Product Description

With clear and easy-to-understand exercises, The Piano Handbook is perfect for anyone interested in learning the piano. It provides fresh material and techniques, and gives brand-new players everything they need to learn and enjoy the piano. This book's innovative tutorial approach to piano covers classical and contemporary music styles in an integrated way. Instead of limiting students to one type of music and one style of playing, author Carl Humphries draws connections between various genres and techniques, highlighting the principles and history they share. Performance, improvisation, and composition are treated as interrelated skills that can be learned together. Featuring a mix of repertoire and freshly composed study pieces, The Piano Handbook demonstrates that learning different kinds of music at the same time can be a positive and enriching experience.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4045 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• 290 pages

About the Author
Carl Humphries is a pianist, composer, and music journalist. He studied piano and composition in London, Turin, and Berlin, and has performed at some of the most prestigious classical and jazz venues in the UK. His workshops and lecture/recitals are in demand at music academies and university music departments throughout Europe and in the US.

Customer Reviews

Excellent Guide For Inspiring Pianists
I've bought all kinds of products off Amazon over the years but have never felt the need to write reviews about any of them...until this one! This book is (in my opinion) an absolute must for pianists who want to improve their sight-reading/theory/technique/performance, whatever it is you want. I must first point out though (in accordance with the reviewer before me) that this wouldn't be necessary for advanced piano players who are very confident with their playing...

The book itself is spiral-bound so you'll never have the painful creasing down of pages that ruins so many books. It also comes with an introduction on the history of the piano...very informative and full of pictures. In the back is a reference section which includes a glossary of musical terms, repertoire guide, recommended reading & listening and info on buying/maintaining a piano.

The whole book is split into chapters/units which deal with different aspects of playing and progresses through at a nice pace. My advice is to not try and rush the chapters but wait till you've taken in all the info and are comfortable with the pieces. It is also scattered with tons of info boxes which contain biographies of well-known composers/pianists (along side their pieces for you to play), as well as important aspects of the chapter. A small selection of the topics covered include: scales, chords, arpeggios, pedalling, composing, harmony, rubato, left-hand leaps...the list goes on. It's not just classical music either, eventually you start doing jazz/bebop/rock/blues/fusion/urban/ragtime etc along with their respective scales, theory and techniques.

The main difference between this book to others I've bought is the way it keeps you interested. It doesn't tell you everything on a given subject at once but will do it in stages, e.g. scales aren't all put together in a long list, but are separated throughout the book progressively getting harder as your playing/technique improves.

Anyway enough ranting from me, go by this book! Once you complete all 18 units you'll be well on the way to getting where you want to be as a pianist. Thanks for reading & good luck fellow musicians, never give up!!

Best of all piano instruction books I have bought so far
I prefer this book to any of the other piano instruction books I have bought so far.

PRESENTATION - the presentation is lovely - glossy paper, hardback cover and a spiral binding so it sits easily on the music rest. Very considered and attractive design.

CONTENT - It is refreshing to start with something other than Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star...it starts with grown up music - and some very elegant tunes at that! The content does move at pace, but provided you work on each exercise until you have mastered it, it should be achievable. N.B. This is not a book teaching you how to read music, it's a book teaching you how to play the piano. The division of the book into Units makes it feel like a proper course and I have set myself a target of two weeks per Unit, hopefully tying in with fortnightly piano lessons with a tutor I have just started with, so by the end of 36 weeks (or, that is, the full 18 Units) I should have completed the book. I have to add here that there is a CD with the book that plays 69 pieces of music from the book and having listened to the CD right through while still only just at the beginning the book, if I can eventually play all that impressive stuff towards the end of the disc, I will be extremely happy.

Looking for the audio CD?
The CD is to be found, inside the back cover of the book.

Since this is very easy to overlook, please make you look there, before you request to replace the item.