iGigBook - A Promising New iPad App Ver. 1.55

If you've got an Apple iPad and a collection of Fakebooks in PDF format, I highly recommend checking 'iGigBook' out.

Though it took a bit of time for me to set up initially ( Useful iGigBook Quick Start Setup Guide) , I felt it well worth the effort as it now allows me to subsequently quickly call up & display just about any song included in my substantial PDF fake book library. Now I can simply type in the name of the tune and the app not only lists which book(s) it's included in, but displays the lead sheet of each one of them as well, giving me the opportunity me to choose 'which version/rendition' I like best, and then optionally adding it to my set playlist.

Before discovering iGigBook, I appreciated having nearly my complete fake book library collection available in PDF format on my iPad. Problem with that though was with over 30+ books to go thru, it remained frustrating to keep track of what book(s) contained the particular song version I was wanting to pull up,especially when some books contain versions with different chords. iGigBook solves this time consuming dilemma.

iGigbook includes song page indexes to most all the popular leading pdf fake books. After installing the App on the iPad, simply copy all your PDF Fakebooks onto your iPad and link them to the 'song indexes' included in iGigBook. In the App's song search window, type in the name of the song and all occurrences with the word(s) included in what you type pop up with the a link for you to display the lead sheet instantly from any given book.

That said, a few of the iGigbook fake book indexes to some song page mapping still need some refining as on some occasions the wrong song is displayed, but I trust that can be easily corrected in an OS update. iGigbook also includes an online USER support forum for owners to share their experiences & concerns.

That said, I also own UnRealBook and Good Reader and continue to find both indispensable for individual song lead sheet music display, especially on gigs, but if you've got a large PDF library of 'complete' fake books, imo iGigbook is currently the best App for searching for, calling up, and displaying lead sheets included in your fake book collection library. When I want to use a particular song in a large fake book say for a gig or to annotate later, I prefer to extract that page (using Adobe Acrobat), and open the song indiviually in Good Reader or UnRealBook.

Happy Thanksgiving to all,



Scott

Scott thanks for the tip, I'm going to check out iGigBook. By your description looks to be an excellent tool!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I had the same problem with fakebooks as Scott describes. What I discovered though was half of the listings were duplicates and not each duplicate displayed with the same clarity. My solution was to go through each book and eliminate the duplicates while keeping the best copy of each song. Today I have several thousand PDF leadsheets but each one is the best available copy of that song. What I now do when a new Fakebook or leadsheet is found is to compare it to my current copy and decide if it is worth keeping. Many of the fakebooks have been scanned poorly or printed poorly and simply don't display properly on any device. I try to eliminate those.

Deane

Scott,

I'm going to have to check it out just based on your review.

Question: Where do you find 30 PDF FakeBooks? Are they for sale somewhere?

I only have a few and I've scanned in one book; the R&B Fake Book which took me 3 hours.

Thanks

Is this app or something similar offered for Android based tablets?
Thanks,
DVJ

Al. As far as I'm aware, PDF versions of the fakebooks supported by iGigBook aren't available for sale.

Over the years, I've collected the original paper versions of these old fake books. Since going paperless, as you did, I had to scan & convert some of them myself, but in other instances, was able to locate a public downloadable pdf version using Google Search. I realize this might be a grey area, but since I already own the original paper version of the books,I figured it ok to save myself the trouble of having to scan my entire FB collection myself, though I admit, as Hammer (Deane) said above, that many of the online downloadable ones are of poor scan/print quality, so will probably follow Deane's lead, replacing the inferior pages with better scans from my original paper books, though I don't relish going back up into the attic to clean the dust off of those old book again. - Scott

The following is the current list of fakebooks iGigbook natively includes 'song-page indexes' (index code is shown after book title) to,
of which allows you to manage, search, and quickly call up all lead sheet(s) of a given specific song title:

