right hand comping patterns in both swing and bossa styles. Eventually it gets into adding melodies on top of your voicings more interesting voicings. It also covers the very basics of improv theory.

But it will get you started on the very fundamental idea of which notes are important (spoiler... 3-7... and the root). Everything else is just window dressing.

A book I just ran into at a convention and picked up is The Chord Voicing Handbook. I'm a bit hesitant to recommend it. It's essentially a glossary of voicing ideas for pretty much any chord you can run into. It's aimed more at the type of person who finds themselves in a HS jazz band with only a classical background and a clueless band director who also can't spell jazz chords (most can't) or help in any way with keys. The problem is that you could use it as a crutch and not actually learn to think about the chord you're spelling. If you used it as a source for voicing ideas and practiced them in context away from the book, it could be quite useful. Definitely a low priority book.

>How do I get from this chord to the next one while maintaining smooth voice leading

Answered in the Intro to Jazz Piano book. Basically learning about your 3-7 in a ii-V-I progression is where it all comes from.

>How do I even finger this chord

I seem to remember recommendations in the above book, but I'd also say don't sweat it as much as you are. From a classical background everything has a "proper" fingering. In jazz and pop styles in general you shouldn't think of there being a right and wrong way to finger things. If you learn it one way you've just learn "another" way to play it. It's not necessarily the wrong one... just another option that could be situationally useful. That doesn't mean it's the most optimal, but playing a lot and exploring ideas will help you come up with better ideas. When approaching both scale sequence patterns and walking bass patterns I would just have to figure out how to optimally navigate specific exercises. I'd often come back a day later and re-evaluate realizing a better solution. But in the wide scope of things just having the dexterity to use a variety of fingering solutions and not play yourself into a corner is the most important. The foundation of good fingering choices that bleed over from classical training can help make good decisions going forward and is definitely where I'd tell someone to start. If you can't play all of your major/minor scales, arpeggios and cadences with comfortable fingering choices, do that first.

>What the fuck do I play with my right hand, I'm not even hearing anything in my head

If you're not hearing anything, you're not listening to enough jazz. A lot of the melodic ideas just come from listening.

>I'm hearing something in my head, but I can't replicate it on the keyboard

Training your ear takes a lot of time and dedication. It's also an area where me and most jazz pedagogues differ. Those with a lot of jazz experience tend to immediately say "go transcribe stuff." The problem is, they recommend transcribing jazz. NO. If you don't understand jazz theory you're just wasting time making blind guesses.

Burt Ligon apparently is on the same page with me about ear training. It should be learned in the context of a tonal center rather than as individual intervalic exercises. In his book, Jazz Theory Resources he talks about recommending that his students start by transcribing children's songs and other simple, familiar tunes. Some balk, but the reality is that if you can't sit down with staff paper and write out Twinkle, Twinkle, you're not gonna be able to sit down and effectively transcribing a burning hard bop solo by Coltrane.

Start at the beginning. For the most part it's about understanding your landing points in simple, triadic music. 1-3-5 (do-mi-sol) ofthe key. Everything else has a certain amount of tension that wants to lead to one of those notes. 7 leans hard 1. 4 leans hard to 3. 2 could go to 1 or 3. 6 leans weakly to 5. If you're not familiar with solfege try singing scale degree numbers. Or, if that is odd (and 7 can definitely be cumbersome in the mouth) just single a syllable like "la" but think what scale degree you're on at all times.

Also, in your case, stop trying so hard to improvise right now when you lack both the theory, the technique, and an understanding of the mechanics. It's an exercises is futility and will lead to nothing by frustration.

>Now I'm playing a bunch of random notes from the harmony I'm in and it sounds like shit

This will get touched on briefly in Intro, but once again, the 3-7 concept is extremely important. You don't want to play random notes in the key (and also, jazz frequently moves through several key "planets" --as Dave Frank calls them-- in a short amount of space).

The 3 or 7 of the given chord is a safe, strong, landing points. 1 and 5 are safe, but a tad mild. 9, 11, and 13 can be fun if used well. It's all about tension and release, but there's a lot to understand to make all the working parts fit together.

>These chord changes are too fast, my mind can't keep up

Stop trying. And certain don't try to play a chart at speed if you can't play it slow. It's not different than classical. Slow down, use the metronome, play accurately, then speed up. With jazz you're just going to have to isolate the chord chord and voicing ideas first and get good at them, then start applying them in real charts and just slowly build up your chart reading skill the same as you would sightreading or even learning sheet music.

>I take way too long to learn a bunch of fitting chords (let alone play something over it). Most of the time I just play the bass note to take some load of my brain

Same as classical. Learn simpler music and learn the fundamentals first.

