How to Make Your Own Jazz Real Book

The Real Book changed jazz. A single spiral-bound volume with lead sheets for hundreds of standards — melody, chords, and form on one page. For decades, every jazz musician had a dog-eared copy on their music stand.

But the Real Book doesn't have your repertoire. It doesn't know your keys, your arrangements, or the tunes your trio actually calls at gigs. Here's how to make a real book that's genuinely yours.

What Is a Real Book?

A real book (or "fake book") is a collection of lead sheets — one page per song showing the melody, chord symbols, and song form. The name comes from the idea that you can "fake" any song if you have the changes and the head written out.

The original Real Book was created by students at Berklee College of Music in the 1970s. It was photocopied and passed around illegally for years before Hal Leonard published an official version. Today, many jazz musicians build their own collections tailored to their playing.

Why Make Your Own?

The standard Real Book is a great reference, but it has limitations for working musicians:

• Wrong keys. The Real Book is in concert pitch. If you play Bb or Eb instruments, you need transposed charts. And if your singer does "Autumn Leaves" in Cm instead of Em, you need it in your key.
• Missing tunes. Your session might call tunes that aren't in any published book — originals, deep cuts, or arrangements specific to your group.
• Clutter. The Real Book has 400+ tunes. You don't play 400 tunes. A focused book with 40–60 standards you actually know is faster to navigate.
• Your arrangements. Maybe your band plays "All The Things You Are" with a specific intro, or your trio has a reharmonized bridge. A custom book captures your versions.

What to Include

A good personal real book typically contains:

• Lead sheets — melody + chord symbols for standards you play regularly
• Chord-only charts — for tunes where you know the head but need the changes
• Arrangement notes — intros, endings, key changes, or form variations your group uses
• A chord reference page — common jazz voicings for quick lookup (use our chord reference builder)

If you write your own lead sheets, the Lead Sheet Editor can help you create clean, printable charts with chord diagrams and transposition built in.

How to Organize Your Real Book

Most published real books are alphabetical, but for a working musician's book there are better options:

• By feel or tempo: Ballads, medium swing, up-tempo, Latin, waltz. This makes it easy to find the right tune for the moment.
• By key: Group tunes in Bb together, tunes in F together. Great for practice sessions focused on specific keys.
• By session set: If you play regular gigs, organize by set. First set openers, second set deep cuts, encore closers.
• By era or style: Bebop, hard bop, standards, bossa nova, modal jazz. Useful if your group plays across styles.

Use chapter dividers to mark each section. They appear in the table of contents, so anyone can flip to "Ballads" or "Latin" in seconds.

Building It Step by Step

1. Collect your lead sheets. Gather PDFs of every standard you play. Transcribe any missing tunes or use the Lead Sheet Editor to create them.
2. Upload to MakeMySongBook. Drag all your PDFs into the builder at once.
3. Create chapters. Add dividers for your categories — by feel, key, or however you want to organize.
4. Order tunes within chapters. Drag songs into the right sections and arrange them in playing order.
5. Add a cover. Something simple — "My Real Book" with your name. You'll want to know whose book is whose at a session.
6. Export and print. Use full-book (A4) format for a proper real book. Spiral binding is ideal — the book lies flat on the stand and you can fold it to show a single page.

Tips for Jazz Sessions

• Keep a pencil in the spine. Mark tempo, feel, or arrangement notes in real time. Pencil erases — ink doesn't.
• Print a transposed version for Bb/Eb players. If your band has horns, make a concert-pitch book and a transposed book. Same tunes, same order, different keys.
• Update it seasonally. After a few months of gigs, you'll know which tunes to drop and which to add. Print a fresh edition. Real books are living documents.
• Laminate the cover. Session books take a beating. A laminated cover page and spiral binding make it last years.
• Number your pages. When someone calls a tune, "page 23" is faster than "flip to the Latin section." MakeMySongBook adds page numbers and a table of contents automatically.

Frequently Asked Questions