Hey there

Can anyone recommend any good books on piano technique?

Thanks

Zoe

I have a book recommended in a previous thread by Mad Tom.

Kendall Taylor Principals of Piano Technique and Interpretation. It cost about £25 but is well worth it

I don't own my own copy of this, but I've read sections of a friends and it truly is fantastic, even from the tiny section I read I can tell you it's fab

Thanks for that...I've ordered it. Will look forward to receiving it!

Enjoy :-)

I just ordered the Kendall Taylor book too - thanks for passing on the recommendation

Roughly what level would you be at to get the most out of this book?

I ordered it from the library to see what it was like but I've had a note back to say that it's not in stock and no longer in print so they can't purchase it (presumably they don't purchase secondhand copies for library use).

I'll still keep it on my list to buy in the future and I've got plenty of other reading to be going on with if this book would suit intermediate/advanced players better...? (I'm currently around G1 level)

Rational Principles of Piano Technique- Alfred Cortot

I've only ever used the copy in the library at my university though, so I have no idea how much it is... could be expensive though, most of Cortot's stuff is.

I got this book and to be honest it's not an easy read!! I have to re-read paragraphs to try to understand what the Author is trying to say, and for this reason I would say it's for more advanced players. I'd be interested to know what other people think who have this book?

What standard should you have reached before this book becomes useful? At grade one it would be over the head of most young beginners, but an adult student should still be able to learn a lot from it, to get some idea of what is ahead. It is hard to say with any certainty, but I'd guess that it would start to become very useful at Grade 5 and above.

I was 25 years old when my new piano teacher told me to get this book and study it. I had already obtained my grade 8 piano at age 17, and was back at college studying for a PGCE specialising in Music. I too found it hard going at the time - but not because I found his line of thought or explanations hard to follow. It was mainly because I did not have much knowledge of the piano repertoire and a lot of the examples were unfamiliar to me ... and I was not a good enough player back then to sight read many of them!

All the same, it was worth the effort to understand it. Looking back 30 (aargh!) years later, my musical experience has broadened so that most of the examples are from pieces that I play or have played at some time, and the few that are not I have at least heard many times. Having read literally dozens of other books about the piano in those thirty years, and learned to play a bit better too ... it is still by far the best single book about piano technique that I know of. It contains just about everything you need to know to become a top class pianist.

And you can still get it new. It is listed by several Amazon partners on Amazon UK - but it costs just short of 40 pounds.

I think Cortot was ever so slightly of his trolley. And given to believing his own fantasies.

The exercises in this book are boring and unmusical. To work through them in the manner prescribed by Cortot would take hours a day for months, and there is no guarantee that they would make a pianist of you. I'd bet a pound to a penny that Cortot himself became a pretty good pianist without ever playing the sort of exercise that he claims to be so "rational".

I think that a few exercises like these are okay to repair some specific defect, or fill some gap in technique that has become apparent. But to work through them all, in all keys ... you'd have to be a masochist with too much spare time on your hands.

The much-maligned Hanon is much more practical, as are etudes of some musical value by Cramer, Czerny, Burgmuller, et al. and pieces of real, performable music of gradually increasing complexity and difficulty, such as you can find in the graded ABRSM syllabus.

Hmm, they are still in stock with musicroom.com too at 24.95 and certainly don't mention it being put of print.

Anyway that's an aside. Skylark, I'm just working on grade 3 and I have definetely found some useful gems in there. If I were you; I'd pop into your local music shops and see if they have a copy in sto
ck to look at  :-)

I only got my copy last year or maybe the year before and it is still definitely in print. I would say the level would be grade 5 upwards and agree that adults of any level would be able to read it and gain some benefit from it.

[quote name='Invidia' post='929337' date='Mar 7 2010, 02:24 AM']
Rational Principles of Piano Technique- Alfred Cortot

I've only ever used the copy in the library at my university though, so I have no idea how much it is... could be expensive though, most of Cortot's stuff is.
[/quote]
I think Cortot was ever so slightly of his trolley. And given to believing his own fantasies.

The exercises in this book are boring and unmusical. To work through them in the manner prescribed by Cortot would take hours a day for months, and there is no guarantee that they would make a pianist of you. I'd bet a pound to a penny that Cortot himself became a pretty good pianist without ever playing the sort of exercise that he claims to be so "rational".

I think that a few exercises like these are okay to repair some specific defect, or fill some gap in technique that has become apparent. But to work through them all, in all keys ... you'd have to be a masochist with too much spare time on your hands.

The much-maligned Hanon is much more practical, as are etudes of some musical value by Cramer, Czerny, Burgmuller, et al. and pieces of real, performable music of gradually increasing complexity and difficulty, such as you can find in the graded ABRSM syllabus.
[/quote]

I agree that you have to be selective and to do them all in every key would probably be counterproductive. But they're good for dealing with specific problems like you said.

I have his editions of the Chopin and Liszt Etudes on the other hand and they are really useful, even if he is a little ott in his descriptions.

I contacted the Music Library to tell them that it's available online but apparently they have to order everything from Novello, who tell them it's not in print. They're not allowed to order online copies.

So I'll keep it on my list but I've got a few other books I want to read first.

I'm not going to reccomend a book, but you can get very cheap ones at markets or car boot sales. Obviously, you can't just rely on something like this. However, it is good to keep an eye out for a good bargain!