[Dixielandjazz] [Dixieland] fake books [long ish post]

[Craig I. Johnson]

Your project is laudable.
Let me put in my 2 cents about the cost of doing
all these charts over again.

(I should also point out that I'd rather you bought
mine, Sheik's or Al Levy's - or anyone else who
has invested the requisite $$ and  time.


I just checked my lead sheets and see that the count
is up to 2521 minus some single digit number that
accounts for a minor number of duplicates.
For your information that took me.
 
(In Sibelius and using Band in a Box to convert to
reasonably dixieland sounding samples.)

I should point out that most of the tunes you may want are probably
in Sheik's book (s). You should compare the cost of your effort
$ for the software and probably not just Sibelius. I've invested in others
as well. Moreover, some sources (like Anderson, from which both Sheik
and I have started, plus Lou Brown's book cost me money.
I use a scanned in copy to start many things thus saving me entry time
but that sometimes requires me to use a graphic processor to improve
them enough for recognition - but it's still easier. And finally, for the
tempo and sound I've invested in many records or mp3 downloads
and some sheet music, or I've invested a large amount of time listening
to streaming copies of finding sheet music on the web..

The result is that it has taken me 4 years to aggregate the list of
tunes I show on my website and I know Sheik has invested even more.

For that reason, I am not interested in actually joining the project
as I need to recompensate myself for the time and $ investment.
This is similar to the discussions of why we don't play for free
----  Despite the fact that Al Levy, Sheik and I DO  contribute pdf copies
of individual (but not collections) of songs to individuals who ask on 
this site.

And finally, although I may have duplicated a number of the tunes in
Sheik's  pop tunes books and thus probably some in Al's, I have
assiduously stayed away from duplicating what Sheik is publishing
--- I use his books for my band instead. Of course I don't constantly
check what he is doing next, so there may be more duplicates that I know,
but I don't copy his stuff and try not to waste my time doing what's 
been done.

I should also point that some of the unintentional duplicates might 
result from
my early attempts to fill in the blanks in Sheiks books as I understood them
at the time, but putting in the tunes from the Firehouse Jazz Band book that
that he did not have (again, at that time.)

My fake sheets (almost all listed at this time at mainely-jazz.com
sell for $5 a song which includes  the midi output from band in a box
and sheets for the C, Bb and Bb bass instruments + lyrics.
Every song has a list of  the major (original)  recordings of it and some
recent ones with a link to that recording redhotjazz.com if they have an
audio of it.

(I should also point out that the four years (so far) that it has taken me
have taken advantage of being retired and a partial (What the hell ist 
that?)
separation from my wife, so it means I've not done much else but these
charts during all that time.)

Regards,
Craig Johnson
.



Craig