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Topic: urgent: playing out of a fake book  (Read 2448 times)

Offline le_poete_mourant

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urgent: playing out of a fake book
on: June 17, 2006, 04:33:11 AM
Since this has to do with notation, this is where I'm chucking the topic. 

I have to play a gig tomorrow night with a jazz band.  It's the first time I've done something playing out of a fake book (although it's called the real book).  For the most part I'm set with chords and stuff.  I just have a few questions I was wondering if somebody could help me out with. 

1)  Major 7th with flat9 - do you lower the 9th note of the major scale a half step?
2)  When playing a chord such as G7 while in the key of C minor, must you obey the B-flat of that key? 
3)  Diminished chord diminishes the 3 and 5 of a major chord, right?
4)  What the heck is a sustained 4 (sus4)? 

Offline jlh

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Re: urgent: playing out of a fake book
Reply #1 on: June 17, 2006, 04:44:20 AM
Since this has to do with notation, this is where I'm chucking the topic. 

I have to play a gig tomorrow night with a jazz band.  It's the first time I've done something playing out of a fake book (although it's called the real book).  For the most part I'm set with chords and stuff.  I just have a few questions I was wondering if somebody could help me out with. 

1)  Major 7th with flat9 - do you lower the 9th note of the major scale a half step?
2)  When playing a chord such as G7 while in the key of C minor, must you obey the B-flat of that key? 
3)  Diminished chord diminishes the 3 and 5 of a major chord, right?
4)  What the heck is a sustained 4 (sus4)? 


1) Yes
2) No -- you're playing a dominant chord in this case, which is Major.
3) In short, yes... diminished means all the chord tones are related by minor 3rd. Cdim is C-Eb-Gb.
4) sus4 is a suspended 4, not sustained 4.  It means take the 3rd out and replace it with a 4th.  An example would be Csus4, in which case the notes would be C-F-G.  A sus2 is closely related, and means basically the same thing, in that a Csus2 means play C-D-G.
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Offline prometheus

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Re: urgent: playing out of a fake book
Reply #2 on: June 17, 2006, 10:51:05 AM
Often a diminished chord on a jazz sheet is not a triad  but a full diminished chord 1 b3 b5 bb7
"As an artist you don't rake in a million marks without performing some sacrifice on the Altar of Art." -Franz Liszt

Offline jlh

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Re: urgent: playing out of a fake book
Reply #3 on: June 17, 2006, 11:19:13 AM
Often a diminished chord on a jazz sheet is not a triad  but a full diminished chord 1 b3 b5 bb7

True, and if that's the case it will be easily evident because it will say 7 in the symbol.  Such as Cdim7.
. ROFL : ROFL:LOL:ROFL : ROFL '
                 ___/\___
  L   ______/             \
LOL "”””””””\         [ ] \
  L              \_________)
                 ___I___I___/

Offline prometheus

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Re: urgent: playing out of a fake book
Reply #4 on: June 17, 2006, 01:36:48 PM
I guess now we can also add that one has all the freedom to chance chords from dim7 to diminished triads, to dom7, to half diminished and everything else you want.
"As an artist you don't rake in a million marks without performing some sacrifice on the Altar of Art." -Franz Liszt

Offline le_poete_mourant

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Re: urgent: playing out of a fake book
Reply #5 on: June 17, 2006, 04:12:13 PM
Thanks a bunch!   8)

Offline prometheus

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Re: urgent: playing out of a fake book
Reply #6 on: June 17, 2006, 04:27:42 PM
Ooh, I just reread and saw you are going to play with a band. To avoid confusion. If you are going to play a standard differently from the way it is in your fake book you need to make sure the other band members know about this.

Actually, often different rea/fake books will give different chords for the same standards so you need to make sure that everyone knows what everyone else is going to do.

Since I have no experience with this at all I can't really help any more with this. My point was just that the chords given by a fake book isn't the 'official' way to play that standard. There is no official way.
"As an artist you don't rake in a million marks without performing some sacrifice on the Altar of Art." -Franz Liszt
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