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I am not a good player and know all too well that my practice is less than good. I mean absolutely no disrespect whatever, considering the enormous amount of work involved in producing the book, but has anyone actually made it through the book on practice? I found myself bogged down by the sheer volume of information right from the beginning such that I simply can get nothing from it.

I tried to read the book and failed. But I did glean some good ideas from the book.

I ended up skimming the book and taking and using that which made sense to me.

I just took another look at the book and I have to agree it is overly pedantic in its presentation, which hurts the message of the book.

There are some good bits of advice but yeah, its hard to get through. I felt like too much of the content was trying to convince me of something like an hour long infomercial.

Check out this blog and book series: http://www.practisingthepiano.com

Also look at Graham Fitch's videos on YouTube

Yeah, I found the hard sell part not to my taste. But when I first started looking for practice advice this book was what I found. I sort of read it, but I used it later just as a reference when I had a particular kind of issue I wanted to practice. I think Vid's and dogperson's links probably cover the material in a more accessible manner. But I can tell you that your idea of learning to practice better is one of the best you'll ever have!

I haven't delved too far into it, but it always sounds interesting. It's just ... so long, and I have tons of other material piled up I want to go through. It looks like Chuan C. Chang has taken the free PDF version of the book offline.

On another forum, or maybe here somewhere, someone made the case that the material in the Chang book is more succinctly covered in this book, which I've also read, but most of the examples are above my pay grade.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1441499539/

Thanks, David, for posting this link. I love reading books above my pay grade, as I hope they will help me get a promotion and pay raise.

A more practical book - Practiceopedia by Philip Johnston. He also has a companion book called ‘The Practice Revolution’ which I found very useful. The Graham Fitch books/videos are also great.

Not as practical but interesting reads: ‘The Practice of Practice’ and ‘Learning Strategies for Musical Success’.

+1 to Practiceopedia and Graham Fitch's site. Both are amazing. Practiceopedia is filled with great tips and written in a light humorous style that is very easy to read. It's aimed at kids but adults can definitely benefit too. Graham Fitch has many insightful articles and videos and also great tips for intermediate and advanced pianists.

-1 to Chang's book. He should stick to physics and not try to write books outside of his area of competence. Some of his practice tips are interesting but to get to the core idea you have to get through all the other stuff. He makes completely unbacked claims as though they were the truth. For instance, he claims that you can learn absolute pitch, which is contrary to all research on the subject. He also has something against Mozart for some reason.

My Amazon review from 2007:

Chang's book has a few good points, but for the most part I find it poorly written. Its like he handed his rough notes to the publisher and they printed it. Its seems unorganized and disjointed. I find it hard to follow. I'm not even sure he's a player according to what I've read and heard. In the book he argues with himself on just about every concept. Its overly wordy with little substance. His strong opinions don't seem to be based on science. I should of just read it online, (Its free on his web site), but I like the feel of a book. Oh well...even if I get a couple small concepts, the better...

Hello,

I have the chapter "Basic Procedures for Piano Practice" from the blog (http://contentspiano.blogspot.gr/) and find it very well explained and useful.

Thanks Jimbeam - very interesting and useful for me.

Another great book: Playing the Piano for Pleasure. https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Pian...;keywords=playing+the+piano+for+pleasure

I've read this a few times and alway enjoy it. The Fundamentals book has some good ideas in it. It's not all bad and it's not all good. I've enjoyed parts of it. Also love Practicopedia as stated above. Honestly these days, there is so much good YouTube content I wonder what the future of books is going to be. Josh Wright is incredible.

Marcus

I have to agree about Josh Wright...

FYI it is available at http://fundamentals-of-piano-practice.readthedocs.io/ - click on "Read the Docs" at the bottom of the sidebar, and there are download links for PDF, HTML and Epub.

I am reading through it at the moment and I have to agree with the other commenters, it is a hard slog! Some interesting ideas though that I am going to try out.

I find that difficult to read.

The PDF is still there - I just tried http://www.pianopractice.org/FOPP3_2.pdf