A co-worker of mine sent me the link below on the book by Noah Adams. For those who do not know him, he is a regular journalist from National Public Radio (NPR) in the USA. He decided at 52 to start on piano lessons. The book chronicals his studies.


http://www.frontlist.com/detail/0385318219

I am definitely going to look for it at Borders or B&N.

John

I've read it...it was very interesting, not much in the way of a piano technique book but very witty and charming at times...

~pianocliff

I read it a few years ago. Among other things he describes how he attended an exclusive summer piano retreat hosted by the family of Erica Fiedner in some woodsy back East setting. He spent the entire time attempting to learn Traumerei as pretty much his first-ever serious piano piece. Anybody here think that's a good idea? This guy is a stubborn fool.

It's a little on the sappy, Alan Alda-ish side, but it's a good read. This is where I first found out about Sudnow's method.

Fun read, and it gave my husband the idea of sending me to Sonata piano camp as a surprise birthday present. I'm grateful.

I read it awhile back - he's a little quirky at times, but you know us musicians...

He really puts into words his frustrations and I found myself nodding my head in agreement at times, grateful to find that someone had the same thoughts as me about piano in particular and music in general. It's worth reading. Liz

I read it a few years ago too and it struck me as elitist. Who buys a steinway for their first piano?

You jealous?

Remember Mr. Adams probably had the money to buy anthing he wanted and thought that Steinway would be the instrument of choice for him. Maybe he did not do any research and only bought the piano for name recognition. And O by the by "who cares"

He was in the market for a vertical, spent quality time with the most successful piano salesperson in the world, and the outcome was inevitable.

This has already been talked about here, but I wanted to bump it back to the top. I know there are some new members since this was talked about.

I read the book during my first year of lessons and found it very interesting and inspiring. Much of the book resonated with me.

Here's a link with reviews on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Lessons-Music-Love-Adventures/dp/0385318219/


There was an excellent article on Erica Feidner in the New Yorker about her gift of matching people with pianos.

Stewart, James B. "Matchmaker.(Steinway & Sons piano saleswoman Erica Feidner)." The New Yorker 77.24 (August 20, 2001): 78(1).

I liked the book very much, too, mrpod. Not sure I'd recommend his approach to learning the piano (start off with one piece that's too advanced and thrash it out measure by measure), but I got all misty-eyed at the part at the end where he plays it for his wife as a present.

I actually finished this book last night. Came across it about a month ago. I thought it dragged in a few spots, but overall it was interesting to see his hurdles during that first year and definitely worth reading. Since the book was published about 1996, I believe, it would be interesting to hear a follow up story from him to see if he kept it up.

I read it about a year ago, and I got a lot out of it. I almost didn't read it because the reviews on Amazon were harsh, but I'm glad I did. From it I figured out it was okay to be obsessed with playing the piano even if you're not too good at it, and that people a lot saner than me are more obsessed than I am. He also reviewed some great books that I have since read, my favorite being Charles Cooke's "Playing the Piano for Pleasure." I looked up almost all the books or people he mentioned (even Lorrie Line!), and it made me really want to go to piano camp somewhere. I would love to know what he's playing these days.

Come to think of it, I wrote him a fan letter about that book last fall, but I never heard back from him .

Nancy

I looked at the New Yorker article again and decided to post a short excerpt to give an idea what it's about. I can't post any more than this because of copyright restrictions, but you can get a copy at your local library.

"... Before looking at any instruments, the two sat at Feidner's desk and spent more than an hour discussing Faires's tastes in music, her level of experience, where she would be using the piano, how often it would be played, what kind of response she wanted, even how and when she would use the piano's pedal mechanism. Faires stressed that she wanted an instrument with a bright tone, one that was very "forgiving" to the player, for use in a second home in Hilton Head, South Carolina. She liked to play all kinds of music, from classical to pop. When they were finished, Feidner took a piece of paper and wrote down a six-digit number, which meant nothing to Faires...

