Hal Leonard Real & Fake Books

A musician's collection of sheet music is nearly as important as the instrument itself. We can't memorize every song that was ever written, so it's definitely worth having Hal Leonard's real and fake books on hand to look up the melodies you don't know by heart. As always with Hal Leonard, you'll find that the selection of books to choose from is very broad, offering something to suit every musician's tastes and style. Some of the most fundamental items in a musician's library are fake books. These got their name from their simple approach: you get the sheet music and only the sheet music. With no extensive directions or fluff, the books give you total freedom to take the music and run with it - or "fake it" - hence the name. One of the most iconic fake books ever produced is ironically called the Real Book, and it's been a jazz standby ever since the 1970s. Today, Hal Leonard offers that along with dozens of other fake books so you can build an impressive library.

If you're looking for something a bit more rounded than a fake book, check out some of Hal Leonard's real books. A great example is the Hal Leonard Real Jazz Book, which includes lead sheets and lyrics as well as the basic music. Plenty of styles are represented in this book, packed with more than 500 songs from artists like Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, John Coltrane, Al DiMeola, Ella Fitzgerald and more.

For a more focused collection, you can also find books devoted to specific artists or bands, such as the Beatles Fake Book, which contains over 200 of the Fab Four's iconic songs. Other compilations are fine-tuned for particular instruments, like the Hal Leonard Rock Guitar Fake Book for guitar or the Three Chord Songs Fake Book for piano.

Real or fake, genre or instrument, no matter what you're looking for in a songbook, Hal Leonard has something that's right for you. Take a look through the extensive range of real and fake books in this section and you'll definitely discover lots of worthwhile additions to your music collection.