Fretted Instrument Fake Books
Our Fretted Instrument Fake Books include vocal melodies, lyrics and chord diagrams. Separate ebooks are available for five different fretted instruments: banjo, baritone ukulele, guitar, mandolin, and ukulele.
What Is Included
Music in our Fretted Fake Book series includes:
- Vocal Melody in notation
- Lyrics
- Chord diagrams above the music
Tablature is not included.
Required Skills
- How to read music notation
- How to read chord diagrams
- How to use chord diagrams to create an accompaniment (e.g., by strumming)
Compatibility
All of our Fretted Fake Books are designed to work together. Books with the same title (e.g., Christmas Fake Book) and cover design contain the same titles in the same key. Using two or more books together allows you to play with any combination of banjo, baritone ukulele, guitar, mandolin, and ukulele.
Chords
Chord diagrams are included above the music. The chord diagrams will be for banjo, baritone ukulele, guitar, mandolin, or ukulele depending on which ebook you purchased. The chords are based on the original sheet music for the title, but may vary due to the following:
- Reducing rapid or complicated chord changes
- Different ways of interpreting the harmony
- Combining ideas from different sources
- Introducing our own ideas where it makes sense
- Our source included a different harmony from the version you know
Different Chords in the Same Title
Chords may vary slightly from one instrument to another, but the chords will still work together. For example, we usually substitute Am for Am7 on banjo because there isn't a good voicing for Am7 in the first position where most of the other chords are.
Chord Choices
We try to make the transition from one chord to another as smooth as possible. This means we limit jumps from one position to another and consider the best voicing for a chord in relation to the other chords. Because of this, you may occasionally see more than one voicing for a chord in the same title.
Using Different Voicings
Feel free to substitute other voicings for the chords we chose.
Layout
The music generally has the same layout for each version of the same title regardless of instrument.
Difficulty Level
The difficulty level varies by title and the type of music. Most music is relatively easy, but some titles are more difficult. The range of difficulty is generally easy to intermediate with occasional music above this level.
Music Notation
The music notation is for the vocal melody. The melody may be playable on the instrument, but this isn't guaranteed since the focus is on putting it in a key suitable for voice and fretted instruments. If you want to play the melody on your instrument, we recommend looking at our Easy product line for fretted instruments where we offer many of the same titles with tablature.
Lyrics
We generally include up to 6 verses within the music. If there are verses beyond this, they will be placed at the end of the music as text.
Lyrics may vary from the version you know. Some songs include many variations in lyrics, which may not be standardized. It isn't always possible to create a version of the lyrics that is familiar to everyone.
Tempo
Most titles include a text tempo and metronome marking. The metronome tempos are editorial suggestions in most cases. Feel free to choose your own tempo.