Then, as Feidner led her around the room, Faires tried out one piano after another-more than a dozen in all. She said that the one she liked best was a five-foot-eleven-inch Model L. "Do you love it?" Feidner asked. In truth, Faires had been a little disappointed in the tone. It was not quite the bright, singing sound she had hoped for. "I have one more," Feidner said, explaining that a piano had just arrived from the factory and was still in the basement being serviced. Feidner had played the piano that morning. "I'll have it brought up," she said. Fifteen minutes later, the instrument was ready. Faires sat at the keyboard. As she began to play, her spirits soared. This piano had the cheerful sound the others had lacked. It was forgiving. It was as if someone at Steinway, in making the piano, had built it to her exact specifications. When she turned to Feidner, she didn't have to say anything. They both knew the piano was sold.

"Look at the serial number," Feidner told her. Faires found the series of numbers stamped on the iron frame just inside the rim. Then Feidner produced the piece of paper on which she had written some numbers at the end of their interview. They were the same..."

Matchmaker
James B Stewart. The New Yorker. New York: Aug 20-Aug 27, 2001.Vol.77, Iss. 24; pg. 78

I found this book at a used bookstore a couple of years ago and read it.

In my opinion, the reviews at Amazon are overly harsh. In a way they are correct, as the author has an upper-class, East Coast perspective. Through the book, I read many examples: Noah and his wife own a nice home in the Northeast. Their first piano was a Steinway upright, about $14,000 in 1996. He has access to celebrities through his work as an NPR host. He gave his wife hand-crafted boat as a gift. They take long summer vacations every year. A $2,000+ week-long music camp isn't cost-prohibitive (and in fact demonstrates the value of individualized piano teaching).

I didn't really consider this book "elitist" as the author didn't seem to promote the view that these luxuries made him superior to others. Merely writing about one's own luxuries and indulgences isn't necessarily elitist. After all, a lot of people on these boards have plenty of discretionary income to buy fine pianos, take lessons, etc.

Once you get past these class issues, there's some interesting human-interest writing about pianists (pop, jazz, and classical), adults' fears of being treated like kids in piano lessons, piano technicians, etc. The piano "lessons" were really lessons about life, with the piano as a central theme.

A couple more thoughts...

A lot of the Amazon reviewers came down hard on Noah Adams for avoiding one-on-one lessons with a teacher. They also criticized him for a sporadic, half-hearted approach to his piano studies - not keeping a regular practice schedule, getting busy and missing a piano seminar, letting other hobbies get in the way, etc. They even accused him of seeking instant gratification, rather than taking the piano seriously.

As I was reading, there were several occasions that I wanted to tell Noah Adams to quit screwing around with gimmicky things like computer courses and "instant" piano courses and just find a good piano teacher in his area.

But I can't bring myself to judge him so harshly. When Noah Adams went to that week-long piano camp, he realized he was making a lot more progress than when he tried the DIY approach. I didn't get an impression he thought he'd become an accomplished pianist overnight; he did want to play an ambitious piece for his level. A lot of us around here are making that stretch and trying to tackle late-intermediate to advanced pieces.

From many of the posts here, I've read stories of several adults having trepidation about starting lessons, or having problems with certain teaching approaches. To that extent I can understand why someone may try to self-teach, at least at first.

As someone who's entering the middle of his career and has other hobbies besides piano (is there such a thing? ), I can understand why many adult students have a sporadic practice schedule. Not everyone can be so "serious" about the piano as to stick to the strict and time-consuming regimen to become a concert pianist.

Perhaps buying that $14,000 Steinway upright was overkill for someone just getting started. But my own playing isn't quite deserving of that rebuilt grand piano that's showing up in a couple weeks...

Maybe I should post this over at Amazon as my review of the book.

I couldn't finish reading the book. It seems to me that learning piano is just a prop for his witty comments and stories. Some stories (about other music students or musicians) are inspiring, but his own piano learning endeavor does seem very pretentious and half-hearted--the Steinway, the piano camp, the choice of pieces, the over-enthusiasm to appreciate the sound of one single note. I'd rather read how the "rest of us" learn piano, such as posts on this forum.

The book is a good look at the story of ONE adult beginner. I don't think he's advocating us all to follow the path he did. Also, it's not like he's forcing anyone to read his book. Everyone has their own opinion on the best way to learn to play the piano...I'm sure we've all made some mistakes along the way!

As for the Steinway...how many bad drivers have bought a Mercedes or a Lexus? If you can afford it, and it makes you happy, the more power to you! I mean, who are we to judge?