Customer Reviews

How to Play from a Fake Book

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I took classical piano lessons growing up, which is a very rote way to learn. I didn't particularly like it and I didn't particularly get good at understanding music -- I got good at fingering specific pieces.

I would have, in retrospect, preferred the method of learning and understanding the chords so I could pick up pieces on my own. The idea of "fake" books is to improvise the harmony based on the chords and play the to melody line along with it. By learning the chords and some ways of stringing them together, you can master just about anything.

It's not that simple -- it's a lot of practice to be able to turn chords on the sheet into realtime music. But it's a lot of fun, and I actually "get it" now on how music is put together.

This book in particular is well written, bringing you quickly to understand how to do this. It assumes basic ability to read music. And it is slightly corny in parts. But aside from that, its a nice self-paced tutorial into playing from "fake" books or other sheet music that includes chord information.

This is a great book! It's well written and easy to understand. It gives a good introduction to some basic music theory as well as presenting the tools needed for improvisation, which is bascially what playing from a Fake book is: taking a written melody with chord symbols and putting it together with an accompaniment arrangement that you create! If you're looking to learn about playing from chords, or creating piano arrangements, or an introduction to jazz theory; this is a great place to start.

I am an adult piano player, with several intermittent years of lessons and years of trying to move forward on my own. Still, I play at an intermediate level, at best. For years I have been frustrated because as hard as I would work at a piano piece...if I stopped practicing it, my efforts would quickly fall apart. A year ago, I bought a simple 'how-to' book to learn to play from a fake book and I also bought a large 'Fake Book' of songs. From that, I began to learn the various chords. Over a few months, my playing improved, but the 'how-to' book wasn't complete enough to improve 'the sound'. My left hand accompaniment was boring.
This book--"How to Play From A Fake Book"--is terrific! After just a very few weeks, I am noticing definite improvement. There are lots of examples, written explanations and variations in the book. Step by small step, it is leading me toward really being able to play a huge variety of music from fake books--with some style and grace. My playing has taken a giant leap forward!
The 100+ songs that are included in the book are familiar, and the melodies are simple enough to really try out and work with the various techniques that are outlined in the book. My only complaint about the book is the format. As a 'regularly bound' paperback book, it is difficult to keep open on the piano. I wish it were in a spiral-bound format.

I enjoyed the opening of this book very much, but most of it's suggestions to develop a "professional sound" require 4 note chords with greater than an octave reach, with no alternatives for those of us with smaller hands.