This is a Sphinx adaptation of the 2nd edition of Chuan C. Chang’s excellent book, Fundamentals of Piano Practice. There are a quite few improvements over the original PDF, including:
- Inter-document links
- Improved document formatting
- Mobile-friendly HTML version
- ePub for e-readers
I am not the author of this book, please consider supporting Chaun C. Chang by buying the paperback or Kindle version of the 3rd edition, or the 2nd edition paperback that this adaptation is based on. The 3rd edition addressed a lot of the issues of the original 2nd edition PDF such as inter-document links and it has more content.
This is the best book ever written on how to practice at the piano! Most books list what skills are needed (scales, arpeggios, trills, etc.), but not how to acquire them. This book teaches how to solve technical problems, step by step. Learn practice methods, how to acquire technique and memorize hours of repertoire, sight reading, musical playing, relaxation, etc., and, most importantly, Mental Play in which you learn to play the piano in your mind. Mental play touches every aspect of piano playing, from memorizing, controlling nervousness, developing performance skills, playing musically, etc., to acquiring absolute pitch, composing and improvisation. It is almost unbelievable that such an essential skill has been mostly neglected by piano teachers. All great musicians used it, yet even they often failed to teach it. We learn why the traditional methods of teaching piano widely used today are the reasons why students give up piano.
Found a spelling mistake or want to port over more content? Want to build for a different format? You'll need to install Python 3 and set up a virtual environment. After installing the former this should be enough to get your started:
$ pip install virtualenv
$ virtualenv [--python=python3] env
$ source env/bin/activate
$ pip install -r requirements.txt
$ make html # or pdflatex, epub, etc.