>Almost every note I play comes as a surprise to my ear

You've probably not listened to much jazz so they sonorities are a bit different to you. Also, if you're just not used to playing it, you might not know what to expect.


EDIT: I hit the 10,000 character limit... continued below.

u/[deleted] · 7 pointsr/Jazz

forums.allaboutjazz.com

jazzguitar.be/forum

Learn how to use google site search to search those forums for topics that you're currently working on.

musictheory.net - use the lessons and exercises because you have to know the basics of reading and memorize the key signatures, etc.

I urge you to check out Hal Galper and Mike Longo's books/videos. They are at the forefront of Jazz Education and their material is a rite of passage for beginning jazz musicians.

Here's a playlist of Galper's masterclass videos:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7iWyGibrnPOQPEuUL4O3s5E0qdPj-cqs

The best general jazz chord-scale theory text I've seen (I've seen them all) is probably the Berklee book,
Chord Scale Theory and Jazz Harmony;
However, even better would be the Bert Ligon books, because they go into more detail about how to actually put it into practice:
Connecting Chords with Linear Harmony
Jazz Theory Resources Volume 1
Jazz Theory Resources Volume 2
Comprehensive Technique for Jazz Musicians


P.S. this subreddit is geared more towards jazz listeners and may not have that many musicians.

u/Jongtr · 5 pointsr/musictheory

[This] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Real-Book-Leonard-Corporation-2004-09-01/dp/B01FGIQ49G/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549386796&sr=1-4) is the classic original - updated to remove (most of) the mistakes (mostly trivial in the first place), and now licensed so no longer illegal. This was the bible of all amateur jazz musicians from the late 1970s to 90s (at least).

The [New Real Book] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Real-Book-1/dp/0961470143/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549386952&sr=1-1) is better-looking, with a slightly different selection of tunes. Originally published as a legal version of the old Real Book (which had been an underground publication).

There are now many volumes, so the best thing is to consult the list of tunes in each one and count how many you recognise. ;-)

u/ProgHog231 · 5 pointsr/Bass

> I can read tablature but not music notation (I'm assuming this is the first step!)

Standard notation is important - and definitely learn it. But as important, or maybe more so, is being able to understand chords and progressions.

Here's a really simple lesson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilh4uMAdss8 to illustrate how to get started. Scott's Bass Lessons has a lot more content, too. Christian McBride also has an online fundamentals course: https://www.openstudionetwork.com/project/fjb-overview/

To apply even a basic knowledge, I'd recommend getting one or more real books. The app, iRealPro is a digital version of this approach and has some nice features like being able to change key and tempo. At its heart, jazz is a performance and improvisational art, and these resources let you build up those playing skills.

u/MMA_bastard · 4 pointsr/jazzguitar

Alright, my last two comments on this sub were downvoted, so I'm going to give it one more shot.

One of the mainstays of jazz since the early days has been common repertoire, the songs that have come to be known as "standards." If you resurrected Louis Armstrong from the grave you could take him to a session anywhere in the world and he'd find common tunes to play with the jazz musicians there. I'm going to guess that a big part of what you're not getting about jazz is you have little or no familiarity with these songs, so learning them, even just as a listener, is going to be one of your main jobs right now. I posted a video the other day called Aimee's Top 25 Jazz Standards To Know that is as good a list as any to start with. I used Nat King Cole's vocal recordings to introduce my daughter to some of these when she was five, because Nat sticks with the melody but still has a jazz delivery. Frank Sinatra is another good source, because he recorded just about every damn standard that is a vocal tune and did it with great jazz musicians. Obviously there are a zillion great instrumental versions of these tunes as well. A good place to look for the songs' histories and seminal recordings is jazzstandards.com.

One resource that you really should purchase to help you get up to speed on standards is a good, legit fakebook. The most common one is called The Real Book, and I advise getting a hard copy. I actually prefer the Chuck Sher New Real Book and its sequels, but either it or the Hal Leonard RB will get you started. If I'm not mistaken all of the tunes on Aimee's list (25 standards) are in the HLRB.

Next you should select a song from the fakebook, an easy one such as Blue Bossa or Satin Doll, and learn it all the way down, soup to nuts. This means you should know the written melody and chord changes cold. If you don't know some of the chords get a chord encyclopedia and learn them (I used books such as the Mickey Baker's How To Play Jazz and Hot Guitar, The Joe Pass Guitar Style, Ted Greene's Chord Chemistry and other to learn what Howard Roberts called "garden variety jazz guitar chords.") Be able to strum the chords to whatever tune(s) you pick in quarter notes in every bar, and you can apply comping rhythms later. There's an app for the Android and iPhone called the iReal pro that plays backing tracks to practice to, and they have a forum where you can download a playlist of 1,300 jazz tunes. It's well worth the $14 or so.

