I am passed grade1 and close to grade 2 and i have been looking at getting some sheet music song books , I noticed there are fake books does anyone know what they are? and if they are good for someone who is still learning.

This is my opinion only, Dazzie2, so take it for what it's worth.

Typically, Fake books have only the right hand or melody staffs and the appropriate (sometimes!) chords are written above. You supply your own left hand playing based on those chords. It can work well enough for lots of popular music, but I can't imagine how it would work for classical which is extremely technical.

Why not talk to your teacher and see what he/she recommends? If you are studying classical music your teacher is probably concentrating on technique and fingering which a Fake book is not going to provide you.

Fake books have their place and I, personally, use them, BUT I do not play classical music and have little technique anyway.

I think the practice of fakebook playing will give you another set of skills (improvisation of left hand patterns, fast chord symbol recognition...), very valuable, and complementary to those that you are getting through the classical training.
If you have the time, why not?

When my grandmother passed away, I got her fake book, full of classical tunes. She was a silent-movie pianist, so the tunes are ordered according moods. Chase, love, etc.

I so want a copy of that, I recorded a couple of pieces i had composed a few years back, and the sound engineer said it sounded like silent film music, it was a great compliment...

could you let me have the details of the book please Chris? I want to track that down big time.

Thanks....

Fake books have the main melody with chords and nothing more. Agree that for learning classical music, fake books may not be appropriate. (Although I too would be interested in what Chris's book looks like). Classical composers write out every note, so playing the melody and making up your own chord accompaniment, may sound vastly different from what people know.

But for non-classical music, this is the foundation the music is built on, chords. It's what professional studio musicians get when they are recording the songs on the radio now. Pop musicians almost always get a chord chart, not sheet music. Don't let the "fake" part of it make you believe it's an easy or useless skill. Bottom line, if you want to play non-classical songs, or play with a band some day, you should definitely learn your chords. And starting out with a fake book that has familiar songs to you is a good start.

Even a classic piano learner should benefit from fake book playing. You have to learn how to construct a chord, major vs minor, higher member chord and inversions and cadence. These are fundamental of classic music. For classic music also analyzed in chords and cadence. So why not play fake book?

Thanks for all the info I decided to go ahead and try a fake books all songs in the key of C . I Didn’t start learning the piano to play classical music but I found when I am learning from books I do play some easy classical music. I picked an easy song from the "Beatles" I started out learning the melody on the fake book, at the top of the melody part it has the chords . Do you play them as a chord or single note or even a 3rd 4th or 5th ? I noticed when playing using just chords it sound good but there was something missing , like maybe some melody parts on the left hand or something .

You can download free lead sheets from this site and get them in the key of your choice.

http://www.wikifonia.org/

From what I've seen, read and heard (I'm a begginer starting this week with my first leadsheet), I think there is no one valid formula to all songs. There are multiple options to fill the harmony: block chords in root position, inverted, closed, opened, arpeggiated, double octaves, walking bass, alberti bass... Also some fingers of the RH can play a role on the harmony, not only on the melody.
To avoid repetition one must use more than one pattern along the same song.
I bought the book How to Play from a Fake Book (Keyboard Edition) and I'm looking for time to start with it.

Absolutely true. They only tell you what chord changes harmonize with the melody. The rest is up to you.

Also some of the chords indicated may not be true to the original song.