All Jazz Real Book--ajrealbk
Bach Cello Suites--cellosuite
Bill Evans Fake Book--befakebk
Brazilian Jazz Real Book--braziljrbk
Classic Real Book 5th Ed--crealbk1
Classic Real Book 5th Ed 2--crealbk2
Classic Real Book 5th Ed 3--crealbk3
Classical Fake Book--classicfb
Cuban Fake Book--cufakebk
Jazz Fakebook--jfakebk
Jazz LTD--jazzltd
Jazz of the 50s--bjazz50
Latin Fake Book--ltfakebk
Legit Professional Fake Book--rwlpfbk
Library of Musicians' Jazz--lmjazz
Original, Legal, Musician's--olmfakebk
Pat Metheny Song Book--patmetheny
R&B Fake Book 2nd Ed.--rnbfakebk
Real Jazz Book--realjazzbk
Sample Book--sample
Straight Ahead Jazz Fakebook--safakebk
The Book--thebook
The Colorado Cookbook--colcookbk
The European Real Book--eurealbk
The Firehouse Jazz Band Fake Book--fjfakebk
The Latin Real Book--ltrealbk
The New Real Book Vol 1--nrealbk1
The New Real Book Vol 2--nrealbk2
The New Real Book Vol 3--nrealbk3
The Real Book Of Blues--rbblues
The Real Christmas Book--realxmasbk
The Real Easy Book--reasybk
The Real Vocal Book--crealbkv
The Standards Real Book--strealbk
The World’s Greatest Fake Book--wgfakebk
This Is The Ultimate Fake Book--ulfakebk
557 Standards--557standrd
Beatles Fake Book--beatlesfb
Classic Real Book 5th Ed Bb--crealbk1bb
Classic Real Book 5th Ed 2 Bb--crealbk2bb
Classic Real Book 5th Ed 3 Bb--crealbk3bb
Classic Real Book 5th Ed Eb--crealbk1eb
Classic Real Book 5th Ed 2 Eb--crealbk2eb
Classic Real Book 5th Ed 3 Eb--crealbk3eb
Classic Rock Fake Book--crockfb
Country Fake Book--countryfb
Disney Fake Book--disneyfake
Folk Song Fake Book--folksngfb
Jazz 1200--dynamic
Just Jazzs Real Bookk--justjazzrrb
Just Standards Real Bookk--juststandrb
Movie Fake Book 4th Ed.--moviefkbk
Real Book 6th Edition--realbk1h
Real Book 6th Edition Bb--realbk1hbb
Real Book 6th Edition Eb--realbk1heb
Real Book 2 6th Edition--realbk2h
Real Book 2 6th Edition Bb--realbk2hbb
Real Book 2 6th Edition Eb--realbk2heb
Real Jazz Standards Fake Book--rjstandfbk
The Blues Fake Book--bluesfb
The Handbook of Jazz Standards--hjazzstand
The New Real Book Vol 1 Bb--nrealbk1bb
The New Real Book Vol 1 Eb--nrealbk1eb
The New Real Book Vol 2 Bb--nrealbk2bb
The New Real Book Vol 2 Eb--nrealbk2eb
The New Real Book Vol 3 Bb--nrealbk3bb
The New Real Book Vol 3 Eb--nrealbk3eb
The Real Rock Book Volume I--realrockb1
The Standards Real Book Bb--strealbkbb
The Standards Real Book Eb--strealbkeb
The Ultimate Pop/Rock Fake Book--ulpoprock
Ultimate Broadway Fake Book 4th Ed.--ulbdwyfkbk
Ultimate Christmas Fake Book--ulxmasfkbk
Best Fake Book Ever 2nd Ed--bestfbevr2
Wedding & Love Fake Book--wedlovefb

iGigbook states: We do not provide PDF books only the indexes. The best source for any of the music books that we index is the publisher. Contact them with your inquires about which books are available and how you can obtain them. We do not engage in nor do we advocate the distribution of copyrighted material. We also do not advocate that you go to sites like 4shared.com or scribd.com and search for books that may be available for download there.

Here's a cool new recently added feature included in iGigbook.
It's a Fakebook of chord changes to 1200 popular songs standards.
The big appeal is that iGigbook will transpose and display this Fakebook's chords
and display the chart in any given key specified by you, and on the fly. You simply need to be connected to the internet via wifi or 3g when transposing.

Transposable Chord Chart Fakebook

Scott
Scott

hi Scott

here's a really basic question that is related: how do I get the various fake books I have on CD Rom into the ipad 2 in the first place?
I have that disc w/ all those PDFs and have never been able to figure it out.

thanks in advance! hope all is well...

Hi Tom, great to hear from you.

To get your PDF fakebooks on your iPad, you need to install a PDF reader app for iPad, and the one I recommend specifically dedicated to the specific fakebooks in your collection is iGigBook.

Purchase, download, and install iGigbook onto your iPad. Get it here.

After installed, connect your iPad2 to your PC/Mac via USB cable and sync it to iTunes on your computer. In iTunes, in the left-hand column, select your iPad Device name, then select "Apps" in the menu across top of iTunes screen. Scroll down to the Apps Section, and select "iGigBook". Insert your CD into your PC and open the folder where your pdf fakebooks are. Simply drag the pdf book files into the associated iTunes 'Documents' Window and they will be copied over to your iPad in the iGigBook folder. You will then be able to manage & view them when you launch iGigBook on your iPad. enjoy.

Scott

Does anyone have the Real Book fifth edition in BASS clef for PDF format? I'd love to use it with one of my young standup bass students, and all I have are the C,Bb and Eb books. Thanx!

I of course (like you) don't condone downloading copyrighted PDF books,
but (via Google search) see it's on 4Shared: here

That said, in the case of 'The Real Book fifth edition',
that edition of the book was produced with no royalties paid to the composers whose songs appear in that book,
so consequently, the actual book itself violates copyright laws and technically illegal.
Before the digital age, the paper bound version of the book was usually sold surreptitiously in local music stores,
often hidden behind the counter for customers who asked. Here's more interesting information & history on the 'original' "The Real Book".

Scott

A little colloquial “Fake Book” history: Back in the early ‘50’s, before “Fake Books” were sold surreptitiously in music stores, it was an exciting escapade to procure one. Here’s how we purchased our first “Fake Book”; we contacted a guy who knew guy, we were given a description of a car, then we were instructed to go to a busy side street in Philadelphia, find the car, and on the back seat, driver’s side, we would find “the package”. We put the money on the seat and took “the package”.
Ciao,
Jerry

Uncle Dave and Fran, this was pre-Benny