One main reason I'm starting with telling you to learn songs right away is literally everything else - chords, scales, arpeggios, lines, substitutions, rhythmic concepts, and so on - can be applied to tunes. Learning tunes enables you to play with other people, and as you get better you can find work backing singers and horn players, playing in guitar-bass-drum trios, and playing solo guitar if you're learning the songs as chord melodies. Believe me when I tell you almost every jazz musician you can name went through this process of learning and studying standards.

Last, one element of becoming a competent jazz player is rhythm. A lot of the rhythmic vocabulary is acquired naturally by listening, but if you're serious about learning this art form you'll want to study rhythm as well. Over the years I've used a number of books designed to improve reading as tools to help improve my time, including Melodic Rhythms for Guitar, Louis Bellson's rhythm reading books, and most recently Gary Hess's Encyclopedia of Reading Rhythms. These won't necessarily help as far as developing a jazz "feel," but it's mandatory to be comfortable with all the basic units of time so you can have a solid rhythmic base to improvise and interact with other musicians.

I hope this helps, and I'm up for questions about anything else.

u/Wagner556 · 4 pointsr/Saxophonics

Girl from Ipanema is one of the easier songs to play, definitely a beginner level.

I would recommend this book -

https://www.amazon.com/Antonio-Carlos-Jobim-Bossa-Nova/dp/0634048899/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1E8YMSW7G556D&keywords=jazz+play+along+hal+leonard+bossa+nova&qid=1568768851&sprefix=jazz+play+along%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-1

All the songs are excellent. Playing at the same time as the recording of them playing makes it easy to get the timing right for someone who is a beginner.

u/Broomoid · 3 pointsr/Bass

I'd probably suggest this one, or maybe this one

In terms of walking bass, the only to get better at it is unfortunately just to keep working at it. Start on a not-too-complicated tune such as Satin Doll, or something else with lots of II-V-I progressions in it, or a 12-bar blues, and work up to more complicated charts.

Here's a "quick and dirty" method to work out some walking bass lines. It's a bit simplistic perhaps, but it will at least get you started, and it does work. Assuming a 4/4 time sig:

ON BARS WHERE THERE ARE TWO CHORDS PER BAR:

Beats 1 & 3: On the beats where the chords fall (1 & 3) play the root (at least at first).
Beats 2 & 4: On the other beats (2 & 4) play an approach note that gets you to the root of the next chord, so a note either a half-step or whole step above the note you want to get to. Use your ear to judge which is best. So if the chord on beat 3 is G7, on beat 2 you could play either A, Ab, F# or F.

ON BARS WHERE THERE IS ONLY ONE CHORD PER BAR:

Beat 1: Play the root (again, at first)
Beat 4: Play an approach note as above, so either a half or whole step above or below, whichever sounds best.
Beats 2 & 3: You have a few options:

a. outline the chord notes. For example root, 3, 5 then, or root, 3, 5 then to your approach note.

b. move by step (don't be afraid of chromatic notes, you'd be surprised how often they work). So going from Dmi7 to G7 you could move up be step playing D, E, F, F#.

c. Try going from the root on the first beat up or down to the 5th on the second beat, then keep going in the same direction to the root an octave above or below on the third, before hitting your approach notes.

d. Do something else entirely.

So a sample bassline for the first 8 bars of Satin Doll might look something like this. Note that in the last bar it moves completely by step while in the three bars before that it uses that root-fifth-root pattern. Obviously that's just one way to do it. When you're new to walking bass and learning a tune don't try and go right through straight away. Get from bar 1 to bar 2, then from 1 to 4, and so on. Build it up in stages, and try different ways to get there. If you can figure out how to get up by step to the next chord, then try moving down by step the next time.

Now, before anyone tells me that I am the awful spawn of satan and I have killed Jazz by explaining things this way and thus downvoting me to the diminished 7th circle of Hell, I know it's a very simple way of explaining it, I also know that walking bass can be a wonderfully nuanced thing with infinite variety. But we've got to start somewhere and the above will work. As with everything, the ear has to be the final judge.

u/Poes_Law_in_Action · 3 pointsr/Learnmusic

A fake book is just a book of lead sheets. A lead sheet is the chords and melody of a song with usually little else. They're called fake books because they can be used to fake a tune one does't really know. By and large, the most popular jazz fake book is called the Real Book. There are 3 volumes and 5 editions; it was produced by students at Berklee School of Music in the 70's. That jazz style that is so often in music notation software is based on the Real book's handwritten sheets. It's illegal as the songs are unlicensed, but Hal Leonard has created a 6th edition that is updated and fully licensed. You can get it at amazon. You can find versions of the original at your local seedy music store and online with a bit of searching. There are a whole bunch of others. One really excellent one is the New Real Book published by Sher. The tunes are dead accurate and contain most of the arrangements.

u/zhemao · 3 pointsr/Jazz

Very solid advice. OP if you want to learn how to arrange for a quintet, listen to the Jazz Messengers or Horace Silver's quintet.

