Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Chuan C. Chang - Fundementals of Piano Practice: Your input on this?

I haven't read the entire book, but have read parts. Some of it, I found to be useful.

I doubt if any two people learn in exactly the same way. What might work for one, may not work effectly for another. Its one man's opinion. Try it. If it works, great. If not, then don't use it.

I also read it several times, and made my own abbreviated version by cutting and pasting things that seemed important. I think it's worth reading, at least in so far as it gives you things to think about and try. But I'm with Akira: learning styles vary so much that one practice method doesn't fit all. I've modified some of his ideas to suit me, and they've worked quite well.

Some of it does seem like snake oil, though. At least he doesn't recommend practicing with a coin on your hand.

Would you post that or PM it to me? I'd love to have a look

Waltz, I PM'd it to you. I've never PM'd before; I hope I did it right.

There is one concept of his that I have found very helpful. The whole notion of playing a difficult passage over, and over, and over, in high repetition, until you can play it smoothly, even faster than the listed tempo (for passages whose difficulty is attributable to the speed of the notes played... this doesn't work as well on passages that are difficult for other reasons.)

This may be obvious to many of you, but it was a real revelation to me, and I use the suggestion all the time.

That's one I believe he "borrowed" from other sources. I've seen it in books published way before his book came out.

True, it isn't Chang's original idea. But I can't fault him for that, since the book itself is free.

Well, that and the near certainty that I would not have come across the suggestion from the original sources. Not as quickly as I did, anyway.

I've commented elsewhere before on Chang's book. I read it when I first started playing almost 3 years ago and since then, I've kept track of how many of the things he recommends have been recommended by the two teachers I've worked with. There are lots. And I haven't seen anything he recommends contradicted yet by my teachers or things I've read elsewhere. However, I still affectionately view this as my internet quack guide to piano and maintain a critical stance. The methods have helped me, but I also haven't really begun to use them to the fullest.

Also, I don't think Chang even pretends in the least that any of the material in the book is original, certainly not originating from him. His point is that there is three centuries worth of piano playing knowledge and pedagogy out there and it hasn't been properly documented or passed along. This is an analytical and thorough account of how to develop piano technique rather than an intuitive, natural approach.

Someone else claimed that Chang himself doesn't play. It seems to me that he does play. That he himself used and uses the techniques. He simply isn't a piano star, but I would imagine he is what most ABF people aspire to be, a highly competent adult pianist.

I posted a public google doc of a highlighted version of Chang's book about a year ago. I used yellow highlight on the sections I thought communicated the basic ideas, and cut out a lot of the beginning testimonials and other things not relevant to the subject matter. It is a difficult read to understand what he's written, not a good candidate for casual reading.

My 2 sentence summary of his 300 page book is to practice hands separate at full speed or better to develop musicality and technique first before putting hands together. Memorization is an integral part of learning a piece- by the time it's learned, it's memorized.

Thanks, MarkL, for this.

Yes, thanks! I wish I'd found your highlighted version earlier. You've probably emphasized some things that I missed.

Chang can be a tough read. I don't understand what he means by "thrust." "Pull" makes perfect sense, but thrusting into the keys doesn't seem like a secure way to play. Am I understanding him correctly?