Scott The Piano Guy's Favorite Piano Fake Book [Paperback]

Scott Houston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2006

Next time your friends see your piano and say, "Play 'Misty' for me," impress them and really do it! This fake book includes 74 popular song arrangements from Scott Houston, the Piano Master of PBS. Includes: All the Things You Are * Blueberry Hill * Can You Feel the Love Tonight * Crazy * Endless Love * The Girl from Ipanema * Heart and Soul * Hey Jude * I Will Remember You * Imagine * Let It Be * Misty * Moon River * My Funny Valentine * Satin Doll * Somewhere Out There * Stand by Me * and more. Includes Scott's unique "simple chord frames" for each song.

Product Details

• Paperback: 154 pages
• Publisher: Hal Leonard; 1 edition (August 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423413172
• ISBN-13: 978-1423413172
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 8.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,599 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hey! I can play the piano!, August 12, 2007

By 

J. Fisher (Thousand Oaks, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Scott The Piano Guy's Favorite Piano Fake Book (Paperback)

This book is terrific. It actually makes it fun and rewarding to sit down at the piano. You honestly are playing in a couple of hours. I know Houston did not invent this whole thing with chords, but he pulls it all together and teaches it in an accessible, lighthearted way. I can't believe that I can play!

63 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very limited usage, October 24, 2008

By 

M. Dowins - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Scott The Piano Guy's Favorite Piano Fake Book (Paperback)

First, I did enjoy his music selection. Just right for an older person like me.

This is only for beginners who just want to play tunes on the piano and don't really care what it sounds like. Everything is easily written in the key of C with easy chords. Couldn't be simpler.

However, if you seek to improve your piano skills, playing everything in the key of C will not teach you much. Its boring to hear song after song in the same key.

It's also boring that he omits chord changes whenever possible to simplify. He does supply alternative chords to spice up the music, and that's good, but I really miss the chords sequences that he left out to make it easier to play.

I bought this book at the same time I bought one of those extremely large fake books. The other gets used constantly. Scott's is just gathering dust on the shelf.

Per request, the name of the fake book that I use is: This Is the Ultimate Fake Book: It Contains over 1200 Songs for Piano, Organ, Guitar and All "C" Instruments (Hl00240050)

The publisher is Hal Leonard. The book is for sale in 2 places on Amazon. The cheapest way is to buy it from here, used: http://www.amazon.com/This-Ultimate-Fake-Book-Instruments/dp/0960735003/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275133024&sr=1-6 I would go with used since it has a plastic comb for long use.

For some reason it's also for sale at an extremely high price. Make sure you don't buy that one.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, especially after watching the TV shows, July 8, 2008

By 

Clark (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Scott The Piano Guy's Favorite Piano Fake Book (Paperback)

After struggling with trying to pick up the piano off-and-on over the years, i stumbled across Scott Houston's TV show on a local PBS station a couple of years ago. It was a revelation -- here was an approach to quickly learn songs i liked without trying to read sheet music note-for-note. After watching several episodes of the show, i purchased this book and enjoy it. Yes, some (or many) of the songs are not to my tastes, but even making use of just a dozen tunes is worth the price of admission. I am online today to buy the 2nd 'Fake Book' Scott Houston has produced.

Using lead sheets seems like a well-kept secret. You could probably find this book useful even without seeing the show, but see the show if you get a chance.