A Book Review

[David Mason]

I just picked up the Classical Fake Book 2nd Edition, and I would highly recommend it to any steeler who is interested in increasing their melodic capabilities. You don’t have to read well initially – how else are you going to get better at it though? – because there are so many recognizable melodies that once you get started you can’t put it down. It’s got the Lone Ranger song (William Tell Overture), the old Vanquish commercial (Beethoven’s 5th), the 2001 space music song (Blue Danube), the part of Beethoven’s 6th “Pastoral” symphony where Bugs is serenely cruising through the woods, just before Elmer Fudd shows up with the shotgun, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor (they use this to signify “insane person” in movie comedies a lot), Air on a G String (no this has nothing to do with the air conditioning at your favorite club), Pachelbel’s Canon in D major that everyone’s so awestruck Buddy Emmons could play, and on and on.

I got mine from Amazon for $25.46, and it’ll be a long time before I wear it out. It’s probably not as useful commercially as the jazz fake books unless you play in a really, really strange band, but it sure is good for ear and reading training to find so much familiar stuff, and it potentially provokes a slightly different approach to whiling away the golden years than trying to perfect your Buddy imitation – I’ll bet he’s got this book….