Lately, I’ve developed a bad habit during my piano practice. About 15 minutes in, I glance over at my computer monitor, logged off, the screen a still black.
Best books for piano practice
How to Create Good Habits for Piano Practice
The word “piano” doesn’t appear once in The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (Random House, 2012). Yet this engaging book by New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg offers a useful perspective on how to create good habits for piano practice.
What Happened When I Read Reinventing Bach
For a train journey down south, Paul Elie took along a triple-CD set of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.
Book Review – With Your Own Two Hands: Self Discovery Through Music, by Seymour Bernstein
During a performance of the luscious Arietta from Beethoven’s Opus 111 Sonata, the concert pianist Seymour Bernstein made the mistake of opening his eyes. Usually the Arietta transported him to such a degree that he played the music with his eyes closed, his head leaning back.
Book Review: What to Listen for in Music, by Aaron Copland
The intelligent listener—not to mention the intelligent student of adult piano lessons—”must hear the melodies, the rhythms, the harmonies, the tone colors in a more conscious fashion. But above all, [s]he must, in order to follow the line of the composer’s thought, know something of the principles of musical form.”
Book Review – Chopin: Pianist and Teacher, as Seen by His Pupils, by Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger,
So instructed Chopin to one of his favorite students, Emile von Gretsch, a member of high society who also happened to be a gifted and hardworking amateur pianist.