Realbook Real Book Changes Chords

[Keith88]

Good to participate in a thread addressed by many of the most active forum participants.

There are many important points that have been discussed:

• Like Jerry, I am a pianist who only uses bass and drum sounds for backing. I regard the chord symbols only as a memory aid and often prefer "plain vanilla" symbols. I'll more sophisicated chord alterations on the fly.
• I rarely play the exact chords found in any fake book. I rarely use a chord chart that someone else has previously posted without at least a small amout of editing. I rarely post a chord chart with the original fakebook or sheet music chords. I like to listen to different performances and take from them what I like. I agree with Bobsax that this creates issues when a group of musicians use somewhat different chord charts for the same song. Most frequently, when I post a chart, I will follow the title with "(k ver)" to indicate that I the arrangement is mine, rather than standard.
• Most of us have many playlists on our devices, so many as to make things unwieldy. I suggested some time ago that a folder system be implemented.
• Like Cyrille, I play for many singers who sing in different keys, and who may use different introductions and codas. My solution is to make a duplicate chart and follow the title with the singer's name. This requires different playlists for each. Brilliant minds think alike!

I think the most important thing to do is to listen to each other. Sure, we may be doing things somewhat differently, but we do make things work out in the end.