Classicalfakebooks

General information

Classical Fake books are a great way of exploring the classical repertoire without having to be a great sight reader or virtuoso pianist.

The initial 5 books have collections of Opera arias, some mainstream rep, others are exam pieces and some are either more advanced pieces or pieces a bit off the beaten track.

The book has versions of the arias with piano accompaniment, and have chord symbols added to either aid sight reading, or to provide a basic harmonic structure whilst learning or teaching a piece. In addition, there are versions of the pieces in true 'fake' book versions - just the vocal line and important cues are written on one stave, with the chords given.

The music is bound in a musician friendly wiro binding, but with a cover over the spine so it is easy to find on the bookshelf (half-Canadian binding). Wiro binding means that the book lies flat on the music stand, and pages are easy to turn. No more broken spines or pages that keep closing!

The music is laid out with proper note barring to aid the reading of the rhythms - unlike much vocal music which is traditionally printed with individual unbarred notes in the voice part. Bar numbers are also given a the beginning of each line.

These books are designed by a musician for musicians to be a practical tool in a teaching or learning situation.