Horace Silver actually wrote a book on it.

http://www.amazon.com/Horace-Silver-Small-Combo-Playing/dp/0793556880

u/OnaZ · 3 pointsr/piano

How much transcribing are you doing?

Do you have the hand independence of someone like Keith Jarrett or Brad Mehldau? Are you practicing that skill?

How's your re-harmonization ability? Can you take something simple and make it more complex or take a folk tune and make it jazzy?

How's your jazz theory? Do you recognize which scales are possible with each chord beyond the simple ones? Have you worked your way through The Jazz Theory Book or Jazz Theory Resources?

Are you active in your local music scene? The best way to find a teacher is to find someone who is out there playing who really impresses you. You're not going to find players at or above your level in the yellow pages or online, it's all word of mouth.

u/activestim · 2 pointsr/jazzguitar

I would personally buy The New Real Book by Sher Music. It's much more accurate than Hal Leonard's Real Book.
http://www.amazon.com/New-Real-Book-1/dp/0961470143

u/Run_nerd · 1 pointr/piano

The Real Book is a popular one. I've also heard good things about the New Real Book.

u/Gator_farmer · 1 pointr/Bass

They're scattered around the internet if you want free ones. I've heard you can go to a big sheet music website, like the one my instructor used, call them and get just the bass part instead of ordering the full set.

Real books are also great. They contain chord charts, and some notes, for classic jazz pieces. It's a great way to learn to improv, and you can pair up with say a saxophonist who has his real book for alto clef.

u/rolandkeytar · 1 pointr/Jazz

I asked my university piano teacher a similar question. "What are the best transcriptions of common tunes?" His answer: "The ones you make yourself."

I think this is true. The only charts/transcriptions that you can really trust are the ones that you've created with your own ear. Real books and their many versions and electronic iterations (the irealbook ap is an amazing resource for learning tunes and transcribing simple chord charts) are invaluable sources for being introduced to tunes, but they are merely sketches. Choose an artist/version of a tune that you dig and learn that specific version using the real book chart as a starting point.

Recognizing those subtle differences and artistic choices is the beauty of learning jazz tunes.

That being said, I feel that the most accurate realbooks are the "New Real Book" series . They are based on specific recordings so they stay true to an actual version that a particular artist recorded or performed regularly.

Of course, not every tune is included so you have to rely on your faithful ears to figure out those Shorter tunes you're looking for.

Another resource is The Real Book Videos Subreddit . It has definitive versions of the Real Book tunes.

u/churchboi616 · 1 pointr/musictheory

I've had classical training on the piano for 10+ years, too, also on the church organ, and have only recently started to try and understand this new and modern thing called jazz.

I found Mark Levine's book on Jazz piano to be fairly nice and beginner friendly. Later on, I dove into a more theoretical and systematic German book that's more or less based on Berklee. I don't think it's been translated in english yet.

u/DFXDreaming · 1 pointr/Jazz

Regarding Bill Evans' style, a google search for "Bill Evans Voicings" pulled up all kinds of info(Pages and pages worth).

For Gil, there's a little less but still enough to go off of from a google search. Here's one page I pulled that seems to have a lot of info

Here's an amazon link for transcriptions of the original Birth of the Cool

Other than that, Google will be your best friend.

u/Sesquipedaliac · 1 pointr/Jazz

This one is pretty much the standard Real Book, based on my experience.

Personally, I'm partial to this version, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone else actually use it.

u/mrstillwell · 1 pointr/jazzguitar

the fifth edition is the classic 'illegal' version of the book. it has some errors but it also has a lot of the hipper changes in it. It will be hard to find in a store cuz its 'illegal' but you can find a pdf of it on piratebay no problem.

the 6th edition is the legal version published by hal leonard. It's designed to be a legal replacement for the 5th edition. the page turns are 99% the same and the errors have been fixed. Its usually priced lower than the original and can be bought or ordered easily from any dealer. Some of the changes aren't as hip but its a suitable replacement to the original, shady 5th edition. I reccomend getting the 6th edition first.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Real-Book-Edition-Instruments/dp/B000VZSOI4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1394211867&sr=8-2&keywords=the+real+book

The Sherr music books are really good but they're not standard like the original illegal book or the 6th edition.

http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Real-Book-Volume/dp/0961470143/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1394211895&sr=8-11&keywords=the+real+book

u/DatOrganistTho · 0 pointsr/piano

http://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Changes-Jazz-Improvisation-Centers/dp/0849725941

This guy says that if you know scales, you can play jazz.

Shameless plug, he is a friend of mine.