Hi everyone! Do you know the book Fundamentals of Piano Practice by scientist and pianist Chuan C. Chang? http://members.aol.com/chang8825/entirebook.htm

I've been reading it for a few days now, and find it extremely interesting. I like its scientific approach, the fact that the author tries to match every empirical discovery with scientific reasons, and that it obviously took a lot of hard work and thorough research to write.

For those not aware, this book is basically a pedagogical book. From my point of view as a translator, it can be even considered the first book (I've ever seen) on "piano neurolinguistics", as it were. It's not so much a book on technique as it is on the good and bad ways of learning a piece of music and of building technique (i.e. it tries to weed out bad habits and seek the most effective way to learn pieces).

Basically what he is trying to do is make pianists save as much time as possible, optimizing the learning process and the memorizing process, which in turn makes you learn very fast and then make fewer mistakes while playing in a stressful situation (like a concert). As an intermediate pianist, I find my teacher gave me some of the advice I see here, but there are other things that have been a revelation. And the best part is that the physiological/neuronal reason for everything is explained.

And the best best part is that the book is free for everyone! Not only is that good for us, but it also gives this person much more credibility in my eyes. If it were a scam, then he would be charging for it. He (and his testimonials) genuinely believes his method is good, so the least I can do is try it out. I'll tell you how it turns out in a few months...

Chang's book is a well-known and oft-discussed topic on these forums, particularly on the ABF forum. Do a search to check out some of the previous discussions.

I don't have it, but it's listed as a must-have on Amazon/Listmania...