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Having read "the book" and having subsequently purchased a piano from Carl Demler (see the thread "Mission Accomplished") and being in the beginning of sorting out various Knabe problems with the help of an RPT located in Trumansburg, I identify with the author (as do thousands of others).

Rather than adding to the mushrooming panegyric, I would pose a question to the author: How has the book's success affected you and your husband. My guess is that you feel rewarded emotionally and financially and that the initial challenge of paying for Marlene has faded into obscurity (I certainly hope so). Perhaps you are now driving to some of the book signings in a Lamborghini (and loving it). In short, how are you handling the phenomenal (and well deserved) success?

hi, dave,



it has been very rewarding emotionally, intellectually, and creatively. the book was a great critical success, and it found a following among pianophiles, which is tremendous. just the process of writing the book and working with my wonderful editor was hugely rewarding.

it has not been very rewarding financially, at least, not yet. but that is par for the course in the world of publishing.

for some reason, people seem to get the idea from the book that i spent a lot of money chasing down "the marlene experience." i'm not sure how or why they got this impression.

i thought i was pretty clear in the book that i was shopping for pianos while on assignment for work, i didn't pay for the travel myself. and as a journalist i was traveling a lot for work.

i also thought i made it clear that i didn't have to pay for most of the warranty work that was done. so i'm a bit mystified when people say i spend thousands of dollars on technicians and travel. i don't have the resources to do that and didn't.

a career as a writer, like any career, is a long process over time. this was my first book. i hope to write many more, and if i'm lucky, one or more of those books will put me in the lamborghini league. but if so, it will be one of those overnight success stories that took 25 years, i fear.

in the meantime, what GRAND OBSESSION has done has moved me onto the next big square of my career, and has legitimized me as an author in the eyes of people in publishing. and that is not to be underestimated.

my husband and i are living the same as we always have--scraping by, grateful for and loving the life we have, and loving what we do.

oh--and i now have a piano teacher who has read my book and you'd be surprised what a huge help that has been in our student/teacher relationship. he understands me musically in a way that few teachers understand their students without having taught them for many years.

Perri. Just wanted to let you know I never heard of Pianoworld until I read your book. I got your book on Kindle before text-to-speech was disabled, and you've read me to sleep in Stephen Hawking's voice many nights as you are riding shotgun around New York tuning pianos with Marc or driving piano techs crazy at your house!

I also never considered an acoustic until reading your book and wondering why you seemed to be going so mad over a piece of wood and metal!? I thought it was nuts that you would go so much over your budjet... what could drive someone to do that? Then I went from a $5,000 budget to a $30,000 budget over a matter of weeks and pretty much everyone in my family thinks it's my midlife crisis or that I've gone mad! Recently, while not taking the time that you did, I have come to understand what you went through and empathize with you more than I ever imagined I could. It's that sound, that visceral, organic, melting sound that's ephemeral and angelic. It's therapy and a connection to the universe that people who haven't experienced it find either amusing or odd or nuts!

Any way. I hope you find the time to write more as I'll be the first in line!

P.S. Pretty much 100% of my reading consists of Katie Hafner's books, Longitude, Eniac, Crystal Fire, Thread Across the Ocean, and all of the esoteric scientific or historical object books out there. Grand Obsession is, among those books, one of the books I mention when people ask what I read... and I'm trying to compliment you because all of those books I mentioned are my favorites among hundreds in that category that I've read.

Just noticed this thread, and rushed to order the book.

I see that I actually posted on here before.....but it was when I first joined the site and was just finding my way around, and didn't absorb what this was about. All I noticed was that I had missed your event in White Plains!

I'm afraid I probably share a lot of your grand obsession.

P.S. Would you believe......I only just now got the 'pun' in the title!

Mark C, you're in for a treat. pique, I enjoy hearing your update, too!

Hello Perry,

let me just say Thank You for your wonderful book.

I seem to be a "sound addict" too. Once I sung in a barbershop gang after having been "hooked" by a heavenly sung "Shine On me"..

Reading your book I was fascinated by several descriptions of pianos, locations and men. I found your description of the violin makers in Mittenwald very impressive. There it is really a very special community.

I am of the humble opinion that your great book should be available in german also.. ..

Kind regards

Bernd

alpha~


that was the question that bedeviled me as well. because for me to do something like buy that piano was so VERY unlike me. and then i saw it happening to other people, too. i just had to find out what was behind this phenomenon.

writing the book was a grand opportunity to "follow the vector of my curiosity" (my editor's advice to me when i asked him if he had any.) it was exciting to have the pursuit of the answer lead down so many very interesting avenues and to so many very interesting people.

mark, thanks for buying the book and i hope you enjoy it.

guest, thanks!

bernd, mittenwald was my personal favorite of all the chapters. that was such a remarkable time and encounter.

i would love for the book to have a german translation! mostly because so many, many of the people who are in the book are german speakers who don't read english and would very much like to read the book.

but also because i think there is quite a bit of german sensibility and appreciation of germans' dedication to craft in the book.

if anyone here knows a german publisher and would like to recommend GRAND OBSESSION to them, the german translation rights are available.

I bought the book after seeing it mentioned it some threads here.

I just loved it.

I was thrilled to be able to identify with the fledgling pianist, first recital qualms (my only recitals so far are the e-citals here, which are great, but different than going live!).... and I positvely thrummed to the concepts of energy and vibrations you discuss at such great and fascinating length.

I was intrigued to learn so much about how a piano is made and how it is tuned. I have a lot more to learn - which doesn't surprise me! - I'm just glad I read your book before selecting my piano.

