170 of 172 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book for beginners, August 4, 1998
This review is from: How to Play Popular Piano in 10 Easy Lessons: The Fastest, Easiest Way to Learn to Play from Sheet Music or by Ear (Paperback)
For the beginner, this book is excellent. I have looked at many piano books when I first began playing, and most of them were usually too complicated, or too simplistic. This book, however, was one that fell right in the middle and helped me understand all kinds of important ideas in music, such as harmony and melody, building chords and scales (and understanding HOW), reading music, how to understand progressions, and how to play by ear and improvise. It is certainly geared toward getting you "up and playing" in the simplest, fastest way, at a moderate pace, with a good depth of information that does not get overwhelming. Because of this, this book is probably suited much more for the person who has no music experience and wants to learn the basics of how to play out of fake books and begin improvising. It is probably not good for those who want in-depth and more advanced theory of music, but it is an excellent book to use as a stepping stone toward more adva! nced piano study. This is a must have book for any beginnger.
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270 of 279 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good But Not Ideal - Look At The Cannell Book, May 17, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: How to Play Popular Piano in 10 Easy Lessons: The Fastest, Easiest Way to Learn to Play from Sheet Music or by Ear (Paperback)
There seem to be two main ways of teaching the piano. In the first, one grinds along like a junior typist learning which keys to strike in response to printed music. The sheet music starts easy and gets harder. One's brain and fingers get better at working together. When one is pretty good at pounding out notes in pretty hard compositions, one is considered a pretty good piano player.
The other way of teaching focuses on learning chords and music theory. The idea here seems to be that, if one has the theory, one can figure out where to place one's fingers. So, one learns a melody and then, using music theory or a fake books adds chords. After a little practice, the devotees of this method argue, one can actually make music, i.e. play tunes that you like and make them sound good, though not necessarily the way they are written on sheet music.
Both approaches have problems. The first is drudgery, and if one really wants to make music, you have to engage in this drudgery for years. The second requires, but doesn't teach or encourage, a great deal of facility hitting the right keys. It's very fun to know how music is put together and how one might play it. Yet it is very frustrating not to have developed the physical coordination to actually do it.
The Monath book uses the second approach. It is a delightful introduction to music theory, chords, scales, and how music is put together. Like many of the books that follow the second approach, the style verges on the messianic. Yes, one starts playing songs almost immediately. Unfortunately, without a good deal of practice, those first songs might take an hour or so to pick through.
If you have some facility on the keyboard, this might be a very helpful book. If you don't, you won't instantly become adept by reading this book, though reading the book will certainly be interesting, worthwhile, and edifying.
I must also say that, if you are considering this book, you might want to take a look at the Cannell and Marx book - "How To Play The Piano Despite Years of Lessons." Cannell and Marx follow the same approach, but describe some things differently and emphasize slightly different things. The Cannell book provides a much more detailed (and mechanical) pattern for actually playing songs - a big advantage.
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59 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book for Pianists Wanting to "Play by Ear", April 8, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: How to Play Popular Piano in 10 Easy Lessons: The Fastest, Easiest Way to Learn to Play from Sheet Music or by Ear (Paperback)
Having taught piano the "traditional" way for 20 years, I bought this book for a student who already played by music but wanted to learn to play off a chord sheet (used a great deal by Christian Praise Bands). Mr. Monath uses very clear terms to describe how to play on the piano basic chords found in most fake books. I have too often found that the pianist who learns by using a traditional piano course method, can't play basic chords or play by ear. This book gives examples of songs to try to play using the right hand melody line and chords. I wouldn't recommend this book for someone who doesn't read music at all, but for anyone who's had traditional piano lessons and can play basic right hand melodies, it's a great way to learn to play chords and fill in from fake books or praise music.
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