The pianist's problems;: A modern approach to efficient practice and musicianly performance

by William S. Newman

”The reader must have noted in the favorite magazines of the practicing pianist how often the same troubled queries reappear: How can memorizing be made easier and more secure? How can the fourth and fifth fingers be strengthened? What produces musicianship? These and many others are perennial questions of the greatest practical importance to student, teacher, and performer. Strange, then, that adequate answers are so hard to find. With all the time and effort devoted to the study of the piano, with all the advances in the psychology of training, with all the special studies that have been conducted, there should be, by now, if not one right answer to each question, at least a preferred answer that will be right for the large majority of pianists. As a matter of fact, there are preferred answers in almost every instance. . . . The need is to bring these answers together, in one place, and to present them in nontechnical language as a concise, up-to-date, coordinated philosophy of piano playing. To meet this need, the present book has been written.”—from the Preface

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1984

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This a great book. As a guitarist myself I noticed that this book kept coming up in the bibliographies of guitar technique books I was reading. This made me curious and after reading The Pianist's Problems I was not disappointed. Newman details the process of learning music on the piano and I really like his approach. Also the physical mechanism of piano playing is discussed with the lever system well explained. Many of these techniques of physical mechanism and musicality are applicable to guitar. Overall this is a great read and will be a great future reference.

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very practical book. Highly recommended for moderate to advanced students wishing to supplement their weekly lessons or strike out on their own.

[Jess Monnier · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the little essay on learning in the books introduction to be one of the most helpful things. Adult students don't learn more slowly than children, they just (often) have larger goals, so their perceived progress is slower. I might assign the introduction and the last chapter on stage fright to my students for helpful reading.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published a while ago but definitely applicable today. I wouldn't recommend it to a newer student; as music teaching methods have changed since the 50's, modern music instruction books have become oversimplified. The side effect? New students aren't given as much theory to learn from the beginning nowadays.
Some of the terms in the book (minor subdominate chord) might fly a bit over the new student's head. But for a slightly more-advanced student, Pianist's Problems can help you ferret out your weaknesses--giving you the edge to know how to better study your technique and therefore improve. It certainly did for me.

[Kailey (Luminous Libro) · Rating 2 out of 5]

A somewhat technical book with some good insight.