Customer Reviews

How to Play from a Fake Book (Keyboard Edition)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I am an adult who used fake books extensively as a teenager when I played an accordion in a small combo. Now, (much, much later), I am trying to learn how to play an electronic keyboard competently - with both hands, and Blake Neely's book has become a very valuable addition to my library. I knew how to use a fake book and play melodies with my right hand, but how to play a tune and have it sound nice on a piano (or in my case, a Yamaha PSR540 keyboard)??? In this book, I found the answer. It starts out with a very simple left hand accompaniment - just play the root of the chord. It then continues to build up competence, step-by-step: add a fifth to the root; next learn the composition of a major chord and play the whole chord; learn about chord inversions and how to play them; learn minor chords and their inversions; learn how to easily switch from one chord to another without having to jump all over the keyboard; learn left-hand options that extend beyond simply playing the full block chord, that is, use a two-part chord, alternate the root and fifth in playing the two-part chord, play the chord as an arpeggio.

Throughout all these lessons, songs are provided to try things out and the chosen songs do, indeed, sound great using the technique explained in the lessons. While learning to play from a single line of music, the songs will show both the treble and bass clef so you can see what your left-hand should be doing. It then will provide some songs with just the treble clef to see if you can do it yourself.

Of course, you, the student, have to take the time to learn these chords. The book shows you what they are, but you have to do your homework -- it will take a great deal of practice for most players to see a chord and instantly be able to finger that chord on the keyboard.

I haven't completed this book yet -- I am still in the process of mastering all the major and minor chords so I can play them instantly. But all of the above was covered in the first 27 pages of this 88-page book (including 20 songs to illustrate the lessons). Coming up are seventh chords, augmented and diminshed chords, variations on the seventh chord, ninths and elevenths -- and 40 more songs to illustrate the chords and techniques discussed in each of the lessons. I am looking forward to devouring each lesson and loving every minute of it. After all, with a fake book, one has hundreds of pieces with which to practice the techniques being taught in this book. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who wants to play well from the many fake books available in today's market.

I took piano lessons for 5+ years and in elementary/junior high. I never had the least idea how to make any chord, except by reading the notes. I never knew why one chord was called a G and another was a C7. (Possibly my teachers tried to tell me, and I was not paying attention -- I wasn't the most attentive student.) I started recently trying to play keyboard and I bought one of those little books that shows every chord and its inversions. Very time consuming to look up and try to memorize each chord! But after reading this book and "How to Play the Piano Despite Years of Lessons" I can actually sit down and play any major chord, and figure out any minor, diminished, augmented, and 7th. There is actually a rhyme and reason behind it all! Who knew?! I'm having a lot of fun with these books, although I can't say I'm ready to play for an audience.

This is of the best, most clearly explained books ever written on practical music theory as applies to piano. It teaches, without the use of extensive diatonic charts, the principles of chord composition for all chords in all keys. It does not dumb down theory, rather it explains it in its true form, which is in fact simple. It is a great way for a non-paino playing musician to learn piano.

I'm already a classical pianist with four years of college training and performances, but wanted to learn more modern playing. I picked this book up at the library. This book pretty much teaches you the chords. The other reviewer who said you are only taught block chords plus melody obviously didn't read the whole book. After you learn the chords, you are instructed on how to split them. I tried another book that starts with the more complicated two handing voicings and could never remember the notes in the chord. This book's approach solved that for me and now I went on to use the other book for the more advanced voicings within a week. I recommend Mark Levine's The Jazz Piano Book in addition to this one

This is not a bad book at all. My rating comes from comparing it to the similar "The Next Step" by Bradley Sowash and Scott Houston, to which I gave 4 stars. My complaints with this book are that, aside from the really dorky and thus grating attempts at humour, a few of the songs in this one are obscure to anyone under 50, and quite lame (Streets of Laredo and Simple Gift are two I had to track down and wished I hadn't), without being muscially interesting in any way. The treatment of the LH is not very in-depth. For general readability, TNS is much more engaging, and the goal of producing a full arrangement is kept more clearly in focus, particularly with respect to integrating the LH. So that's what How to Play from a Fake Book is weaker on: presentation and the big picture. Why buy it?

