Editing Real Book (section)

== Background ==
For years, musicians had been producing "lead sheets", so called because they contained only rough outlines of music pieces rather than fully-notated scores. These lead sheets were collected together in volumes and sold to other musicians. These books gave the musician enough basic information—melody, chord symbols, structure, sometimes also lyrics—to "fake" their way through the tune; that is, to perform a credible version of a tune that they might not be familiar with, and for which they lacked a full score. Thus, these collections became known as "fake books".

Early fake books were mainly used by professional bands who performed mostly standards, often more geared to society and dance bands rather than [[jazz ensemble]]s, and devoted much space to [[show tune]]s, novelty tunes, traditional jazz, etc. The first three ''Real Book'' volumes, in contrast, contained many [[bebop]] and other jazz standards that were likely to be encountered on jazz gigs at the time. For this reason, the books were quickly adopted among jazz players in the 1970s, particularly on the [[East Coast of the United States]].

The original ''Real Book'' volumes, like earlier fake books, were printed without securing [[copyright]] releases or paying [[Royalty payment|royalties]], and they were thus illegal. These unlicensed books were all sold through informal connections, such as for cash in the backs of music stores, and between musicians. In 2004, the ''Real Book'' material was acquired by the [[publisher]] Hal Leonard and licensed for legal sale. Many new volumes were eventually added to the series, and some of the errors in the original volumes were corrected. These books also inspired a similar series, offered by the Sher Music Co., called ''The New Real Book''.

''The Real Book'' is published in editions to suit both [[transposing instrument|transposing]] (B{{music|b}}, E{{music|b}}, F) and non-transposing (C) instruments, as well as [[bass clef]] and voice editions ("low" and "high" voice, with lyrics). Each edition is identically paginated.