The Real Book - Volume IV – C Edition | 400 Jazz Standards for Piano, Guitar, and C Instruments | Hal Leonard Fake Book with Lead Sheets and Chord ... Music Songbook (Real Books (Hal Leonard))

It feels like almost a lifetime ago when THE REAL BOOK (*THE* as in Volume 1) was sold "behind the counter" at select music shops.Buying it had an air of naughtiness, yet signified both the hipness of the music shop in carrying it, and legitimacy of you as a musician in buying it.The book, of course, was not perfect, in fact, early editions were laden with ridiculous errors, whereas as time past, sheets began to improve.Some years back, Hal Leonard took over the book -- legitimizing it, putting it out at a reasonable price, and further developing the series.Lead sheets, by nature, are merely blueprints of given arrangements -- to declare any leadsheet "perfect" would be silly, but to say that some fakebooks are more functional than others, in my opinion would be a fair statement. To that extent, this book deserves 5 stars, in that, whether or not I agree with every change, it definitely, like V.1-3 of the series, is "on the go" functional.Of course, Volumes 1-3 always existed, IV to the best of my knowledge is new; however, it includes many tunes that were omitted from earlier versions of the legal edition. DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES, ON GREEN DOLPHIN STREET, DOODLIN', A FOGGY DAY, NIGHT AND DAY, FLAMINGO, JUST FRIENDS, RELAXIN' AT CAMARILLO (Parker), SUNNY and SUMMERTIME are included... as are excellent sheets to numerous tunes that have appeared in other fakebooks... Most welcome by myself are Mr. Lucky, Mr. Wonderful, Our Day Will Come, That's Life, Parker's Mood, Azure Te, and Going out of my Head.There are some fun as hell tunes too, like THE PINK PANTHER, THE "IN" CROWD, The Themes to both I Love Lucy and Johnny Carson, Peter Gunn, The Sermon and more.Tunes ranging from Porter Standards, Modern Jazz, Bebop and even some pops, for example "I Shot The Sheriff" are included, also a beautiful ballad, which in my opinion James Brown used to knock the heck out of "IF I RULED THE WORLD" are included.Sorry, I can't name them all.All in all -- this is a fantastic addition to, what I believe is THE must have fake book collection for musicians who don't have photographic memory and a repertoire of 100s/1000s of tunes, and also need sheets that are readable and functional enough to be pulled on the spot.FYI -- most players will be aware of this, but a FAKE BOOK, unless otherwise specified, does not contain scores or lyrics (*in most cases.) These are sheets that contain the chord changes and melody in an easy form to allow gigging musicians to be able to perform and arrange them on the spot. If you're looking for written out sheet music, the REAL BOOK is not for you... and definitely don't purchase it, and embarrass yourself by writing a bad review. Every semi-pro, pro and a billion amateur but Jazz trained musician will be laughing their butts off at you.And so the question arises... Volume V anyone???

Volume IV brings smiles to my face with its wide, fun selection of tunes.I LOVE seeing "I Love Lucy" in here and other TV themes.A really eclectic mix all the way from "I Feel Good" by James Brownto fusion tunes by Mike Stern, Chick Corea, plus plenty of bigband classics, standards, pop songs, Bill Evans tunes, obscure jazz tunes, "Minute by Minute" by the Doobies, etc, etc, a great mix.And a bunch of tunes that were missing from previous Hal LeonardReal Book volumes (when compared to the original underground Real Book) are nowincluded, like "Days of Wine and Roses", "A Foggy Day", and others.The only truly weird thing is the 2 page lead sheet for KoKoby Charlie Parker omits the 'head'. It has the composedinterludes, it has the chords but omits Bird's melody of KoKo.Every bebop fan and musician knows KoKo has a wonderful, composed melody, not justsolos as shown here. It's like a page is missing, but the pages are numbered correctly.There are plenty of other Charlie Parker tunes that ARE included,with correct melody, so .... a minor mystery... or error...

If you think these guys might be slowing down a little after 3 volumes, think again. The good folks at Hal Leonard have stuffed this book with 400 pages of top-notch standards and jazz tunes, with no duplications from prior volumes.Expect nice changes, good calligraphy and paper and a GREAT selection of songs. Just sit down at the piano and easily play through these tunes. You'll quickly gain new-found respect for some chestnuts and discover some (many) new favorites. Some of the tunes include two-staff harmonies and written-out bass lines, and others are helpfully annotated.Spiral bound (!) and ridiculously priced. Highly recommended.

There were definitely some winners here:Key Largo, Strange Fruit, On Green Dolphin Street, The Days of Wine and Roses. But most are obscure tunes that just take up the space. But I want all six volumes so I get a new one every few months.

The Real Books, which are finally legal, are the best Jazz lead sheet books ever, bar none. The melodies and harmonies are accurate and usable as written and should be in every serious Jazz musicians' library.

I have Real Books I, II and III and they have more well known songs than book IV. That does not mean that Book IV has no good songs. It does, but just not as many as the first three Real Books.

I've been using these books sense the 1960's in one form or another and they are great for the giging player.

Would be 5 star if it included the words to the songs.

Content good, nice selection and clear writing but these plastic ring binders don't last long under gigging conditions. A previous one I bought from Amazon has "come apart at the seams" and I will have to have it rebound.

i have got all of the real books .all are full of great tunes and very accurate.

El Real Book, una obra a tener completa (I, II, III, IV) buena calidad de impresión, y que se complementa con las 3 obras de análisis armónico y escalas de cada acorde del Real Book en The Jazz Standards Progressions Book Vol. I: Chord Changes w/full Harmonic Analysis, Chord-Scales and Arrows & Brackets

This book was recommended for me by my teacher to work on jazz chords. It is also very practical to have the official version of a song when you play with others.I am planning to buy the other ones in the future.

There is a black finger print on the convert and the upper left corner were curved. :(Of corse I'm not gonna pay to change it.