Piano Forum

After questioning some aspects of my music practice recently, I finally got around to having my first look at C.C. Chang's book.  (I skimmed parts and skipped some, so my comments are limited by what I actually read.)  I have some mixed feelings, but I guess I'm not alone; a common thread of discussions I've read about the book was that people have described taking what they find useful and valuable from it and disregarding what they don't.

Although I dismissed some content as dubious and unsupported, I found a few nuggets of wisdom that appear to be of profound importance.  They're introduced in the Preface, where Chang makes these four specific points that address practice methods (and misconceptions about their effectiveness):

1.  Learning hands-separate promotes relaxation, is the best way to increase speed and control, and is the only way to learn the motions required for the speed and expression needed at tempo.

2.  Learning by slow hands-together practice and then ramping up speed is ineffective.

3.  Slow practice benefits memory.

4.  Memorization can be done away from the keyboard.

I found the first two principles especially relevant.  I was interested to see how they would be amplified in the material that followed, and they can be restated and summarized concisely as follows:

Learning music through slow HT practice and then increasing speed gradually is ineffective and inefficient because it doesn't train the motions needed for speed and expression at the target tempo.  Such motions are learned through high-speed HS practice of "parallel sets" (discrete handfuls of notes played in a single hand position), which also promotes relaxation and enables acquisition of technique without tension.

It turns out, then, that what I found most useful in a very lengthy and discursive volume could be summed up in one pithy paragraph.  But I'm finding that paragraph very useful indeed, and it more than compensates for the effort it took to sift through so much material that was not so useful.

A case can certainly be made that this book would benefit greatly from condensation.  While the material is well-organized in a macro sense, the paragraphs themselves are wordy, diffuse and excessively long.  And while I understand an author's wish to convince by demonstrating conviction, the authoritative tone prevalent here frequently conveys infallibility.

When one factors in a significant amount of errant punctuation and a homely presentation (of the downloadable PDF, at any rate), this book is not going to be taken as seriously—or reach as wide an audience—as it otherwise might.  At times I wondered what assumptions were made of the target audience anyway, and why a reader who is presumed to be familiar with fallboards or jacks and has an interest in the physical properties of acoustics would need a detailed explanation of time signatures and key signatures.

I would be interested in knowing more about the experiences and reactions of others.  What elements of Chang's work did you find most useful, beneficial or persuasive?  If you were to offer constructive criticism to Mr. Chang to support his mission to revolutionize the practice of piano and restore the instrument's popularity—something I'm sure we'd all like to see happen—what would it be?