I've just added a new section to the PSR2000 Tutorial site, but it is one that I think many users may find useful -- Fake Books.
It provides, in one central location, a look at most of the popular fake books on the market today with pictures, brief descriptions, no. pages, no. songs, links to the full table of contents, and links to where you can buy it. I still have one more section to add tonight, and, some proof-reading to complete, but it is, essentially, done. Here is the link:
http://pages.prodigy.net/watersj/Yamaha2K/Resources/FakeBooks/fakebooks.html

I will be adding a section on "How To" books that help players figure out how to play from a fake book. If anyone has some books you think should be added to the list, please let me know.

[This message has been edited by Joe Waters (edited 08-20-2002).]

Joe .... this is a great service you provide .... I was quite interested in the fake books with the chord variations in it, not having the ear or theory education to figure them out myself.... I have one question, not for you, but for publishers: Looking at the "index of songs" in each book, I see there are MANY which I will never play .... With all the modern technology, why isn't there a way (obviously, if there is, I'm not aware of it) to publish a full list of songs available and allow the user to choose which song he/she wants, download them from the net, and pay accordingly? ... of course I would not then have to purchase 3-4 books to get what I want, but I would CERTAINLY purchase some songs .....
t.
Joe ..... thanks again for the resource....
t.

Joe .... this is a great service you provide .... I was quite interested in the fake books with the chord variations in it, not having the ear or theory education to figure them out myself.... I have one question, not for you, but for publishers: Looking at the "index of songs" in each book, I see there are MANY which I will never play .... With all the modern technology, why isn't there a way (obviously, if there is, I'm not aware of it) to publish a full list of songs available and allow the user to choose which song he/she wants, download them from the net, and pay accordingly? ... of course I would not then have to purchase 3-4 books to get what I want, but I would CERTAINLY purchase some songs .....
t.
Joe ..... thanks again for the resource....
t.

Joe:
What a great site! I just found it thru this post and it's an incredible source of information for us PSR2K owners. Yamaha should be paying you for this great service you are providing. Their sites are not geared to help present owners, they are there only to generate more sales and you put them to shame when it comes to the 2000.
So my thanks to you and I am sure I speak for the rest of the forum.
On the Fake book issue, I happen to own the very same one you are showing on the site, and it's a great one; I also have others and as soon as I gather them I will submit information about them.
Joe, many thanks for the positive feedback on Cole Porter's "you do something to me"; and for taking the time to listen.
Best regards,
Mario

Hi Joe, Just visited your site again. What a wonderful job you are doing for Yamaha keyboard players. Maybe we can get you to buy the new Technics KN7000 so you will do a similar site for the Technics folks.

joe
I'll just add my voice to the others ...great site!
rgtaa

I'm afraid you may have misunderstood that link. The introductory page happens to show a single fake book picture, but the category links on that page will take you to descriptions and links for individual books. There are 76 fake books listed on that site (plus 6 How To books). I think I've got all the major books on the market.
The books are shown in various groups. There are a dozen in the "Ultimate" group (500 to over 1000 songs), 7 in the "Real Little" group, 12 in the "Moderate" group (200-500 songs); 12 in the "Jazz Bible" group (100-200 songs); 7 in "Chord Changes", 6 in the "Easy Series", 12 in the Sher/Warner page, and 8 in the "Paperback Songs" page.

You're in luck, Tony. There already is just such a service. Try the link below to go to Sunhawk.com. They have 15,000 songs you can download digitally right now. They also have 170,000 songs you can get via mail order. My son was looking for Mr. Bo jangles and it wasn't in ANY of those fakebooks, but he was able to buy it from this site.
http://www.sunhawk.com/music.htm

Fantastic site! I went to half.com and found some good prices on one of them. Thanks!

Beakybird

Hi Joe. Yep, I agree with everyone else, thanks to your hard work & dedication, your fantastic PSR2000 is the best PSR2000 site ANYWHERE!

Yep, it's great that 'sheet music' is now available for direct internet download from various internet retailers. In addition to the one you mentioned, here are a couple of other internet downloadable sheet music dealers:
http://www.musicnotes.com/default.asp
http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/

Does anyone have any first hand purchasing experience (good/bad) with any of these or other downloadable internet music dealers? Recommendations?

In regard to 'fakebook style' lead sheets: I'm still not able to find a vendor who sells downloadale individual leadsheet style songs which include ONLY the treble clef melody line and chords/lyrics.

I (personally) find typical sheet music style arrangements (piano/guitar/vocal) pretty useless as the cheesy arrangements usually never reflect the way the song was actually performed by the original artist anyway. I (personally) prefer to work with a lead sheet consisting of just the chords & lead melody line, and then flush out (on my own, from the record) a more appropriate & professional sounding arrangement.

The other advantage of working with a lead sheet, is that the entire song will fit on a single page (no page flipping necessary).
I hope individual lead sheet style songs will be available for downloadable purchase somewhere soon. - Scott

[This message has been edited by Scottyee (edited 08-20-2002).]

Are their any FREE lead sheet music sites that someone could recommend?

Finding TABS on the internet is easy ... but as anyone had success with LEAD sheet music?
I found this site: http://www.freesheetmusicguide.com/pop.htm

But I figured someone knows a BETTER SITE

Joe: Thanks for the add'l info ....Like Scott, I am looking for a site that has lead sheets with chords and lyrics ... With today's technology, the music books, fake books, etc. are probably published by use of computer files ... I would think it should be easy enough for the publisher to transfer that to a downloadable file .... If I can get a fake book with 1000 tunes (most of which I will NOT use)for $25 - 30 bucks (2.5 - 3 cents each!!!), why not let ME select the tunes I want and charge me 5 - 10 cents each? ..... I wouldn't mind paying $25 - 30 for 500 tunes I was going to USE ...and if it could be like the fake book that has the chord variations in it ... WOW .....
t.