Here's what Neely's book has going for it: the section on chord types is MUCH more extensive than what you get in TNS and his "common tone" exercise is a great way to get the hands used to moving around the keyboard. There are some very entertaining songs to play that use minor and altered chords which take you to regions of keyboard geography you're just never going to get near with TNS. "Ain't Nobody's Bizness" is a great bluesy number to practice substitutions and swing rhythms on, for example. The book is more extensive and goes further than TNS, but the presentation just isn't as engaging as TNS. I'd say they complement each other. I find that I apply the approach to fake book playing from TNS, which I refer to for motivation, while I'm working through the more advanced material in "How to Play from a Fake Book". If you only want to buy one, which one? I'd say TNS if you're more of a beginner and Neely's book if you're a little more advanced, though at some point all you'll need is a decent fake book and a chord dictionary.

Let's start off with some assumptions:
You have bothered to spend the few weeks it takes to learn how to read music, even if only slowly.
You are mainly interested in playing pop music (rock, country, soul, r&b etc.) as opposed to jazz or classical (not that this book can't help you with the latter as well).
You have noticed that most song books have what are called lead sheets that only have a treble clef melody line with chord letters over the bars of music, and lyrics.
You have gotten far enough with your keyboard playing that you can play some basic chords with your left hand and a melody with your right hand. Which is all that most songbooks show you how to do.

You have realized that on the recordings you listen to professional musicians seldom play a straight out melody with their right hands, and almost never while the vocalist is singing. Any more than guitar players play a melody, but instead play more interesting chord patterns for accompaniment.
This is the book that teaches you to play the way professionals do. In 88 pages no less. To put it as simply as possible, learn how to read music then get this book as the only book you need to learn how to play keyboards. Just as snowplowing is a useless skiing technique once you learn how to turn stop on skis, simply learning to play left hand chords and a right hand melody is nearly as useless a technique for actually accompanying a singer.
I say 'nearly' because there are in fact times when playing the melody line is fitting, but as your only right hand technique is frustrating and being stuck in a rut. This book gets you out of that rut and gives you the tools to strike off on your own with no musical limitations to hold you back. Man am I happy I found it. In retrospect I would gladly have paid $100 or more for this book when I first started.

I played piano for over 40 years but couldn't tell one chord from another, I'd only learned to play from written music. This book explains basic chords, variations, inversions and more in a simple, straight-forward manner that makes using a fake book and improvising a fun challenge. It's also helpful in embellishing my current music. I'd highly recommend it! It's brought new life to playing piano.

I am a new piano player and I found this book very helpful. It described chords in such a way that I can now figure many of them out without looking in a book. I knew there was a logical pattern to chords which this book unlocks. The music examples are corny but the rest of the book is great. You will learn a lot with this book.

If you're a self-learner who wants a very nice and gentle instruction on all the chord variants, this book is pretty good... it almost feels like you have a good-natured teacher sitting beside you. The book is interspersed with 50+ fake book songs, and comes with a chord reference chart, so it's hard to go wrong for the price.

However, it doesn't cover much more than block chords, so if you've learned all the chord variants already (or are going to learn them from the many websites), and don't care for the songs it includes, then this may not be the book for you.

If you are a beginner level player looking for the magic key to playing a wider variety of songs, I'm afraid this is not the book for you. This book does not teach a technique and then drill it into you like most instructional books. Rather it is like a conversation where a more experienced player discusses with a skilled but less worldly player some things they might be doing to spice up their play.

Generally you get a short (sometimes very short) paragraph discussing a left hand technique. Then you may or may not get a chord scale to go along with it. However, you will definitely get the music to a song that helps you learn the technique. Then its on to the next short paragraph and the next song.

A couple of the one star reviewers didn't really use this book, I'm guessing. One in particular dismissed it by saying that "just playing chords" with the left hand leads to boring music that sometimes doesn't sound all that good. We'll, if you're a pro or a semi-pro playing in a restaurant or bar, you're doing more than that anyway. And it wouldn't matter if that's all your WERE doing, because that music is, face it, for background ambiance. It isn't a concert. This type of playing is more for playing with a gathering of friends or family to sing along to. As long as you don't hit sour notes, you're going to sound good to them.

Secondly, this book teaches more than just playing the designated chord with the left hand. It explores many variations of left hand tactics for creating something to go along with the melody.

I would recommend this for a player who can sight read easily and knows their chords and scales well for most keys. If that's you, then you are the type of player that doesn't need more detail than this book gives to get what the author is trying to impart, and will have enough skill to pull it off and move on along without endless practice. A beginner would be frustrated by this book, as you will be unable to pull off the suggested techniques until you know your keys better. A real pro will be far beyond this material already.