learning advice wanted

[joshu]

I would like any "career direction" with my playing and or lead sheet or fake book playing.   Until now I just bought sheet music and memorized it.  The trouble with that is you can forget it.  It has occured to me that if a player could play really well from a fake book or lead sheet it would be a much better way.

 I am now determined to become a real player with my goal being to go as far as possible probably in the direction of combo pianist or accompanist for a singer.    Am I on the right track in thinking the lead sheet approach is where I want to go?   I'm into jazz and pop classics not much classical.  I have a few books etc. on fake book playing so I know the basics.  I know music theory fairly well.  Thanks for any help. 

[whynot]

I'm not sure what you're asking exactly.  Whether being able to play from a fake book is useful?  (I think yes, it's incredibly useful for the playing you're talking about)... or specifically what to do when playing from a fake book?  (also a fun topic)  Well, I'll wait and see, but best wishes in the meantime. 

[Glyptodont]

I suppose there are various degrees of skill to "by ear" players or those using fake books.

My cousin's wife Margaret always used to talk about her sister, and how well she played by ear.   One day I took an item of sheet music with me when I visited them.  It was certainly not especially hard.  I think it was an arrangement of "The Way We Were."

After I played the piece, I asked Margaret if her sister had played like that.  "She played," she said, "but she was not that good."

So I began to wonder how this woman would have sounded if she was "upstaged" by sheet music at about Level 3 difficulty for a popular showtune?  Some of this "play by ear" might have just been a repeated chord background for singing, or something.

I suspect that unless you are a prodigy, you will have trouble improvising enough richness and complexity to match what you could do with sheet music.

I would be interested in what others have to say.

[whynot]

Sheet music of pop and jazz tunes is usually not nearly as interesting or rich as what someone comfortable in those genres would come up with (unless it's a real transcription of a great jazz player).   It's likely to be an intermediate or easier arrangement with simplified rhythms and not a lot of style.  The challenge of  a solo pianist playing songs that were written for band or combo is to express the original style without all those instruments.  Well, that's a little simplified, but this is a big aspect of it.  To make it sound right, you have to come up with many ways to express rhythm and momentum depending on the type of song, play the melody more syncopated than what it would be in a piano arrangement, and have many different ways to fill in the chords with either hand (hopefully none of which would be LH arpeggios for the entire song, unless it's from Cats). 

I definitely see the point of the last poster:  this woman was proclaimed as a great player and wasn't at all.  I see that a lot!  But I think it's due more to the judgment of people who hear them and tell about it than whether or not they play by ear.  The cousin's wife thought the woman was so amazing until she heard someone better.  Playing by ear can be done at a high level, and while there are prodigies doing it, you don't have to be a prodigy to do it well.

Any expansion on the original question?  Best to all...