I gave up trying to find exactly what I wanted so I do my own sheets with Lime notation software. I've done about 400 sheets with just the lead melody line, lyrics, and chord names. I limit each song to a single sheet and print them back to back for a loose leaf notebook that I use. But I still buy just about every fake book that I can find, and use them for backup and reference.

I have some old fake books that I acquired about 30 years ago. . . and they weren't new then. They have some really obscure songs in them. They were not "legal", and have no publisher listed.
I would share them if there were an easy way.
DonM

This may answer some of the questions here about "free sheet music" downloads and more. I use PG Music's Band-In-A-Box v.11 to create fakebook-style lead sheets from existing midi files, both my own and those from the web. This is virtually like being able to download free sheet music. BIAB's "import chords from midi file" feature creates editable and printable lead-sheet sheet music that is actually much easier to read than standard fakebook music. Using a MIDI file search engine like:
http://www.musicrobot.com

you can find and download midi files of specific songs. Also, you can do a Google search for "band in a box fakebooks" and find downloadable personal collections of songs on the web that spans into the thousands.

I understand that the new version of PG Music's Power Tracks Pro ($29) now also has the "import chord" feature from BIAB. Both programs are available from:
http://www.pgmusic.com/

Thanks for the info!
GREAT!

THE PRO!
Could you post a Band in a Box link that has some collections of Fakebooks... because when I did Google search on "Band in a Box Fake BOOKS" all types of stuff came up ... but not related to what we are talking about.
Thanks
rgtaa

I tried the Google search, although "fakebooks" had to be changed to "fake books". It did produce a lot of hits. One of the first seemed to have lots of links to BIAB-related sites, including those with fake books:
http://www.alisdair.com/gearsoftware/biablinks.html

If I understand these sites correctly, you will need to have BIAB to take advantage of these files since the files are in a BIAB format.

[This message has been edited by Joe Waters (edited 08-22-2002).]

or if anyone has a zip file name of something good ...that is floating around in the NET that I can look for ... that would be very nice!
Tryed that link on my first google search but on checking out alot of his links ... couldn't actually find them ... only collections of individaul people or folk or some church stuff.

If I know the INTERNET ... the FILES are somewhere!

Sorry I don't have all the links to BIAB fakebooks handy but it sounds like you guys are making progress with a little homework. And yes, the BIAB fakebooks require BIAB for you to hear them. Also there is a newsgroup especially for BIAB users where you can request specific files or links to collections. I don't have the precise name handy but it's something alt.binaries.band-in-a-box. There might be other discussion forums for BIAB out there also. Enjoy!

i guess we are too old to be HAND fed!

Thanks for the info... I had tryed the Newsgroups last night even before you suggested it and only 4 messages on band in a box... advertizing...

I checked with my usually sources and no luck either... I haven't checked mirc yet...

if not Band in a Box format ...i figured there must be a a pdf.format FakeBook somewhere?
That's just Crying to be Downloaded!
Come to me, Baby!

The BIAB type fakebooks only include the chords, 'no' melody line. The reason PG Music and other 3rd party BIAB type fakebook distsributors (Norton Music, etc) are able to offer their fakebooks so cheap is because they don't have to pay any song royalties, as the chord changes (without melody) does not infringe on any copyright retrictions.

Scottylee
Look at ThePRO's links ...it seems there is computer program that is able to make LEAD sheet music from midi songs ... ThePRO can correct me if I'm misunderstanding him.
rgtaa

I often use Lime to make lead sheets from midi files. But in most cases, midi files are not precisely correct with timing and the results are much less than perfect, even after the file is quantized. We wouldn't want our music to sound mechanical anyway would we? So, much work is needed to get satisfactory results this way.

With Band in the Box: http://www.pgmusic.com/bandbox.htm

or MidiNotate: http://www.notation.com/

I've been able to create lead sheet type charts (single treble clef melody lead & chords/lyrics only) from imported midi files. Unfortunately though, I'm rarely able to get the entire song to fit on a single printed 8-1/2 x 11 page, because BIAB doesn't support printing: repeat symbols, 1st & 2nd ,or tag endings, which would greatly condense the 'print out'. BIAB & Midi Notate are tremondously helpful though because they can automatically figure out the chord progression of any imported midi file. For a more professional looking (condensed on 1 page) lead sheet, it's fairly easy to transfer the chord info to a dedicated music notation program like Encore, Overture, Sibelius, or Finale.

Scott

------------------
http://scottyee.com

Yes, to reiterate; you can make leadsheets from MIDI files using Band In A Box, and they can be single or double-staffed w/chords and lyrics. I generally make one or two-paged single-staff melody/chord sheets similar to fakebooks for myself. You can define the number of measures and lines of staff that will be printed on each page. You can define which MIDI channels are used to determine the chord structure. With a little effort, many songs can be printed on one page.

I should mention that one huge advantage this gives you over Hal Leonard fakebooks is that you can transpose the song.

The BIAB fakebooks (BIAB files in large collections) I have found on the web also can be used to create lead sheets just as you can with midi files, and I have found them to be complete with melody many times. I have a lot of songs that were distributed without the melody those probably did come from PG Music, but I have a bunch that are complete that didn't. I've collected them too long to know who or where they all came from but I assume that people add the melody and stick them on their sites without regard to copyrights.

At any rate, between my thousands of midis and BIAB files I have an immense collection of printable sheet music at hand at no cost, save what BIAB costs.

great stuff guys!
Thanks!

If only xmas came early this year ... and a magical link appeared here ... with fakebook zip file!