The Many Benefits of Using Fake Books for Guitarists

Unlocking creativity, building skills, and becoming musically independent—one chart at a time.

If you’re a guitarist—whether you’re an early intermediate player, an experienced hobbyist, or even a working musician—there’s one underrated tool that can dramatically elevate your musicianship: the fake book.

At first glance, fake books can seem barebones: they present songs in their simplest form, usually with just the melody line, chord symbols, and lyrics. But that simplicity is exactly what makes them so powerful. Fake books invite you to engage with music more actively—reading, listening, interpreting, and shaping your own arrangements. They develop practical skills, fuel creativity, and offer a direct line into the real-world language of working musicians.

In this article, we’ll dive deep into the many ways fake books benefit guitarists and how to choose the right one for your goals.

1. Expanding Your Chord Vocabulary

One of the most immediate advantages of playing from fake books is the exposure to a wide range of chords. Whether you’re playing jazz standards, pop hits, or folk ballads, fake books push you to go beyond your comfort zone by presenting new chord symbols and progressions you might not normally encounter.

Over time, this naturally grows your chord vocabulary, especially when you see those chords in musical context.

Tips:

Keep a running list of new chords and voicings you encounter in your fake book.
Use a chord reference book or app to look up unfamiliar shapes.
Revisit songs often to reinforce the new chords you’ve learned.

2. Learning to Read Musical Form

Fake books train you to follow musical form accurately. That means reading repeat signs, first and second endings, D.S. al Coda instructions, and being able to jump to the right section in real time. They also challenge you to track shifts in meter, like a surprise bar of 2/4 in the middle of a tune that’s mostly in 4/4.

This kind of reading builds confidence and fluency—skills that are essential for playing in ensembles, gigs, rehearsals, or even worship settings.

Tips:

Before you play, scan the whole chart for repeats, codas, and meter changes.
Practice reading with a metronome so you don’t lose time during transitions.
Say the form out loud or write it down in letters (AABA, etc.) to internalize it.

3. Developing Harmonic Awareness

Because fake books strip songs down to their basic harmonic outline, they give you a bird’s-eye view of the progression. That’s perfect for understanding how chords relate to one another within a key, and how to improvise or create arrangements from that structure.

Over time, you’ll begin to see patterns like ii–V–I, backcycling, modal interchange, and more.

Tips:

Analyze a few songs each week—figure out what key they’re in and what function each chord serves.
Practice matching scales or arpeggios to the changes as you play.
Notice how common progressions show up across multiple songs and styles.

4. Building Rhythmic Intuition

Unlike sheet music or detailed arrangements, fake books rarely include rhythmic notation for accompaniment. That means you have to internalize and interpret the rhythmic feel of the song yourself. It’s a skill that strengthens your groove, your time-feel, and your ability to adapt.

Whether it’s a swing tune, a funk vamp, or a bossa nova, fake books ask you to listen and respond rhythmically, not just follow instructions.

Tips:

Listen to at least one or two recordings of the tune before or after reading the chart.
Practice comping in the appropriate style (e.g., swing, reggae, clave).
Pay attention to time signature changes, pickups, and rhythmic displacement in the melody.

5. Fostering Creativity and Musical Independence

Because fake books give you the skeleton of the song, it’s your job to flesh it out. That means you can—and should—experiment. Add chord embellishments, rhythmic hits, partial voicings, bass lines, fills, or even riffs. The format invites you to listen deeply, make creative choices, and take ownership of the arrangement.

You become more than a player—you become a musical interpreter.

Tips:

Try adding 9ths, 13ths, or altered chords to basic shapes.
Create subtle textures with slides, trills, or arpeggios between chord changes.
Build your own solo guitar arrangement from a fake book chart using melody and chords.

6. Learning and Performing Songs Quickly

Because fake books present only the essential ingredients of a tune, they allow you to learn and perform songs much faster than working through full sheet music or online transcriptions. That’s invaluable if you’re preparing a large repertoire for a gig, a jam session, or a setlist on short notice.

Even if you’ve never heard a song before, you can often play through it and get a decent grasp just by reading it straight from the page.

Tips:

Focus on locking in the chord changes and form first, then refine details.
Practice sight-reading one new tune a day to build your speed and fluency.
Record yourself playing a tune cold, then listen back and refine your approach.

7. What to Look for When Buying a Fake Book

Not all fake books are equally useful. For guitarists looking to build reading skills and chord fluency, simpler is better. The best fake books have clear notation, bar lines, and just the essentials: melody, lyrics, and chord symbols.

Here’s what to look for:

Simplicity: Avoid books with tab, overly complex rhythms, or full arrangements. These defeat the purpose of active interpretation.
One-page format: Look for books where most tunes fit on a single page. This makes it easier to learn the whole song and follow the form without flipping pages.
Clear bar lines: Essential for tracking rhythm, measures, and changes. Many online chord sites (like Ultimate Guitar) lack this structure, which makes them hard to read unless you already know the song very well.
Familiar repertoire: Before you buy, check the table of contents online. If you don’t recognize at least half the songs, you’re unlikely to practice with that book regularly.

Bonus Tip: Try this practice flow:

Pick a song you don’t know.
Try playing through it cold, just reading from the fake book.
Then listen to the original recording on Spotify or YouTube and play along.
You’ll learn so much more than just the notes—form, feel, voicings, and interpretation all come into play.

8. Fake Books vs. Other Resources

Some players wonder, “Why not just use Ultimate Guitar or buy full sheet music?” Each resource has a different purpose:

Ultimate Guitar and chord/lyric sites: These may be fine for quick reference, but they usually lack bar lines and standard form notation. They don’t train your reading or time-feel and often rely on you already knowing the song.
Full sheet music: Great for performance or detailed study, but it’s expensive, overly prescriptive, and doesn’t allow much room for creativity.
Fake books: They strike a balance—clear enough to guide you, simple enough to let you interpret. And they’re way more affordable than buying sheet music one song at a time.

Final Thoughts

Practicing from fake books turns you into a well-rounded, adaptable musician. You build your chord knowledge, improve your reading, deepen your harmonic and rhythmic understanding, and unlock your creative instincts—all from a single page of music.

Whether you’re gigging, jamming, arranging, or just playing for your own enjoyment, fake books give you the skills that translate to real-world musical situations.

So grab a fake book, open to a random page, and dive in. The next step in your musical growth might be just one chart away.

—

Sign up for a free trial lesson, available both online and in-person. Fill out this form and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours.