Fundamentals of Piano Practice • Hacker News Board

Re: Fundamentals of Piano Practice

#11

Post by amelius » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 12:13 AM UTC

cloogshicer wrote: post #4

It's sad that this book is written in such a self-validating tone (the very first sentence is "This is the best book ever written on how to practice at the piano!" for crying out loud), because the content is excellent. I read it a couple years ago and it completely changed how I approach practicing.

> "This is the best book ever written on how to practice at the piano!" for crying out loud

It fits with the current zeitgeist, where clickbait is everywhere, even in respected newspapers.

Re: Fundamentals of Piano Practice

#12

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 12:14 AM UTC

cloogshicer wrote: post #4

It's sad that this book is written in such a self-validating tone (the very first sentence is "This is the best book ever written on how to practice at the piano!" for crying out loud), because the content is excellent. I read it a couple years ago and it completely changed how I approach practicing.

[deleted]

Re: Fundamentals of Piano Practice

#13

Post by maroonblazer » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 12:16 AM UTC

From the last section in Chapter One, titled "Jazz, Fake Books, and Improvisation":

> In summary, the process of learning this genre consists of practicing the chords and scales sufficiently so that, given a melody, you can “feel” the right and wrong chords that go along with it.

That's only scratching the surface and will not get you playing jazz. Listening to and copying the greats - Bird, Monk, Evans, Coltrane, Rollins, et al. That's how you learn to play jazz.

>It is clear that this genre is here to stay, has great educational and practical value, is relatively easy to learn, and can be a lot of fun.

Relatively easy to learn??? Clearly the author hasn't or isn't playing jazz.

Re: Fundamentals of Piano Practice

#14

Post by coldtea » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 12:18 AM UTC

AlbertCory wrote: post #6

A good book. Although this statement: While writing it, I discovered that piano pedagogy had never been researched, documented, and analyzed properly is totally wrong. There's a Piano Pedagogy group just in the Bay Area, and lots of books on it. I was an Adult Beginner, which is sorta a Thing. My teacher had about 12 adult students, and we had separate recitals from the kids. The hidden reason for this is, you don't…

>is totally wrong. There's a Piano Pedagogy group just in the Bay Area, and lots of books on it.

None of the above refute the parent's statement. They author is aware there are such things as piano pedagody groups and books. Key word here is "properly" (which might be accurate or not, but that's what should be refuted).

Re: Fundamentals of Piano Practice

#15

Post by jacquesm » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 12:20 AM UTC

amelius wrote: post #11

cloogshicer wrote: post #4

It's sad that this book is written in such a self-validating tone (the very first sentence is "This is the best book ever written on how to practice at the piano!" for crying out loud), because the content is excellent. I read it a couple years ago and it completely changed how I approach practicing.

> "This is the best book ever written on how to practice at the piano!" for crying out loud It fits with the current zeitgeist, where clickbait is everywhere, even in respected newspapers.

It was written long ago.

Re: Fundamentals of Piano Practice

#16

Post by jacquesm » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 12:20 AM UTC

nuclearnice1 wrote: post #3

jacquesm wrote: post #2

This is a prettified version of the original which is available here: http://www.pianopractice.org/ , suggest a link change.

What do you see as the advantage of the “ugly” version? More up to date?

HN as a rule tries to link to the original source of something when it is available.

Re: Fundamentals of Piano Practice

#17

Post by NikolaNovak » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 12:21 AM UTC

AlbertCory wrote: post #6

A good book. Although this statement: While writing it, I discovered that piano pedagogy had never been researched, documented, and analyzed properly is totally wrong. There's a Piano Pedagogy group just in the Bay Area, and lots of books on it. I was an Adult Beginner, which is sorta a Thing. My teacher had about 12 adult students, and we had separate recitals from the kids. The hidden reason for this is, you don't…

Interesting, I didn't think any adult would try to learn instrument as an adult with goal of making money. I guess I happened to know professional amazing orchestra players who practiced hours every day since they were 6... And were mostly still dirt poor. So when I started piano lessons at tender age of 40, it did not come with any illusions of riches and fame compared to wizards who were three and a half decades ahead of me :-).

But I'm still having so much fun!! Playing simple piano pieces or fooling around with synth or arranger or playing with my kids etc. Piano has such a low barrier of entry to just tinkle around, and such phenomenal keyboards can be had for so little money used if you research a bit, I feel totally spoiled :-). There's YouTube videos and online lessons and awesome books for any style.

My one tip to adult learners - understand that music theory is not the same as learning to play is not the same as learning music notation / sight reading. Traditional music teachers with captive audience of 10 year olds whose parents force them to attend, start with notes reading which has no pay off for unbelievable amount of time. As a busy motivated adult there's no shame and lots of advantages to first learn your way around the instrument and a few songs or improv, even some good theory, before conittibg yourself to grind and learn by rote of music notation. It is NOT intuitive and you won't benefit from it immediately. Especially as piano has different clef for left and right hand... Mostly Because grouchy 18th century old Austrian white males hate you! :-D

Re: Fundamentals of Piano Practice

#18

Post by amelius » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 12:23 AM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #15

amelius wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "This is the best book ever written on how to practice at the piano!" for crying out loud It fits with the current zeitgeist, where clickbait is everywhere, even in respected newspapers.

It was written long ago.

Yes. But maybe it explains why it resurfaces now.

Re: Fundamentals of Piano Practice

#19

Post by sseagull » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 12:27 AM UTC

NikolaNovak wrote: post #17

AlbertCory wrote: post #6

A good book. Although this statement: While writing it, I discovered that piano pedagogy had never been researched, documented, and analyzed properly is totally wrong. There's a Piano Pedagogy group just in the Bay Area, and lots of books on it. I was an Adult Beginner, which is sorta a Thing. My teacher had about 12 adult students, and we had separate recitals from the kids. The hidden reason for this is, you don't…

Interesting, I didn't think any adult would try to learn instrument as an adult with goal of making money. I guess I happened to know professional amazing orchestra players who practiced hours every day since they were 6... And were mostly still dirt poor. So when I started piano lessons at tender age of 40, it did not come with any illusions of riches and fame compared to wizards who were three and a half decades ah…

Yes, I feel like the focus on making money is misplaced.

I started lessons in my early 30s, (although had a strong background in music before). Never had an interest in performing.

I view it like going to the gym. I don't lift weights to win some sort of weightlifting competition. So similarly I view playing piano as exercise for my mind, particularly areas which don't get as much of a workout programming and whatnot.

And while I do go to recitals where kids 25 years younger than me play harder pieces, I bet I can program a lot better than they can (probably) :)

Re: Fundamentals of Piano Practice

#20

Post by dandotway » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 12:44 AM UTC

Does this book cover how to figure out finger numbering for sheet music that doesn't have finger numbering?

By finger numbering I mean the standard scheme where thumb=1, index=2, ..., pinky=5, and the notes on the sheet music have these numbers.

This is the biggest mystery to me. I understand there is not a One True Canonical Fingering for a given sequence of notes. But some fingerings make the music much easier than others.

Wish some HN coder genius would write a program that given sheet music as input, outputs the top 1-3 recommended fingerings for that music with explanations for which rules were applied.