Playing from a Fake Book

            Recently, I checked out a book at the library called The Bach Fake Book. In case you do not know what a fake book is, it consists of music notated with single line melodies in the treble clef with chords symbols above the staff. The chord symbols are often letter names suggesting major chords, slash marks like F/A, which indicate chord inversions, abbreviations for minor, diminished, and other chord types, and numbers representing extended chords such as sevenths and ninths. In contrast to normal piano music with two staves and full notation of complete harmonies and bass lines, a fake book only provides the bare minimum notation for the performer to improvise an arrangement of the piece without being confined to playing every single note a composer has written. For popular music, playing from a fake book is common practice. Many classical musicians often struggle with fake books because of the lack of training in this aspect of music.

            You may be wondering why I would even bother with bringing up the topic of fake books on a blog devoted to piano sight-reading. Well, the reason I mention it is that I think fake books could be a useful tool for improving sight-reading skills. Hear me out on this. All of the research on piano sight-reading suggests the importance of recognizing patterns. On the piano, harmonic chord structures form the bulk of these patterns. The technical term for pattern recognition is “chunking.” Instead of reading a chord as three individual notes of C-E-G, for instance, the pianist simply chunks these multiple notes as a single unit as the C Major triad and instantly plays it automatically by knowing how this chord fits in the hands. Playing from a fake book requires that you know all formations of chords and instantly chunk them upon seeing the chord symbols. While the chords symbols look a bit different from what you might encounter in a traditional sight-reading situation, the process of chunking and instant pattern recognition remains the same. Therefore, using fake books may be a valuable tool in improving sight-reading skills in sight-reading, specifically in chunking patterns.

            Unfortunately, many piano teachers, particularly classically trained ones, are feeble in playing from fake books. My teacher, who had a doctorate in music, simply could not do it since she never learned the skill. This is a sad state of affairs! Even worse, whenever my music professors in college encountered exercises with chord symbols in textbook and workbook assignments, they told the class not to omit those questions. So how in the world do you learn to play from chord symbols form fake books? I learned it the hard way by being forced to do it at a church job despite never receiving any instruction in this in over 20 years of private lessons and several semesters of college music classes. The good news if that you do not have to struggle like this. A great place to start learning is a wonderful series of books called Easy Keyboard Harmony Books 1-5 by Wesley Schaum and the Schaum Chord Speller. Learn your chords and you will be well on your way to chunking!