Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Books on Pianos

Hello,
What are some good books or favorite books anyone has on pianos or music?

That covers a lot of ground.....
It could help if you narrowed it down, or mentioned some particular areas that you're interested in.

Meanwhile......my #1 would be "The Great Pianists" by Harold Schonberg.
Along with a few hundred others.

On my piano, there is a small notebook and a copy of Die Kunst der Fuge, and both of those are favourites of mine. I don't always know what books are on other people's pianos.

To such a general question, it's hard to give a good answer. Do you mean how to build pianos, or how to play them, how to fix them ... it could be a lot of things.

Is a violin close enough? I'm reading A Traitor to Memory by Elizabeth George at the moment (on my Kindle).

A good general book on piano playing, pianism and anything pianistic (including the trials & tribulations of being a concert pianist) is Charles Rosen's 'Piano Notes'. He wears his authority lightly and has a very readable style.

Well wasnt really looking for anything specific. Just wanted to know different opinions.

An extremely good and free piano buyer guide on pianos and determining their quality is an actual side link on this site

PianoBuyer

Eyewitness Books: Music


heck yeah.

The discovery of Heaven, it's on my piano now.

One of my favourites; The Big Problem of Small Organs* no longer on top of my piano due to undue attention that the title received.

Otherwise I second Mark C's vote for "The Great Pianists" by Harold Schonberg.

*I had no practical use for a technical manual on organ building although I do love old books, so I gave it to a (male) family Member.

uh........uh................

You can find many good suggestions in this thread.

Modern books I would suggest are -

Kenneth Baker books on piano
Hanon Exercises for technique
Really easy piano books - you get a wide selection of categories, and have lots of popular tunes in
http://www.musicroom.com/Search/Find.aspx?searchtext=pop+songs+on+piano

Basic Blues for Piano

I just finished reading "A Romance on Three Legs - Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano" by Katie Hafner.

Not a demanding book and quite entertaining.

There are tons of phenomenal books, I can't argue with any choices on any of the threads on the subject.

The following books are not exactly intro-level, but they really capture the vibe of what it's like to be in the field, or at least to struggle with various pianistic issues.

I find Piano Pieces by Russell Sherman to be the single most inspiring and resonating book on the piano that I have read. I also found practical advice from Ralph Kirkpatrick's Interpreting Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. It might be a bit out-of date, but it describes a method that I can sometimes adapt for use while working on other composer's music.

And out of left field, someone gifted me with a copy of The Beauty of Gesture (The invisible Keyboard of Piano & T'ai Chi) by Catherine David. A book that I first dismissed as self-absorbed gobbledy-gook - and kinda hard to read due to translation - but I'm starting to appreciate the fact that any attempt to describe the ephemeral with things that are concrete as words should be applauded.

Dieter Hildebrandt: 'Pianoforte'
Konrad Wolff: 'Masters of the keyboard'
Harvey Sachs: 'Arthur (sic) Rubinstein'
Harold Schonberg: 'The great pianists'
'Vladimir Horowitz'

books on piano? well, I don't like put books on my grand piano...

I've got that book too. It's weird and, as you say, left field but I really enjoyed it.