Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Josef Hofmann's book on piano playing

Has anyone ever read this? I love his attitude towards the piano. It's so powerful and certain that it reminds me of the way Ayn Rand preaches in her novels.

He offers so many helpful tips on practicing. For example: after an hour of practicing is up, take a long break, even a long walk and think nothing more of music, and let the information you just learned sink in. Then return to the piano. He also says you don't need finger excersises, maybe just a couple to warm a person up is alright, but even dipping hands in warm water for a couple minutes is just as effective.

He was also Anton Rubentein's pupil for two years and he talks abouts his expiriences with him.

But man oh man, do I need a dictionary when I read his writing. Some of the words are so complicated that even websters dictionary doesn't contain the definitions.

He was such an intelligent man, and not just because he knows how to use big words. This book is definetly well worth the read although it can be a little intimidating. When you find out that you are learning piano in a way which he would disapprove of, or he puts down in any way your method of playing or learning, it makes you feel like sh**.

Zeldah

[ August 04, 2001: Message edited by: ZeldaHanson ]

Thanks for the preview, I ordered that book recently, and I'm just waiting to have a friend of mine drop it off. Did you know that Hofmann invented the automotive shock absorber?

Haha, that's actually kind of funny but wow, I never knew that. He really is a genius. I wish so much I had lived back then so I couldn't known him and talked to someone like him.

Here are some more sweet quotes from him:

"A technic without a musical will is a faculty without a purpose, and when it becomes a purpose in itself it can never serve art."

"The soul of a work of art lies hidden. To play its notes, even to play them correctly, is still very far from doing justive to the life and soul of an artistic composition."

"In some respects the performance of a piece of music resembles the reading of a book aloud to someone. If a book shoul dbe read to us by a person who does not understand it, would it impress us as true, convincing, or even credible? Even if such a person were drilled to read outward correctness that of which he cannot fanthom the meaning, the reading could not seriously engage our attention, because the reader's want of understand would be sure to effect a lack of interest in us.Whatever is said to an audience, be the speech literary or musical, must be a free and individual expression , governed only by general aesthetic laws or rules; it must be free to be artistic, and it must be individual to have vital force.

That's a great analogy using the reading of a book. I'm going to use that!

I've read it...he had a very analytical mind and is able to answer the questions very clearly.

A very good read...it's next to my bed.

Mat D.