Customer Reviews

Your First Fake Book: Over 100 Songs in the Key of "C" for Keyboard, Vocal, Guitar and all "C" Instruments

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm a piano teacher who has used this book extensively with my students, and we appreciate being able to play (and in many cases, sight-read) popular songs and jazz-piano standards in the key of C. The book will help to give early-intermediate students confidence and will build their repertoire.

That said, some of the chords are overly simplified and produce some real clunking harmonies. You will find yourself altering some of the basic chords in order to get the sound you want. For example, "Leavin' on a Jet Plane" features a C chord several times going against a melody F. For some students, I have to tell them to play a C only in the left hand, not the full chord. For more advanced students, we change the C chord to a D diminished, which leads into a discussion of the use of diminished chords.

With these reservations, I still highly recommend this book since you or your students will find many songs that are easily played and enjoyed.

For a Piano Playing Wanna Be, this book is terrific. Very much like "The Easy Fake Book", which I also have. Both books are in the key of "C" and use only ten or less different chords in each song. In order to get the most from these books, I suggest you start with Scott Houston's book, "Play Piano in a Flash". It really shows the way to great, self entertainment. At age 77, I am doing it and I know, you can too.

Your First Fake Book is great for those who want to use it as a stepping stone to bigger and better things. However, I found that in an attempt to simplify everything so the novice can play it some of the songs had some chords in them that made them sound really horrible.

To make this easy they have made some compromises in the chords they use. The print is large and easy to read, but you may have to turn pages. I am no music theorist but I found the G7 chord with the C note not pleasing in the key of C. This occurs often. I found F7 better with C. The Easy Fake Book makes some of the same compromises but seems better. In addition it provides an introduction to each song. I use the Ultimate Fake Book when I want to learn, the Easy Fake Book when I play for relaxation, and the First Fake Book seldom.

I was just learning to play after reading Scott Houson's book and watching him on PBS. This book is well worth the money because you will be playing some tunes that sound really good while still learning the piano basics. I believe it was also recommended by Scott Houston either on his website or in his book. If you learn how to invert some cords it will make changing cords with your left hand easier. I would buy the book over again if I were in the market.

I'm a piano/keyboard coach that teaches my mostly older adult students the joy of Fake Book playing---something I've enjoyed immensely since the mid 80's. I have quite a collection of Fake Books myself and used to discourage my students from purchasing the "Easy" series type books. A couple of months ago I borrowed this book from one of my students and after playing a few songs, found them to be not bad at all! I actually had fun playing them. Any experienced player can easily modify the chords if you find them too simple and starting players can really enjoy "early success" with these while later moving on to the "Real" or "Ultimate" variety. Plus, once they learn a song, I can teach them to add a few passing or modified chords here and there to enhance their experience! I now heartily recommend them (the "Easy series) to my students as great starter books to ease their transition into the regular ones.

I bought both Your First Fake Book and The Easy Fake Book over a year ago. I played almost exclusively out of the Easy Fake Book for a long time and was starting to think I'd wasted my money on this book. I was so wrong. After having left the Easy Fake Book at a friend's house one weekend, I reluctantly dug into the First Fake Book and found more than a dozen tunes (mostly showtunes) that were stored in my memory from childhood (I'm 44), as well as a number of older tunes that I was able to sight read and learn to love without ever hearing them before.
Other reviewers note that there are some clunky chords in a few places. True, in a FEW places. And I think I was initially a little put off by the simplicity compared to the Easy Fake Book (the sound is not automatically as rich on first try). But beginners won't notice mostly and the simplicity makes the tunes accessible. Once they have tuned their ears up enough to find the awkward spots, they can learn about altering the music to accomodate their ear... a very important step in taking ownership of a piece that you play.
Intermediate players (something I consider myself to be) will likely find hours of enjoyable and relaxing tinkering in the mix including some jazzy moments that I would never have been able to accomplish through classical study (too many notes) but now have become part of my free playing (improvisation). And when it all seems too simple... just slow down and listen... less IS more for some of the pieces (My Favorite Things can be HAUNTINGLY beautiful with a simple single-note rolling pattern for the chord)! Buy both, and don't ignore this one!

This book is so much fun! It's great not only for playing the piano with chords, but also for any C instrument, including violin and flute. It is a guitar players dream!

This is a good way to learn and love faking it. The melodies are solid most of the time and the harmonies OK most of the time. Everything is in C major with some modifications where needed by the addition of accidentals. I agree with some of the previous reviewers that some chords are too simple resulting in some real clunkers. But so what? If you don't like the way it sounds, just change it. That's the idea behind faking it and that's the idea behind fake books. To avoid boring repetition, I usually start my faking with blocked chords and then the second time around will use arpeggios. The people who are listening think it's real music and in a way it is. Another thing I like is the easy way the melodies can be transposed to other keys. Playing Oh, What a beautiful morinin' for instance in F# Major or C# Major creates a very different tone poem and is also a great mental exercise. Advice: Beginners and Intermediate amateur pianists interested in entertaining family and friends without much effort and with lots of fun, start your career in faking with this fake book.

I am a beginner and found that the songs were very easy to play. Almost all of the songs do not use sharps or flats. The large size of the book makes it easy to place on the music stand.

A little under a half of the songs can be played in the scale range of my tenor (same range as a soprano recorder). That is a lower percentage than what I found in the two Hal Leonard Paperback Songs books that I own but then I don't have to fiddle with this book because of its size when I place it on the music stand.