More about this excellent free guide to piano practice, now just updated, at: http://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,15854.0.html

Overrated. I will read this one. it will probz be another scientific, patronising guide about how you can save hundreds of hours based on scientific guessing.

Theres no cure for getting good at piano ova than spending lots of hours practising.

Don't assume anything, and realise that you can spend lots of hours practising, but you won't improve unless that practising is done intelligently.

I personally find this a good read - picking out the good tips which work for me. It does have a lot of self-advertising in it but it's free. There is a wealth of good information worth considering. In any case, if you have any bright ideas on making it more scientific in terms of a randomised controlled trial - then I'd be interested to hear the results.

It's a mega read, some 300 odd pages in pdf format. I printed off the section on memorising music and I think Chang gives some very useful advice, especially about only practising the three or four bars (or whatever) or even the few notes in a score that give you the most trouble.

I agree that good solid practice, of the intelligent kind, is probably the best way forward for most.

It's a useful document - my only gripe is the lack of images or diagrams to demonstrate hand positions etc

CHANG

I read his previous edition and I thought it was interesting, but as someone already said, somewhat pretentious. He calls his method “revolutionary”, particularly his “hand separate” approach. But we all know that method has been known for years, and probably as long as there have been keyboards, if for no other reason that it is only simply common sense.

THE book is much too long, and extremely repetitive. The same job could have been done in probably less than 100 pages. It gets un-necessarily technical at times where your mind begins to wonder and lose interest. Mr. Chang relies very much on the book On Piano Playing : Motion, Sound, and Expression, by Gyorgy Sandor. Sandor’s book is excellent but not as specific as Mr. Chang’s. Nevertheless, Sandor took the courageous step of being a strong critique of the “authoritarian” style of teaching piano playing and other mindless methods such as the Hannon exercises, etc.

Chang also introduces the so called TO (thumb’s over) method of performing scales. He swears by its effectiveness. He believes some of the greats, such as Liszt, unconsciously used it, which was to be the source of their unbelievable speed. This notion is quite fantastic, and at best is only speculative. Although there are some merits to the method, it may create choppiness in scaling, in which case major adjustment must be made to prevent unmusical effect. A combination of the traditional thumb under and TO style may be best.

The good side Mr. Chang’s book is his passion to have us perform better and faster. It is certainly a great first step to the uninitiated, and to those who have been shortchanged by a bad teacher. It has a lot to offer in terms of the nature of learning and proper preparation for playing.

It is imperative to state that there are no more “secrets” in piano playing. When you are good, you can play the damned thing with your toes if you want to. There is one method that one simply has to learn, as in every thing in life, it’s called “patience”. If you care enough, with time and perseverance things will click, and you will find your own style and create your own music.

Q: How do you get to Carnegie Hall???
A: Practice!

I agree OVERATED.

Regards