Piano for Dummies by Blake Neely Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Piano for Dummies
Book Review: the dummy and idiot market is insatiable
Summary: 3 Stars
We've learned in the past few years that there are many more dummies in the world than we had reckoned on and that the dummies are much more ambitious than we had supposed. They want to be taught to do everything. In any case, this is a serviceable work for persons of average intelligence (or so), but of course there are many other general method books available, many of them much better (and there are piano teachers as well.) I particularly recommend PENTATONIC SCALES FOR THE JAZZ-ROCK KEYBOARDIST by Jeff Burns.Book Review: very informative
Summary: 4 Stars
You must have a lot of time and like they say Practice Practice Practice. I recomend this book for anyone looking to learn more about Music and Piano.Book Review: very little mention of correct technique
Summary: 3 Stars
First, I have not read the entire book. I was in a music store and read a few pages in the front of the book that were dedicated to proper piano technique.
The author makes absolutely no mention of playing with the least amount of effort let alone how to achieve that. There are concrete ways to see if you are playing with the least amount of effort; I call it the 'fly away wrist' test. If you place the non playing hand under the playing hand\wrist you should be able to flick the playing wrist away from the keyboard while it is playing. If the playing hand is locked in place, you are playing incorrectly. See a teacher.
Like I said, there are concrete ways to accomplish this. The author does mention hand position but he leaves out a lot of important things. At any rate, if I were to write a book on piano playing, I would have written much more on correct piano technique - several chapters, not several pages.
For me, this has a very personal meaning. I am 54 years old and am a professional player. I only learned how to play correctly at the advanced age of 28. No teacher in high school or college ever made any worth while mention of how I was supposed to physically approach the keyboard. I took about 10 lessons from a concert pianist when I was 28 and he showed me in several lessons how to correctly approach the keyboard.
To properly study the piano, you need a real person sitting next to you. You can teach yourself how to read, you can teach yourself music theory, but the actual playing of a piano has to be guided with a real person.
I'm sure the rest of the book is just fine. You want to play the piano, get a teacher. Save the book for a vacation.
Book Review: you'll be playing tunes for the family pet before ya know it
Summary: 5 Stars
Okay, so the title and book cover design are extremely overused (whoever came up with the original title must be just rolling in dough from the licensing fees), but this is a really good book for those with absolutely no previous music experience. It gently walks you through the basics of learning piano, and you'll be playing tunes for the family pet before you know it. Highly recommended, CleverJoe gives it three big thumbs up.