Abby Whiteside on Piano Playing: Indispensables of Piano Playing and Mastering the Chopin Etudes and Other Essays [Hardcover]

Abby Whiteside (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2003

Abby Whiteside (1881-1956) developed a revolutionary approach to piano technique, the idea of a "basic rhythm" involving the entire body that allows students to express the essential emotional rhythm of the music, as well as to play without the risk of the injuries that frequently afflict pianists. Her ideas on piano pedagogy remain essential today. HARDCOVER.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Two of piano pedagogue Abby Whiteside's most influential essays, "Indispensables of Piano Playing," from 1955, and "Mastering the Chopin Etudes," from 1969, are reprinted in this volume, along with several shorter pieces. Whiteside's iconoclastic but firmly held beliefs are still provocative: "the pianist cannot control tone quality," "the importance of a prescribed fingering is practically nil," and "time spent on scales is not used to best advantage" are among them. But Whiteside backs up her ideas persuasively, and even pianists who cannot go along with her all the way will likely find themselves altering aspects of their techniques.

Whiteside bases all pianism on motions of the upper arms (confusingly called "top arms" in "Indispensables") and de-emphasizes anything to do with the fingers. She sees the forearm and fingers only as extensions of the upper arm, which is responsible for speed and accuracy. She is good at imagery in pressing her points: skating, jazz players, and untrained children are recurrent points of reference. Another of her main principles, the idea of basic rhythm, is well characterized by musical examples.

Readers would do well to begin with the foreword to "Mastering the Chopin Etudes" (written by Joseph Prostakoff and Sophia Rosoff, whose teaching is still based on the Whiteside principles), which helpfully clarifies some of the ideas from the outsider's perspective. "Mastering" refines many of the points from "Indispensables," and is best read first. Although "Indispensables" is divided into chapters, much of the same material is covered all the way through, and there is a great deal of overlap with "Mastering." Undoubtedly, there are some ideas in these essays that made complete sense only from the source herself, but there is much here of benefit to pianists of all levels. --William R. Braun --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

This volume by the revolutionary piano instructor combines her volumes Indispensables of Piano Playing (1955) with Mastering the Chopin Etudes and Other Essays (1969). A bargain for any music collection.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Amadeus Press (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574670204
• ISBN-13: 978-1574670202
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,305,165 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent content, TERRIBLE write-up; 2nd book better., November 9, 1999

By 

Chuan C. Chang "Scientist, Pianist" (Tampa, Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Abby Whiteside on Piano Playing : Indispensables of Piano Playing - Mastering the Chopin Etudes and Other Essays (Paperback)

The first book by Abbey uses unreadable English and convoluted sentences. Tho contents excellent, poor English makes learning unproductive.

Example: Q: Can Weight-an inert pressure-help develop facility? A:It is exactly the inert pressure of weight which cannot be used for speed. Words are important in teaching. Words of action are needed to suggest the coordination for speed. Weight does not suggest the muscular activity which moves the weight of the arm. It does suggest an inert pressure.

I don't think I completely agree with this; but with such biblical phraseology, how do I know exactly what she is saying? This example is average; some parts are even worse; she is also verbose.

Second book covers similar material and is written in plain English, so you might read this first, but is not as complete and organized. It is a real pity that such good advice is jumbled and not communicated to us all. One of top 5 books on content for piano practice.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique, genius, Abby Whiteside, May 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Abby Whiteside on Piano Playing : Indispensables of Piano Playing - Mastering the Chopin Etudes and Other Essays (Paperback)

I'm a concert pianist. I've played all over the world. I had already won several important competitions when I came in contact with Indispensibles. It revolutionized my approach to practice, learning, teaching and the effects were evident in my playing immediately. (A month after reading it and applying it, I went to London and won my most important competition. I'd never had such confidence that my music making was right and natural).
As other reviewers have mentioned, she's verbose (too excited about her subject) and her ideas are radical. Like all evangelists for a new cause, she had to overstate her case in many respects. (There certainly is a place for slow practice, deciding fingering is not always evil, etc.)But, her most important, basic contribution (ongoing rhythm, how that is felt in the body first, smaller levels become extensions of the rhythmic impulse, and how this can be tied in to practice and learning music)is truly genius. The movement of the music through time is the basis. Always practice that movement and internalize it. What good is playing all the notes of that vision and movement is killed in the process of learning? Whiteside helps you keep your eye on the goal and strengthen your concept of that goal in each practice session.
(One word of caution; students I've heard who only use doctrinaire Whiteside approach generally have wonderful sweep in their playing, but often lack definition technically. With that in mind, don't bar yourself from the huge benefits of Whiteside's thinking!)

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book on playing the piano..., September 12, 2006

By 

Baz (Manchester, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Abby Whiteside on Piano Playing : Indispensables of Piano Playing - Mastering the Chopin Etudes and Other Essays (Paperback)

...not practising the piano! I've had this book about a year. When I first read it, I thought it was gibberish and found it difficult to understand exactly what Abby was talking about. However, re-reading it recently has been nothing short of a revelation. So much so that I read it three times, each time getting more out of it.

I'll admit that Abby wasn't the greatest writer. But I don't share the opinion that she uses unreadable English. When you 'get it', everything becomes clear and makes perfect sense. Imagine trying to explain how to run to a child who can barely walk. It may be confusing that she used the expression 'top arm' to mean 'upper arm', for example, at least so it seems. But on a careful reading I don't think she meant merely 'upper arm' at all. I think she meant the upper arm AND the shoulder joint. Big difference.

Having read almost all the books on technique I can only judge Abby's ideas by the results they produce, and in the space of only a couple of weeks of carefully applying her ideas, my playing has become freer, with much less effort and tension and consequently very much improved. In other words, more musical, which, after all, is what it's all about. In the context of her teaching the supposed heresy of dumping meaningless scales and technical dross such as Hanon make complete sense - which is a major liberation in itself!

In my experience, great pianists can be appallingly bad at attempting to describe how they do what they do (re the note on Godowsky below). Their playing is so far above anything to do with 'technique' that attempts at descriptions in layman's terms become reduced to the glaringly obvious, and even contradictory (The Dover books alluded to in another review are a case in point). Arthur Rubinstein once remarked that he hadn't a clue how he did what he did, and I can well believe him. As I said above, this is a book about actually playing, not practising, and as such is priceless. I'm left with the impression that Abby Whiteside may well have been a genius teacher, and I'm sure it would have been an amazing experience to have had some lessons with her. In any event, a huge debt of gratitude is owed to her for putting down these ideas by those of us who are searching to make the best of our talent and to do justice to the other geniuses whose works we try to bring to life - or in my case, since I'm a jazz pianist, to try to improvise as well as Bud Powell!

Some reviewers have entirely missed the point of this book, but it's their loss. Ultimately, this is a unique approach, deeply concerned with the beauty of music, self-expression, and communicating through the piano in the most efficient way. It's an awesome book and the only one on playing, as opposed to practising, that I'll keep. It would be an injustice not to read it carefully and then re-read it again and again.