That's not to say that he doesn't have any interesting insights, but IMO this is an entirely inappropriate book for an ab initio beginner. The value of his insights comes from another perspective on piano pedagogy, but it's an untrained one; better to learn the ropes as they're commonly understood before you seek the guy who's all about an unorthodox presentation of them.
At the bare minimum, get a teacher so you can learn how to hold your hands.
I clearly remember the first time I went through the book, being a bit shocked when I read this particular take.
To belabour this point for non-pianists, the parent is describing what "thumb over" really is: a sort of physical consequence of playing a fast ascending arpeggio/scale. It isn't an alternative to "thumb under" so much as a good-faith approximation of it at speed. "Practicing" "thumb over", as in this YouTube video [0], would likely threaten the mapping of fingers to keys in a newer player. It's not wrong to acknowledge its existence, but IMO it's properly conceived of as a skill that develops as a consequence of playing normally (though quickly), not an alternative to it.
Because (and in spite of) the fact that he doesn't play piano, his observations on "thumb over" are interesting, but unless you're already aware of the true nature of "thumb over" his authoritative tone will lead you astray in terms of conceptual categorization.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLTbURVEEO4
[1] https://fundamentals-of-piano-practice.readthedocs.io/chapte...
"Both methods are required to play the scale but each is needed under different circumstances; TO is needed for fast, difficult passages and TU is useful for slow, legato passages, or when notes need to be held while playing other notes."
"Beginners should be taught TU first because it is needed for slow passages and takes longer to learn. The TO method should be taught as soon as faster scales are needed, within the first two years of lessons."
I would also second that advice too! My wife taught her some basics but we got a private teacher for her about a year ago, that has supercharged her ability.
She does a 40 minute lesson once a week. The teacher writes notes on what she is to practice and learn. She practices her work for about an hour a day, and spends maybe another 30 minutes figuring out songs she likes (the Harry Potter theme is her current interest).
I would recommend doing the same to anyone else, a private teacher is the way to go.
As a side note, she didn't just start from zero, we've had her in some form of music and rhythm class since she was 9 months old. She has a good ear for music, timing and instruction, to the point where she used to surprise other parents/teachers with how attentive she was.
Also I make sure to have the classical radio on every morning and evening to further train her ear ;)
That's really cool, could you elaborate?
I'm not even a physicist but I cannot help but to see non linear interpolated curves and surfaces when I hear music. (curvature being somehow related to dissonance).
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx_kugSemfY
And tuning is all about 'numerical puns', similar to how eg 2^10 ~ 10^3, but for perfect fifths and octaves etc.
Of course, our physiology and culture is a bit too complicated and convoluted to understand everything about music from first principles like this. So most of the time you are better off learning (and treating) music as music instead of as applied math or physics.
Your linked reviews spend a considerable amount of energy complaining about the author's lack of pedigree, of one sort or another...or paraphrasing things the author didn't say. Which isn't really paraphrasing, is it?
I think I've been playing piano since I was 7 too. After years away, I've been helping to teach my son. Most of the advice in the basic practice section is really, really good. Many of the techniques describe correspond quite well to what my son's (quite excellent) teacher asks him to do...and they work.
The book totally falls apart when getting into the weeds. Piano is a corporal activity after all and while yes, there's definitely "frameworks" to make learning pieces more efficient, or practicing more efficient, the author gives very bad advice when he starts crossing the threshold towards what's technical and corporal... because he just doesn't know.
It seems to me that piano is a physical activity that is impossible to teach through text, and that a good teacher is the only way. But I'd like to be wrong, or at least find some useful tips.
(This is to say nothing of interpretation and other musical matters, which seem even more impossible to transmit through writing...)
In piano (but true for a lot of sports too), when you hit a certain level, it will be more about how to make a lot of things work for your body, your hands... the way you are built. Doing that alone is possible, specially if you had a lot of instruction before. It does require a lot, a lot of intuition and a very solid foundation. It's also easier with the appropriate teacher, or mentor/s I should say.
Hopefully this helps you out a little?
I've been playing myself for like 25 years, classically trained for my whole childhood. I've always enjoyed improvisation and love jazz piano so much, but I've found it really hard to build from my very limited improv vocabulary into "serious" jazz, and I've had a hard time learning how to learn jazz, if that makes sense.
- listen a lot to the greats and the players you love. The most common problem I see in students is them not listening to much/any jazz and expecting to be able to sound good.
