What's Next?

Once you've learned the songs in all three "Clear & Simple Chord Style Piano" books, you've got an excellent working knowledge of chords and melodies in a variety of keys and are ready for the next step - playing from a fake book! A fake book is just a book of music arrangements featuring the melody line and chords, but no bass clef notes. It's your job to make up your own accompaniment based on the chord symbols provided.

Here are some reasons to use a fake book as opposed to fully arranged music:

1. You can fit a lot more songs in a lot less space. Some fake books have as many as 1200 songs! This would never work if each song were fully arranged, with both treble and bass clefs. It also means you'll have fewer page turns while playing.
2. You can play the same song a little differently each time, if that's what you want to do. This allows you to exercise some creativity when you are playing as opposed to simply following exact instructions, and it gives your listeners the variety they crave.
3. You can make the left-hand accompaniment as simple or as complicated as you want. This means you can adapt to any situation. If you're at home by yourself you can experiment with flights of fancy. If you're feeling nervous in front of an audience you can dial down the complexity, and if you're feeling great in front of an audience you can pull out all the stops and give them a show they'll never forget. All this from a single arrangement!

You can play in this style from ANY book or sheet music arrangement that has chord symbols (most music published in recent decades includes chord symbols), but here are a few suggestions to help you get started:

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Your First Fake Book Arranged by Alexander Citron. For Guitar, Piano, Keyboard. Hal Leonard Fake Books. Vocal Standards and Pop. Difficulty: easy-medium. Fakebook (leadsheet notation). Vocal melody, lyrics, leadsheet notation and chord names. 158 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.240112).

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The Easy Fake Book Composed by Various. For C Instruments, Melody/Lyrics/Chords. Easy Fake Book. 208 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.240144).

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The Easy Christmas Fake Book - 3rd Edition (100 Songs in the Key of C). Composed by Various. For C Instruments, Melody/Lyrics/Chords. Easy Fake Book. 152 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.240209).

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The Easy Movie Fake Book (100 Songs in the Key of C). Composed by Various. For C Instruments, Melody/Lyrics/Chords. Easy Fake Book. Softcover. 230 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.240295).

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Best Songs Ever - Easy Guitar (Easy Guitar). By Various. For Guitar. Easy Guitar. Pop Vocal and Broadway. Difficulty: easy-medium. Easy guitar/vocal songbook. Vocal melody, guitar chord diagrams, strum and pick patterns and easy guitar notation. 104 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.702060).