The Piano Handbook is perfect for those interested in improving their piano skills. The book also contains a lot of interesting facts as well as history of music (full-color photo gallery), which makes it such an interesting read. Great for adults, especially those who had learnt to play years back and are looking for a refreshers guide. This book requires knowledge of the basics (such as notes on the clefs).
This book is not exactly for a beginner, it has a steep learning curve (for beginner) and have several challenging pieces that they might find daunting. The book is better suited to adults who had some piano instructions before.
Each exercise teaches you at least two or three different skills, but you need to know how to practice, how to pick the music apart, how to slow it down to learn effectively. It takes long to actually practice the material. But if all this is too much for you, this book may not be for you.
The book is authored by Carl Humphries, a London based pianist, composer, and music, who has written extensively on music education, contemporary music, and the philosophy of music.
If you know the basics and know how to practice, ‘The Piano Handbook’ is a great book, but you should consider supplementing it with some other studies in parallel.
- The book is heavy on theory and improvisation, it also teaches basic music theory such as reading music, hand positions, note intervals, chords and basic theory.
- All the lessons are available in audio downloadable from an online site. The accompanying audio makes the playing techniques and concepts easier to understand.
- The semi-concealed spiral binding enables the book to stay open when placed on the piano.
With clear and easy-to-understand exercises, The Piano Handbook teaches techniques in classical and contemporary
music styles covering everything from classical to jazz, rock, bebop and fusion.
Buy The Piano Handbook: A Complete Guide for Mastering Piano.
If you are able to work your way through this book and practice the material, you should consider yourself an intermediate piano player.
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
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