- transcribe a lot, solos you love but dont know what they're doing. Solos on any instrument. Then play them. (If you can play them without transcribing them, great.)
Basically I'd say there are 3 parts in learning improvisation: the theoretical part (which is already a complex one because there are several possible theoretical approaches to jazz improvisation), the imitation part (learn and play back existing phrases, or better complete solos from the masters), the by-ear / singing part (the toughest one that most actually don't reach, at least reliably).
Don't forget that there is definitely a large social part in jazz improvisation; I'd rate my improvisation ability as uninteresting most of the time; I can get "in the zone" accidentally by myself, but more often it's a band thing: playing with the right people often enough and long enough to get together in "the zone". Yes, that's exactly the same zone as the programming one; you're lost in the music, feeling what's coming next and what notes should be played by whom (there only comes your technical ability in the picture) without thinking about it.
In my personal case, a long practice of classical piano hampered my early capability at improvisation for a long time and I needed the crutch of theory, and to intellectualize the process. Some blessed people "ear" the right notes without needing any justification "why" they are the right ones.
When you've got a long practice of your instrument, the difficulty is to free yourself from the reassuring but useless knowledge and habits you have that bring you to play this scale or this phrase because it's "in your fingers". The best way to reach that point is to have hundreds of ready phrases in all tones "in your fingers", and then try to forget them and listen to the music. Hopefully, you'll feel what goes where, like an unrolling, animated puzzle, or a Tetris game.
Personally I've found Kent Hewitt's advice to be very useful, I think it may help a lot of people. What's great in his playing is that he keeps it very simple, but always richly melodic. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdmjw5sm9Kn83TB_rA_QBCw
Another piece of advice I can give you is to learn to recognize chords and all the different ways they're built (by stacking thirds or fourths, etc) and how they come in succession (the usual II V I VI and friends) to get a better feel of what comes here or there.
My biggest leap in jazz so far, was to stop thinking about chord-scale relations and just focusing on chord-tones and extensions to outline the harmony of a piece, and approach notes to connect them.
I listen to a ton of jazz (nothing else but Jazz for a while). I've been transcribing Charlie Parker for a whole year, really working on his phrasing, heads, articulation, getting deep.
Disclaimer, I still think I'm terrible. My goal is to be somewhere less terrible in a couple more years... but I know I won't feel like that when I get there :D
PS: Get a great teacher, that's the biggest thing you can do to help yourself. Crazy good cats available for lessons these days.
> When you've got a long practice of your instrument, the difficulty is to free yourself from the reassuring but useless knowledge and habits you have that bring you to play this scale or this phrase because it's "in your fingers". The best way to reach that point is to have hundreds of ready phrases in all tones "in your fingers", and then try to forget them and listen to the music. Hopefully, you'll feel what goes where, like an unrolling, animated puzzle, or a Tetris game.
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/096147...
Claims to be very RSI resistant and healthy ?
In a nutshell, there is the concept of single rotation and double rotation. When finger-to-finger movement is in one direction, like 1,2,3, you use double rotations. When going from 3 to 1, a single rotation. The movements are highly exaggerated for learning and demonstration.
I think it's easy to get hung up on "how can I play piano if I'm rotating my hand all over the place?" In my opinion, a large part of learning rotation and how to use it for slow practice on difficult passages is about freeing your arm and hand so they are not unintentionally opposing movement. Playing with tension or unintentional opposition, especially if you play hours a day, is one way to get RSI (tendonitis).
Here are some excellent YT resources for piano I have bookmarked. Several of these have videos that talk about forearm rotation:
https://www.youtube.com/user/cedarvillemusic
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3vYz1SAtcbRhsatydObGQw
https://www.youtube.com/user/PianistMagazine (Graham Fitch)
https://www.youtube.com/user/SteveMass1101
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr0BMA5yu3AS0alkR7kYwEQ
https://www.youtube.com/user/aw4piano
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLsMRd097KLJMvkNzC4rYAA
https://www.youtube.com/c/DanielBarenboim/videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6tpkZhNpJiTnlUgoiUe9QQGood luck :)
I have stumbled across this book many times, I have read it. It's the single most controversial book that I've read about piano technique and playing that I've found.
The author, is not even a player himself (!!!). There's a great summary of reviews about the book here (https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=38247.0), if you're starting into piano, stay away, get a decent teacher.