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I have noticed lots of book titles flying around lately and was thinking that it would be nice to have a list somewhere. (So I know what to shop for when I visit the U.S. next!)

I'll start, and please add any you know of or have actually read, especially those that relate to the specific needs of us ABs.

A Soprano On Her Head. by Eloise Ristad, about performance anxiety. (thanks for the recommendation Jodi!)

The Inner Game of Music (I hope that's the right title, from the "Inner Game of Tennis" folks)

Piano Lessons (by Noah Adams, about his experience taking up piano as an adult)

Great thread, ShiroKuro - I'm interested to see what the people here post.

Here are two that I like:

Seymour Fink "Mastering Piano Technique" - a fantastic guide to developing technique, focusing on body mechanics amd movement.

Boris Berman's "Note's from the Pianists Bench" - this is like a master classs in a book. I like him because he has good practical advice and is not dogmatic.

I'm currently reading "Piano Mastery: The Harriette Brower Interviews". I find it really really interesting, but not overly helpful with improving my playing. It has interviews with famous pianists and/or their students. Those included, among many others, are Padarewski, Backhaus, Gabrilowitsch, Godowsky, Cortot, Gieseking, Hess, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninov.

"The Piano Shop on the Left Bank" is a great read for enjoyment. (I liked it better than the Noah Adams book)

"Making Music at the Piano" by Barbara Maris has some interesting insights about playing in general.

Herman,

I agree about "The Piano Shop on the Left Bank" and enjoyed it much more than "Piano Lessons", although I found it odd and frustrating that the author (Chad ?) would never just come out and say what pieces he was learning or working on.

With Your Own Two Hands by Seymour Bernstein is interesting. It gets quite technical, but it's a book that I can "grow" into. It's quite inspirational as well.

i too have Bernstein's "with your own two hands" and have read most part of it, quite interesting.

i also have Seymour Fink's "Mastering piano technique", a very helpful technique book.

i have many other piano related books, but those 2 i read often.

Since I'm essentially self-taught, I think I've read just about every piano book generally available, including all those mentioned here (except for "Soprano etc.").

One I highly recommend to all AB's, especially those who are mainly self-taught, is Charles Cooke's "Playing the Piano for Pleasure."

P.S. does anyone here have Fink's video that mates with his book?

Cooke's book is really great Magellan - But have you checked out the price????? It is out of print and rare. Last time I looked it was like $50.00. I read my sister's copy and really enjoyed it.

Ouch! Yes, Teachum. I just saw that on Amazon.com. What a shame.

People in the USA might still be able to borrow a copy from their libraries.

musicmagellan (you really need a nickname) - we are alot alike... I own Playing the Piano for Pleasure - bought it for a dollar reading it always..

Ditto on "The Piano Shop on the Left Bank" - especially if you are fascinated in pianos themselves.

My piano teacher recommended "Jean Christoff" by Romain Roland but I have been unable to locate a copy - has anyone read this?

Kevin

"With Your Own Two Hands" is a wonderful book. (My teacher studied with Seymour Bernstein. ) It does get into technical matters, but it also covers things like practicing, memorization, performance and nervousness. There's also an interesting examination of the student/teacher relationship. Bernstein has another terrific book about the basic "movements" in piano playing entitled "20 Lessons in Keyboard Choreography."

Another of my favorite books is "On Piano Playing" by Gyorgy Sandor.

I bought a copy of "Piano: Guided Sight-Reading" by Leonhard Deutsch last night at a used/vintage bookstore. The tease on the back cover states things such as:

---
DON'T do finger exercises, scales and dreary drills.
DON'T suffer through Cramer, Clementi, Czerny
Fingering comes naturally - if you forget about it.
Coordinating your ears, eyes, and hands.
The psychological "secret" of reading music at sight.
---

We'll see how it reads, at ~100 pages there can't be a great level of detail. It might make good bathroom reading material, but the "Encyclopedia of Bad Taste" appears to be more fun.

Rob

Hi, everyone. Saw this topic and thought I should make my first post at last.

While it's not strictly about piano playing, "Starseeker" by Tim Bowler is a great fictional story about a gifted 14-year old pianist who is synaesthetic and also hears sounds and melodies that no-one else can. A lot of music is mentioned in the book, like Scriabin's Etude Op. 2 No. 1 and Debussy's The Snow Is Dancing. I highly recommend it.

As an aside, my sig is a quote from the book.

Apple - YOu must have found Playing Piano for Pleasure at a garage sale? Obviously, someone did not know what a treasure they had.

Welcome, Zaccix!

I'll have to see if I can find a lot of the books already mentioned. Here are a few that I've purchased within the last few months:

"The Piano Handbook" by Carl Humphries
"Piano Technique" by Walter Gieseking & Karl Leimer
"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory"

To be honest, I haven't read much of any of them, but from what I have read, they seem promising.

Thanks, tk.

I've read an excerpt from "The Piano Shop on the Left Bank" and I think it'll be my next book purchase. It seems like a mellow book, which suits me fine.

I saw a book this weekend called "Handful of keys" by Alyn Shipton. It's about 30 interviews with some "legendary" jazz pianists. It looks pretty good.

On the fiction side Body & Soul by Frank Conroy is a good book. Well written and pretty entertaining.

On a side not after reading this thread I ordered the Playing Piano for Pleasure book from the abebooks.com site for far less than the $50 Amazon was trying to get for it. Hopefully it's in decent shape.

Arthur Loesser's Men, Women and Pianos : A Social History is absolutely superb. Fascinating, fun, and informative.