An excellent read. Fun, interesting, educational and it very much speaks to the heart and soul of the music in and around each and every one of us.

Thanks for all the comments, David. Just a few quick responses.

I felt the earthquake from several hundred kms away. Damage was restricted to the immediate 50km or so radius from the epicentre.

I think that some piano tuners do upset some clients, including some concert pianists, by doing "too stretched" a tuning - so that beats in the octaves are noticeable, even if the client does not notice the beats themselves, there is just something "not right" about the tuning. I don't think anyone ever "goes there" to the same extent with narrow tunings.

My point about factories leaving the hammers unvoiced, was not that they would remain unvoiced in the showroom, just that I think it would be to the advantage of the piano buyer IF the "showroom voicer"/local technician WAS the person expected by the entire trade, to have the skills and to do this work. The status quo is a vicious circle, where the poor old local technician never knows what has already been done to hammers, and can never rely on being able to obtain a reliable result with any given approach. Look at what Perri went through with one voicer after another - and Marc Weinert's approach early on in the process may have been completely incompatible with what someone back at the factory had done.

I think this is a major reason for so much confusion, disagreement, and lack of confidence surrounding voicing. So few people get to start with a clean sheet and work out how to "build a voicing" from that point, and work out NOT to do "that" after "this" has BEEN done. Everyone has strong ideas about this or that approach that "got fantastic results" OR "killed the hammers" - and it was mostly a question of that approach just coincidentally being the right (or wrong) "NEXT THING" that could have been done to those hammers after what had already BEEN done to them.

This is why I am a whole lot more confident about getting "improvement" on a cheapie new piano with untouched hammers, than I am about even trying anything on an expensive, premium quality famous brand, where an expert individual has spent many hours voicing already.

I guess a rule of thumb is to regard the expensive piano's voicing as pretty much "set in concrete" and not to be messed around with any further. If you want a different sound, be prepared to buy a new set of hammers and let the best expert you can find in your area start from scratch.

Regards

Phil Hayward
Piano Tuner
Lower Hutt
NZ

i just started reading this book and i can't put it down! it was also the last book left in the city so i feel especially lucky to have come across it.

I think it should be a must read for all the piano buyers out there, i know it'll definitely help me alot when its time to buy my marlene.

I just read Grand Obsession yesterday, having bought the Kindle version. Great book! There were many things I could identify with. I had the perfect (for me) piano once, and made the huge mistake of selling it during a time when I went months without playing. Yeah, I'm a little bitter

Maybe I'll find my perfect piano again someday. Meanwhile, it was fun (and sometimes painful) reading someone else's story about having the perfect sound in one piano. The conversations about vibration especially spoke to me. The journey to recapture that tone was fascinating. It's good knowing there are others out there share the obsession. Makes me feel just a little less crazy (not that there's anything wrong with that!).

hi everyone. there hasn't been much grand obsession news to report for awhile, and now two big items to post in one week.

first, we've just made an arrangement with a german publisher, deutscher taschenbuch, to translate GRAND OBSESSION into german. this makes me especially happy as so many of the german and austrian characters in the book have been unable to read it as they do not read english.

look for the german edition in about 18 months (it takes a while to translate!) in the meantime, if you have friends who read italian or chinese, those editions are already in print.

second, nancy williams, who has a very worthwhile blog about playing the piano as an adult, has interviewed me about my own piano studies. it's a two-part post, and part one appears today along with a trailer for a documentary about beethoven's warehouse. have a look:

http://www.nancywilliamspiano.com/2011/10/03/grand-obsession-adult-piano-lessons/

Thanks for the update, Perri!
And BTW (coincidence!) I think I'm next on Nancy's list.
I look forward to seeing those posts about you!

mark, i'll look forward to your interview. what will you be talking about?

(We did the interview a few weeks ago.)
It seems she's going to be focusing a lot on what I said about my old teacher Seymour Bernstein, including my playing his pieces, since later on (also by coincidence) she's also going to be writing about his book. She was already planning that before she contacted me and didn't know he had been my teacher.

Hi Perri - LOVE your book. I just finished it and am eager to visit Piano Row next time I'm in Manhattan - my sister lives there and I try to get out at least once a year.

I have a question about your recent interview: You mention you worked through the method used by the Royal Conservatory. Are there actual method books that you used? Are they available to the general public? Are they similar to the "Improve your sight-reading" workbooks Vol 1 - 8 that are used in England to build musicianship to sit for board examinations?

hi caklock,

i'm not familiar with the english books so i can't compare.

the books i am using are available to the general public. it's the royal conservatory of toronto method and they do have examinations (chris is threatening to put me up to these!)

if your local music store does not carry them (ours does) then they can order them for you, or you can order them yourself.

here's two of the books i am using now:

piano repertoire 8, celebration series, perspectives, published by frederick harris music

book 6, four star, sight reading and ear tests, daily exercises for piano students, published by frederick harris music

go to www.frederickharrismusic.com to see the whole celebration series "perspectives"

they have repertoire books from preparatory to level ten, and compact discs to go with them

they have piano studies/etudes levels 1-10

they have student workbooks prep to level 8

and then there are the four star sight reading books and rhythm and ear training books.

there's also a technical requirements for piano book from prep to level 8 (i've never seen this, but it is basically the scales, chords, arpeggios, which i have in two other books.)

here's part two, with a recording included at the end:

http://www.nancywilliamspiano.com/2011/10/04/perri-knize-on-her-adult-piano-lessons/