....... Says who?

Hi all,

Just received the 'Best Fake Book Ever' 'C version' from Hal Leonard.

To call it the 'C' version is extremely misleading, be that intentionally or not.

There are songs in flat and sharp keys all over the place.

I bought the book thinking, perhaps naively that the songs were arranged in the key of C major not Eb,Bb, Ab etc etc....although I understand the language of music very well..... I work mainly as a piano/vocal entertainer whose sings, talks etc etc. this means that songs written using predominantly white notes are easy to learn, play and remember.

The whole point of getting the book was to greatly expand my repertoire quickly and painlessly but it seems this book will be helpful, but not nearly as useful as I had hoped.

I had it shipped to Norway from the UK so had no chance to actually see the arrangements.

Maybe paradoxically the Eb & Bb versions are all written in 'C' major?

I just do not see the point in advertising a book as the 'C' version and including hundreds of songs written in keys other than 'C'.

Regards Alan

Hal Leonard does publish a few (5 or 6) fake books in the 'Easy' series that have all songs in the key of C.

Otherwise, the C Version means 'for C instruments', piano, guitar, etc, as opposed to say for Saxaphone, etc. It doesnt mean the songs are in the key of C.

Not intentionally and not misleading.

Because those are the original keys for those songs. Duh.

Apparently not. Let's work on that. A C version has tunes in the original keys for instruments that play in the concert key

As others have mentioned, 'C version' in the world of fakebooks means, written for 'C' instruments, not that the songs are in the key of 'C'. Since I haven't yet seen anyone what is meant by this, I thought I'd respond as well.

Instruments like the piano, guitar, flute, trombone, and (as far as I know) all stringed instruments are called 'C' instruments in that what you see is what you get: play a C, get a C. The rest of the wind instruments are known as transposing instruments, and they mostly fall into two categories: Bb and Eb. On Bb instruments, if you play what is notated as a C, out comes a Bb. On Eb instruments, playing a notated C will produce an Eb. This sounds crazy, I realize. The reason this system was developed was so that players could play series of different instruments without having to learn a whole new set of fingerings. A tenor saxophone and an alto saxophone have different ranges - the tenor is pitched a fourth below the alto - but a saxophonist can easily switch back and forth between the instruments because the fingerings are the same. That is, seeing 'C' on the sheet music means the same fingering pattern on both horns, even though the sound the tenor will be a fourth lower than the sound on the alto. In particular, that 'C' will come out a major sixth lower - Eb - on alto, and a major ninth lower - Bb - on tenor. So if you want to actually have the music *come out* in the key of C, you have to write it a major sixth *higher* - in the key of A - for the alto, and a major ninth higher - the key of D - for the tenor. An Eb version of a fakebook will have all of its songs transposed a major sixth higher than the corresponding C version, so that when played on an Eb instrument like an alto saxophone, and likewise for Bb

Great explanation.

Back in the 1920s and 1930s, a variation of saxophone known as C Melody was fairly popular in jazz/dance bands, because the player could read directly off music notation written in C without having to transpose. The C Melody sax was between an alto (Eb) and tenor (Bb) in size. I haven't seen one in many years and, and as far as I know, none have been made for at least a few decades.

Tony Evans

Boy, are you wet behind the ears.

A 'C' version does not imply all the songs are in the key of C, but that the songs are intended for instruments in the Concert key, such as the piano or guitar.

Similarly, a Bb version would be intended for Bb instruments, such as the Tenor Sax, etc.

I still play a C Melody on occasion. Mine is a 1920 Buescher. Really, though, any player of at least intermediate ability is not helped by the transposing or not transposing thing as you are going to be reading from a concert key sheet most of the time. It is surprisingly easy to transpose on an instrument that only plays one note at a time anyway. I play Sopranno sax fairly regularly, and I don't even own any Bb sheet music.

He'll be sending you the bill for the towel when he finds there was no water...

I'm surprised no one has mentioned that a 'C' version is for instruments that play in concert pitch, like a piano or a guitar as opposed to a Bb clarinet, for example. It doesn't mean the songs are all in C major.

I'm surprised that you somehow missed the many posts that did mention that.

I used to own one, and I kinda wish I still had it.

I dont recall ever hearing a C melody sax that sounded good. Same for the soprano saxes for a long time but now they sound better...better made? I always thought Sidney Bechet sounded lousy on his. TS