Great books

[tph]

I'm curious about what any of you recommend as exceptional books on learning and teaching piano.  I've read Neuhaus' "Art of Piano Playing", Schick's "The Vengerova System of Piano Playing", and Lhevinne's "Basic Principles in Pianoforte Playing", among others.

I enjoyed all of these.  However, I'd like to know other books you recommend (and stuff you wouldn't), and if any of you are familiar with Grigory Kogan's "The Pianist's Work".  Has this book ever been published in English?

tph

[ThePhoenixEffect]

https://members.aol.com/chang8828/contents.htm

Best website i've seen on piano practice

https://www.practicespot.com/

Interesting resource on piano practice and teaching


"Mastering Piano Technique: A Guide for Students, Teachers, and Performers by Seymour Fink"

and

"On Piano Playing: Motion, Sound, and Expression Gyorgy Sandor"

These two books are excellent on technique. They basically have the same "substance", but approach the subject differently.  Fink is cheaper and you can even buy an accompanying video to it!

"Super Sight Reading Secrets by Richman"
Good book on sightreading.  Don't just "read and skim" it or it will appear useless.  You'll have to put it into practice for at least a month or so before you see extreme improvement.  It will take either three months of dilligent practice at the very least - 2 years at the most of minimal use to complete the book.

[gosch]

a great book also:

https://alanfraser.faithweb.com/bookindx.html

https://alanfraser.faithweb.com/main.htm

[squiggly_girl]

Hello everyone, I'm new as a contributor to these boards and this is my first post   I wonder if any of you have read or seen Carl Humphries' book "The Piano Handbook: Mastering Piano Technique"? It's quite a recent one, 2002, and also includes an audio CD of almost 70 of the pieces in the book.

It describes itself as a tutor, although it seems to speed through preliminary material pretty quickly. The pieces chosen range in styles from classical to blues to jazz, and it has added some pretty tunes to my repertoire wish-list.

I haven't seen any of the books mentioned above, so I can't compare but this one seems pretty good. Has anyone else seen it, and if so what do you think of it?

[goalevan]

I have Humphries' Piano Handbook, I have really enjoyed reading through it but I'm not strictly following its method. It has some very interesting information that spans across everything to do with the piano - and a really excellent layout. But I don't know how effective it would be for me in acquiring skills, who knows you might be able to learn some great things if you give it a shot. Let us know how it works out if you decide to.

Currently I'm strictly following Richman's Super Sight Reading Secrets - me and my 5 hours a day of practice are really enjoying it so far

See https://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=stud;action=display;num=1087022500 for more information on Richman's book.

[squiggly_girl]

5 hours a day! Wow, I was kinda interested in this Richman book before, but now I want it! Especially if it can make you that motivated...

I like the pieces in the Humphries book, but I'm not following it too closely as a learning aid. One of the things I've found about it is that I often find myself preferring to deviate from his suggested fingerings...or just out and out disagreeing with them. I wonder if this is just me? Also goaleven, what do you think of the speed, accuracy and dynamic of Carl's playing on the CD? To my beginner's ear it sounds quite beautiful, very fast and wonderfully expressive...but to be honest I probably wouldn't know any better. Thanks.

[goalevan]

Richman's book is good but isn't what motivates me - listening to recordings of all the pieces I want to learn and wanting to be able to play that beautifully mostly is what keeps me at the piano for that long

I haven't listened to the Humphries CD yet, actually I forgot this book even had it, think im gonna put it in and listen now.

[squiggly_girl]

Hey goalevan, I've just been looking at the photos of your new P120 on the instruments board. And what showpiece piano book should you have open on your stand but Humphries'!

[goalevan]

lol! yep that's it - now being used to prop my exercises up even higher so I can't see my hands while I'm sight reading. I listened to the Humphries CD also, his playing is pretty good, I really liked his Sonata Facile track - actually I printed out the sheet music from sheetmusicarchive.net and I'm going to start learning it.

[squiggly_girl]

You know I can even tell from the photos that that piece was one of the Purcells (on p69)

Anyway, thanks for the feedback on the Humphries CD: I've listened to it quite a bit myself. Easy to please I guess, but I just love it! I'm still impressed every time at how good he can make Frere Jacques sound.

Another thing I like about that Humphries book is that, as far as I can guess/tell, 95% of the time he's using the music in its original unadulterated form. And I shall be eternally grateful that he has introduced me to Clementi!!!

[Dan]

Hello tph

The most interesting book I ever read piano technique is Otto Ortmann's "The Physiological Mechanics of Piano Technique" It has 395 pages. It is an in depth scientific analysis of what happens when playing. Ortmann connected pianist's arms, hands, wrists and fingers to all sorts of instruments in order to register the activity of the  muscles during playing and he draws conclusions from that. It was an attempt to clarify what really happens when you play.

Very interesting IMO is "The Pianists Touch" by Pichier and Krause. Also a detailed analysis of how to use the playing mecanism. What makes it very special too is the analysis of not only what the arms and fingers do, (like in most books) but much attention is given to the role of the shoulder blades, spine, legs, feet + muscles in pianoplaying.  
The most usefull material for me were not my teachers or books, but a set of piano instruction video's + booklet from the Taubman Institute. When I applied the principles shown on the video's my technique improved instantly and enormously. Very expensive those video's but worth the money.
Hope this will help you in your search for great books.
Cheers
Dan  

[bernhard]

The most usefull material for me were not my teachers or books, but a set of piano instruction video's + booklet from the Taubman Institute. When I applied the principles shown on the video's my technique improved instantly and enormously. Very expensive those video's but worth the money.
Hope this will help you in your search for great books.
Cheers
Dan  

Hi, Dan.

Expensive indeed. However, price should not be a deterrent if the material is worthwhile.

So, could you give a bit more detail?

I watched the clips in her website. They seemed interesting but not particularly revolutionary. She seems to be in the same line of thought and philosophy of Abby Whiteside, Alan Fraser, Barbara Lister-Sink, Gyorgy Sandor and Seymour Fink (all of which I particularly like).

How does the information in her videos compare with the information in Barbara Lister-Sink and Seymour Fink’s video?

Best wishes,
Bernhard.