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What's in a Fake Book.
You will nearly always find a simple lead sheet (melody line plus chords), some also have lyrics, and very few have tablature or instrument specific instructions. Some of these books are available in different versions for different keys but most are in C; Bb and Eb versions for the brass are also common. Most use the treble clef but there are some bass clef alto versions.
Fake books are a very economical way of buying sheet music; it is not uncommon to find 500 or more songs in one book. Fake books can be fairly expensive so it is worth while to check with the supplier what version you are getting etc. before you buy.
Some of the books indexed here are a few years old but hopefully you should still not have too much trouble getting most of them, or more likely, updated versions of them.
I would suggest you start your search at www.sheetmusicplus.com, who have a very good selection as well as good search facilities and include content indexes for their books. Ebay can also be a good source for secondhand fakebooks at very good prices, beware though, I have seen very poor quality photocopies offered for sale so check what you are getting.
How the index is organised & finding a song
The songs/tunes are in alphabetical order with 15 separate song titles on each page. Next to each title you will find a code e.g. "50S" this is the abbreviation for the book titled "The 50s", each book has it's own abbreviation. The song index pages are ordered on the first 3 characters in the song/tune title; if these are the same after 15 entries, a numeric suffix is added starting at 10. Some of the song titles have extra information such as the page number or author name added after the title. For indexing purposes, where a title began with "The" this has been removed. Click a letter on the nav-bar for the initial letter of the song title required.
Fake Books & Real Books indexed | |
50S | The 50s(HL.240240) |
666FSB | The 666 fake song book |
AJFB | The Amazing jazz fake book(IF0489) |
BFB | The Blues Fake Book(HL.240082) |
BFBE | The Best Fake Book Ever(HL.240083) |
BRFB | The Big red fake book-giant hits of the 50's, 60's and 70's(F1069FBX) |
BS | Broadway Songs (HL.240157) |
CFB2 | Classical Fake Book - 2nd Ed(HL.240044) |
CFB | The Celtic Fake Book(HL.240153) |
CRFB | Classic Rock Fake Book - 2nd Ed(HL.240108) |
CT200 | Columbia's top 200 of 1987-88 fake book for all keyboards 200 great songs(F2896FBX) |
DFB | The Disney Fake Book(HL.240039) |
EGFB | The Easy Gospel Fake Book(HL.240169) |
EREFB | Early Rock'N'Roll Era Fake Book(HL.240167) |
FFB | The Folksong Fake Book(HL.240151) |
GRGFB | The Greatest Rock Guitar Fake Book(HL.240148 |
HFB | The Hymn Fake Book(HL.240145) |
HLRJFB | The Hal Leonard Real Jazz Fake Book(HL.240097) |
HLRJSFB | The Hal Leonard Real Jazz Standards Fake Book(HL.240173) |
JCRRB | Just Classic Rock Real Book(WB.FBM0005) |
JFB | The Jewish Fake Book(HL.330350) |
JJRB | Just Jazz Real Book(WB.FBM0003BF) |
JSRB | Just Standards Real Book(FBM0002) |
LRB | The Latin Real Book(HL.240138) |
MACU | The most amazing colossal ultimate selection(HL00240024) |
MDRB | Miles Davis Real Book(HL.240137) |
MFB | The Movie Fake Book(HL.240033) |
MFFB | The most fantastic fakebook in the world - Warner Bros |
MH | Motown Hits(HL.240125) |
NRB | The New Real Book(SR.NRB1C) |
NRBV2 | The new real book. v2(Sher Music Co) |
NRBV3 | The New real book V3(Sher Music Co) |
PCFB | The Performer's Complete Fake Book(HL.240058) |
PPFB | The Professional pianist's fake book(HL00290084) |
PSPRFB | Professional singer's pop rock fake book Hal Leonard HL00240091 |
RB | The Real Book(HL.240224) |
RJSFB | Real Jazz Standards Fake Book(HL.240172) |
RLBFB | The Real Little Best Fake Book Ever(HL.240017) |
RLUBFB4 | The Real Little Ultimate Broadway Fake Book-4th Edition(HL.240111) |
RLUFB3 | The Real Little Ultimate Fake Book-3rd Edition(HL.240027) |
RLUJFB | The Real Little Ultimate Jazz Fake Book(HL.240018) |
RWLPFB | Richard Wolfe's legit professional fake book |
SRB | The Standards Real Book(SR.SRBC) |
UBFB | The Ultimate Broadway Fake Book 4th ed Hal Leonard. (HL.240046) |
UCFB | The Ultimate Country Fake Book 4th Ed - Hal Leonard (HL.240049) |
UFB3 | The Ultimate Fake Book 3rd - Hal Leonard HL.240024 |
UJFB | The Ultimate Jazz Fake Book - Hal Leonard (HL.240079) |
WLFB | Wedding & Love Fake Book - Hal Leonard HL.240041 |
YFFB | Your First Fake Book - Hal Leonard HL.240112 |