[Dixielandjazz] Sheet music

[John Farrell]

Steve Barbone said :

 "Some Chord sources are 1) transcriptions from records. 2) transcriptions
from original
sheet music, 3) transcriptions from non-original sheet music 4) Somebody's
own writing
them from what he heard., using substitutions or extended chords etc., etc.
(snip)

For example, the chords I sent you were transcribed from the Original Sheet
Music by a
well known OKOM pianist / horn player / band leader. Therefore, unless he
made an
error, or I did in transcribing them on the I Mac, those are the correct
original
chords as written by the original composer or copywriter. (Note, not a 9th
in the batch
because technically I don't think people wrote 9ths in those days.)"

With regard to OKOM tunes I always treat sheet music as a guide, not
something to be followed slavishly. I remember a Eubie Blake story - his
music publisher told him never to forget that his tunes would be purchased
by little old ladies with small hands therefore he should not make them
difficult to play. The consequence is that many popular song piano scores
are just skeletons of the composers' true intentions - if we were to play
only what is written on the paper the resultant music would sound very dull
indeed.

Furthermore I have come across many examples of questionable chord sequences
printed on published music, I never take them as gospel. The same is true of
some fake books, illustrated by the differences in "Sorry" recently
submitted by listmates (at least one of them was downright wrong!).

The most important thing about playing music is the sound which comes from
your instrument, not the notes and chords written on the sheet music you
just bought from the music store. So many people make the mistake of
believing that because something appears in print it carries authority and
must be treated as definitive - no matter who wrote it, if you are not
satisfied with the quality of published sheet music do not feel imprisoned
by its "originality" - throw it away and work up a more fulfilling version
of the tune. I do it all the time.

John Farrell
http://homepages.tesco.net/~stridepiano/midifiles.htm