What piano books are you reading?

ShiroKuro · 2024-12-18T12:37:46+00:00

What piano books (or music books) are you reading right now? Or, what piano books do you recommend? As I’ve mentioned in the other threads, I haven’t finish...

Simonb

Hi ShiroKuro

No, he was a brilliant classical Pianist.

Here's another book reviewed that I'd like to read:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2014/apr/07/john-ogdon-biography-piano-man

Cheers

ShiroKuro

Simonb thanks! I’ll take a look.

@pseudonym58 i wish Piano Notes was available as an ebook or audio book (although then we’d want visuals of the musical examples). Actually I own the paper version, but these days, the way I read, it’s often on my phone and in places or at times when I don’t have a physical book at hand.

pseudonym58

Also, "Piano Notes" by Charles Rosen (who was a noted pianist and musicologist) is a worthwhile discussion of the way composers have written for the piano over the past centuries, as well as of some of the peculiar challenges involved in technique required to play the music. There are numerous musical examples printed in the book.

pseudonym58

ShiroKuro A PDF version viewed on a large iPad or other tablet would probably work fairly well. I don't know of an available PDF version.

macuaig

ShiroKuro Piano Notes by Charles Rosen is on Kindle.

ShiroKuro

pseudonym58 I don't know of an available PDF version.

Yes, that's the unfortunate thing. Probably a lot of these older books will not get translated into ebook formats, which is truly unfortunate. I should of course read it regardless, and eventually I will....

I wish all these music books could (would) do what Denk's book did -- add audio clips as well as visual scores!

lilypad

ShiroKuro There's also a movie about John Ogden's life, called "Virtuoso". I saw it years ago. It's on YouTube and I think that's where I watched it.

ShiroKuro

lilypad Oh cool, thanks! I'll see if I can find it!

Simonb

Hi lilypad

Thanks, will watch that. I think I've seen some of it in the past, but I didn't know it was on YouTube.

Cheers

Stub

In addition to the Beethoven biography and "The Perfect Wrong Note" on the stand next to my armchair, I also have (very dusty!) "With Your Own Two Hands: Self-Discovery Through Music" by Seymour Bernstein, and "The Pianist's Problems: A Modern Approach to Efficient Practice and Musicianly Performance," Third Ed., by William S. Newman, the latter bought in a used bookstore and which had been autographed by the author. I'm feeling inspired to jump back into these books.

pseudonym58

Wow, a third topic on a single thread! I've read that an estimated 80% of the human population uses some form of caffeine on a regular basis. I suppose that would make it the world's most popular psychoactive substance. Personally, guilty as charged. 😳

Stub

pseudonym58 I've read that an estimated 80% of the human population uses some form of caffeine on a regular basis. I suppose that would make it the world's most popular psychoactive substance.

Coffee is the second largest commodity in the world, after crude oil in first place. Caffeine seems to have landed in a sweet spot--not too addictive, mildly psychoactive, not harmful (with rare exceptions) unless ingested in huge amounts. I can't substitute tea for coffee, which makes me think there must be other things in coffee besides caffeine that make it attractive to me. I can drink coffee any time of the day and it doesn't seem to have any effect on my sleep.

macuaig

Stub In reading up, turns out both caffeine and nicotine are literally bug repellent! No kidding, plants make them both to annoy insects. That explains A LOT.

Btw, that thing about coffee never keeps you awake day or night? Hehe, yeah, that’ll change!

candela

Stub Coffee is the second largest commodity in the world, after crude oil in first place.

I certainly do my part of keeping up coffee demand, but the statement that coffee would be the second largest commodity in the world is factually incorrect.

Stub

macuaig Btw, that thing about coffee never keeps you awake day or night? Hehe, yeah, that’ll change!

You don't know how old I am! 😮

ShiroKuro

This book was just recommended in Pianist Magazine:

Women and the Piano: A History in 50 Lives By Susan Tomes

www.amazon.com/Women-Piano-History-50-Lives/dp/030026657X/

Peyton

I've been reading a book called "Effortless Mastery" by the pianist Kenny Werner. Pretty goodf. He's a jazz pianist so it uses more jazz as examples but lots of very good points. Even comers with a cd. "If you have constantly pointed to other players and thought they possesed something you didn't, or if you've practiced for years and never really improved, or if you always play great but your music lacks depth and meaning for you..read on".

As far as coffee goes... I couldnt find the meme but it is " a day without coffee is...sleep"

ShiroKuro

@Peyton thanks for the suggestion! I added it to my wishlist.

iternabe

candela You link says soybean beats coffee in both market size and futures trading. Is that a sign for me to extend my daily coffee routine to include soymilk latte? 😋

Danieru

Adaptive Strategies for Small-Handed Pianists

Just started reading first chapter. Very Interesting whatever the size of your hand is 🙂

iternabe

Danieru I bought that book knowing I will definitely need it.

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