Customer Reviews

Practical Method for Beginners, Op. 599: Piano Technique

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This method is very limited in scope and not for everybody, but it is just what I need, at least so far. It's about training the hands and getting a spacial (sic) awareness of the keyboard. Unlike Hanon,it does not take zen-like attention to relax the hands while doing the exercises. Also, it trains the fingers in chord shapes. I am an accomplished musician (trumpet, bass, vocals) who never learned to play piano properly. My ears and stylistic senses are fine: I can play some Bach inventions, a bit of Chopin etc, but each piece takes me a long time to learn (I wind up memorizing them before I can play them accurately). I also can lift many rock and pop tunes I hear in my cd collection and off the radio (example: Prelude to Angry Young Man by Billy Joel - no easy piece) with plenty of gusto and authenticity but I get tired quickly. I also cannot sight read effectively (esp when chord are involved) - I know the notes and can hear it but my fingers do not automatically obey.

One negative review was accurate in that the musical content is, to say the least, not inspiring. But neither are drills for learning to dribble a basketball, swinging a baseball bat or any form of physical competence. The first page of this book is ridiculously easy musically, but due to the fingering alternations, I have spent days on it, and can feel myself building awareness of my fingers, spacing and developing the neuronal connections that are crucial to good habits. I anticipate eventually being able to look at a piece of music and unconsciously being able to play it. Yes, the musical content is not exciting (this should not be your only form of musical expression or practice!), but getting the true physical fundamentals down is worth it.

My granddaughter loves to learn piano. This book helped her a lot and she has a lot of fun playing the lovely studies. They are quite simple but beautiful.

My son has been playing piano for 5 years. He uses this book for his reading exercises. It works out pretty well, except he had to skip the first few pages which were way too easy.

I think this a different transcription of the original, I had problems with fingering because de numers of fingers set on notes are different . But it's ok

I don't know why I keep reviewing Czerny books. If you've seen one (op. 139, 599, 823), you've seen them all. They all start with a marathon of melodies in the key of C, repeating the tonic and dominant chords until you can scream.

They all consist of square melodies in the binary form, with the same chords in the same places, and with the same rink-chink harmonic treatment. Counterpoint, what's that?