Fake Books and Lead Sheets

One of the things I think many people never learn to do is play from a fake book or lead sheet. I often see people playing by ear and trying to "figure out" songs on their own. While this is a good skill to learn, I've found that you can speed up the learning curve by teaching yourself to play from a fake book and then a lead sheet. Lead sheets are typically used by Jazz musicians, but for some reason the classical piano students never learn or hear about this type of written music.

What's a Fake Book?
A fake book typically gives you a one line melody of a song along with lyrics. It's basically like going back to your first 1-2 years of piano because all you have is one note to play in the right hand. Along with the melody line, you will find chord names above the measure. These chord names tell you what you need to be doing in the left hand. When you start to play from this type of book, you start out basic and then get more and more creative.

There are several good "How to" books on the market that can be purchased online or at a local music store. I would recommend starting with this type of book and also purchasing a fake book that includes several songs you would like to learn to play. One of my favorites has over 1,000 songs in it and is the size of a phone book.

If you are an intermediate/advanced piano player, invest the time and money into learning to play from a fake book and a whole new world will be opened up to you.

Lead Sheets
After I had played from fake books for a few months and felt comfortable improvising with them, I started to try playing from lead sheets. This typically includes lyrics and chords above the lyrics. There is usually no melody line to help you along. One of my favorite sites for looking up songs is: www.ultimate-guitar.com. It has thousands of guitar chord tabs posted by musicians along with the lyrics. The only drawback from this site is that it is pretty heavy on the advertising, but the database is great. You can find several versions of almost any song, searchable by band name or song name.

Some of my favorite lead sheets that are fairly easy are:

Home - Michael Buble

When September Ends - Green Day

Love Story - Taylor Swift

If you're looking for a way to have more fun with the piano, this is one of the best ways that I know of to do it. Give it a try! What do you have to lose?