Product Description

A guide that hits all the right notes—now with a CD!

From reading music and learning chords, to understanding music notation or buying an instrument, an expert author tells aspiring pianists how to get started. Learn posture, positioning, fingering, notations, and drills, with advice from a master. And this new edition features an introduction to music notation, explains how to use the pedals, and offers strategies for mastering major and minor scales. It also comes with a CD with all the music in the book so you can listen and learn.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #410169 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781592575640
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Brad Hill is a seasoned pianist, teacher, and writer. He has written dozens of books on keyboard playing, MIDI, and music, and has recorded several albums of original keyboard music. He has appeared extensively on radio and television, and has been interviewed for dozens of publications such as the New York Times, Billboard, and Christian Science Monitor.

Customer Reviews

Well-written, but poorly proofread!
THE VERDICT: Although otherwise well-written, the 2002 edition has errors. Perhaps a corrected edition (or at least a page of addenda & corrections) will be published soon?

This book is very informative, and written in a style that is accessible to the beginner. The main body of the text explains things clearly and directly, and the background information is mostly presented in sidebars so that it is possible to read the text without getting bogged down in tangential details, but those details are there if you want them. It's an enjoyable, fun book.

UNFORTUNATELY, the actual musical notation is full of errors! The book has text explaining music and the piano, and this text is accompanied by music in the familiar form of notes on the musical staff. But the staff has errors, either in the notation or in that it depicts a different song than is described in the text! For example, on page 97, "Here Comes The Bride" has dotted-quarter notes that should be dotted-eigth notes. On page 116, the text describes the song "My Favorite Things", but the song depicted on the staff is "Greensleeves". There are other errors as well.

If you have some musical background already, you can recover from these errors and figure out what is supposed to be happening, but this book might cause excessive confusion in a younger student who is already not quite so enthusiastic with their piano lessons! :-)

sigh
Aggressively unhelpful; meandering, rambling style with terrible jokes, terrible prose, and worst of all, a dearth of actual practice lessons. The majority of the book is taken up with third-rate 'scholarship' about the history of piano-related instruments, or with minutiae about electronic keyboards. Avoid at all costs.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Piano (2nd Edition)
The book is great!!! I have limited musical knowledge (what I learned in grammar school) and this book helped me regain what I had previously learned and allowed me to build on it by creating a fun, relaxed atmosphere and always with humour. Thanks.