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...

iternabe

Pallas I used to have 6 shots of espresso every day. Now it's one measuring cup of drip coffee.

IIRC a single shot espresso contains only half the amount of caffeine in a cup of drip coffee 😉

Animisha

iternabe a single shot espresso contains only half the amount of caffeine in a cup of drip coffee

This really depends on who big your cups of coffee are! 😊

BartK

iternabe IIRC a single shot espresso contains only half the amount of caffeine in a cup of drip coffee 😉

The amount of caffeine depends greatly on many factors: the type of coffee, amount, grind, the pressure in the espresso machine. I don't think you can categorically say which coffee has more caffeine unless you do a lab test.

Vuong

iternabe
A single shot of "ristretto" contains also even less caffeine than a single shot of espresso. I invested in a quasi commercial Italian coffee machine in order to enjoy a ristretto, but only on a weekend. This way, no worry about caffeine.
To reply to Stub, I have read also a biography book of Beethoven written by Romain Rolland "The life of Beethoven" (La vie de Beethoven). The author is well known in French literature. His many books are taught in schools in France.

BartK

When did this conversation drift from books to coffee? 😄

I love coffee too and had to cut back to a single cup in the morning but this thread is making me consider quitting altogether. 🤣

ShiroKuro

BartK When did this conversation drift from books to coffee? 😄

😆

I mean, books and coffee are the quintessential pair after all! 😃

iternabe

BartK The amount of caffeine depends greatly on many factors: the type of coffee, amount, grind, the pressure in the espresso machine. I don't think you can categorically say which coffee has more caffeine unless you do a lab test.

Properly made espresso hinges on controlling all these variables: dose in, liquid weight out, and time of extraction under standard (9 bar) pressure. The process of “dialing-in” is to achieve consistent amount of extraction and balance of extraction (acidity vs bitterness). I know this because this is the other new hobby I work on every day besides piano practice.

Espresso extracts less caffeine from the same amount of beans than drip coffee mainly because the greatly shortened contact time (usually 25-30 seconds) between water and coffee ground, even taking into consideration of the higher pressure. Double espresso is about the same as drip coffee’s caffeine content.

But you can also get a bigger jolt from espresso drank straight because of the undiluted concentration get absorb quicker.

lilypad

Here's a book that I think I can tie into the recent drifts in topic. "The Piano Handbook" by Carl Humphries. It's a coffee-table sized book that you wouldn't want to hit you in the face if you were reading it in bed. How's that?

I read a mostly favorable review of it many years ago in C.C. Chang's "Fundamentals of Piano Practice" book. I only got a little way into the book before getting distracted by other things, but looking through it again, I'm excited to get back to it.

Simonb

Here is an eclectic list of a few books related to the Piano that I recommend:

Philip Clark - Dave Brubeck A Life in Time
(an excellent biography and musical history of this giant of Jazz)

Robert L. Doerschuk - 88: The Giants of Jazz Piano
(a few pages for each of 88 giants of Jazz Piano)

Brenda Lucas and Michael Kerr - Virtuoso The Story of John Ogden
(a look at the troubled life and genius of John Ogden - Brenda Lucas was his wife)

Clifford Slapper - Bowie's Piano Man, The Life of Mike Garson
(Garson played live with David Bowie, and on more Bowie records than anyone else. Don't let that make you think he's just another pop Piano player. He's a true virtuoso, who can play almost anything, and is a Composer and an extraordinary improviser)

Cheers

ShiroKuro

Simonb great list! I don’t think I know who John Ogden is, is he a jazz player?

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

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

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!

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! 😮

« Previous Page Next Page »