Rating: 
Summary: NOT "How to play..."
Review: A useful book if you want to learn how to play keyboard from a "fake book" (meaning: not with a grand staff notation, but with the melody in G-staff and chord letters). But beware, there's also a lot of nonsense... It all starts with how to play a "skeleton" in 4/4 or 3/4, with the left hand playing chords, and alternating the bass in root and fifth in OCTAVES. Now this doesn't sound very pleasant, and it's also difficult to do except on an full 88-key piano. Next, the message is that you always have to play four note chords (7ths and 6ths) instead of the three note majors and minors. This is all right if you only play the old, jazzy "standards", which are the kind of songs that are considered popular music in this book (why are these old songs standard? Personally I like them, but how many people know them? Anyone under eighty humming 'Some Enchanted Evening' these days?) but those 7ths and 6ths can sound downright ugly if you play the not-at-all-jazzy pop from the sixties up to now. Furthermore, the author makes its sound like there's nothing to it: playing 10th chords? Only children can't do it! Yeah, right. Try and play any stretched-out 10th with one hand and practice all you want, if you can't do it the first time you won't be able to do it ever, except maybe in a excruciatingly slow piece (maybe C major won't daunt you, but try Eb major, for example). Furthermore this book pretends that music is for morons and that you can learn to play anything with a few weeks of practice--it generally underestimates the technical (fingering) difficulty of what is presented. This is misleading and can be discouraging, because it IS difficult (for anyone with a day job). On the other hand, a lot is learned just by reading this book. But then again, maybe you'll learn a lot more from a traditional piano teacher, representing everything that is ridiculed in this book (playing scales, learning how to use your fingers...). Playing the piano "on sight" from a fake book can be very difficult, don't kid yourself, it takes years to do it well, just like anything worthwile. Conclusion: at times very instructional and a nice addition to your music library, but definitely not the book to start out with after buying a keyboard.
Rating: 
Summary: Great....
Review: A very simple, easy to use introduction to music. I found this and Ariella Vaccarino's "Voice Lessons to go" series the two best purchases I have made this year. American Idol here I come!
Rating: 
Summary: Good basics piano book
Review: After reading this book, I would have to say that there are some very good things about it, but also some not-so-good things. First the good stuff: good basic approach to explaining things like chord construction, progressions, sheet music, and how music is made. There are excellent illustrations, with many examples. There is particular emphasis on the circle of fifths and chromaticism and how it relates to chord progressions. Unfortunately, the book lacks a lot of music theory that would probably be important to the beginner(like me). I would have liked to see more treatment of scales and how to use them to improvise, as well as more information on voicings and altered chords. The book is focused on playing out of fake books, (i.e., play chords with one hand, melody with the other, which is a good approach, if that's what you're interested in.) But this piecemeal "playing songs" approach is pretty restrictive. The author relies a little too much on "skelton" bass-chord playing with the left hand, with block chords in the right. It's probably not the book for someone who wants to learn improvisation, or jazz. The book takes a very comical, almost flippant approach to music theory in general, which is good in some ways, but can also can be counter-productive. The humor certainly makes the learning easier, but the book continually says, "if it sounds good, play it," Which I see as a little skimpy in the "why" department of music. It seems too much like he's saying, "Well, you can do this, but if you don't like how it sounds, don't do it." A better method would be to say why it might not sound good, and what alternatives you can do instead. But this is still a good book, actually an excellent book, if you want to be able to play your favorite songs from fake books, and is probably a good stepping stone to more advanced music theory(which boggles my mind most of the time anyways).
Rating:
Summary: De-mystifies without trivializing
Review: As I read this book I was amazed at how many things I learned. I am coming back to learning the piano and I already know the basics. But I already knew that there is a big difference between making music and following a partition. I just didn't know how much. This book opened me a whole new world. I take those score sheets and I can actually do something interesting with them.At the same time, I became angry at my old piano teachers who kept those "secrets" from me (Do your scales, don't ask questions, they're good for you). I realize that understanding music was more important than just "touch-typing" partitions. Of course, you won't be able to start making counter-point music after having read this book, but this wasn't my goal, anyways. I also wish that they had more "exercises" as the book progresses. The score sheets at the end are nice, but it would have been nice to give more actual practices along the book's content instead of just giving illustrations. Great book!
Rating:
Summary: Music is a tough nut to crack....this is THE NUTCRACKER!
Review: Before purchasing this book I floundered around for a few years. Learning a few pieces, slowing working on sight reading....all the while wondering how music is created, how harmony worked, how people play "by ear". This book shows gives you so many tools, and explains so simply how it all fits. I can't say enough good things about it. Even if you don't play piano but want to learn about music this is your book. I hope the authors realize how much good they have done here. This book needs to find it's way into as many hands as possible. If you're a complete beginner it may be a little slower going but still very much worth the investment. If you've expended mental effort trying to make sense of "music" this will be your holy grail!
Rating:
Summary: Very different...
Review: Being a person that fits the title rather well, I was browsing through amazon for some good books to get started playing piano/keyboard again. Since I didn't know what to get, I ordered a bunch of them (I looked at my local music store, but they carried mostly classical sheet music and guitar stuff). If judged as a textbook, it certainly doesn't deserve 5 stars. You will want another book. What it does deserve the high rating for, is that it helps unmystify so many seemingly difficult things, and in the process helped me remove so many roadblocks, that I now just want to sit down at the piano and have fun. After reading it in one long session, I could sit down at the piano, and start reharmonizing simple children tunes I played by ear, adding fancy cocktail-piano type arrangement (and I only knew how to pick the melody before I got the book). If that's not impressive, I don't know what is. Earlier I used to think chords were mostly set in stone, except for jazz musicians, but they are too clever for their own good, so that doesn't apply to me. Ok, it still doesn't sound fantastic, they are still simple children tunes, and since my playing sucks, I have to practice a lot to get to the point where someone would want to listen, but it's a start! And since I can now have fun doing it, I chances are that I will start to get better at it. For what it is, the book gave me a lot of new ideas, and a lot of ideas for what to start practicing. But don't start with this book alone, get another (more boring) book, to teach you all the boring stuff. This, however, is the book that will set you free, and make practicing the piano fun again! Take the book as a light supplement to whatever else you read and practice with, and I'll guarantee you that you'll be positively surprised.
Rating:
Summary: Best music book I've ever read.
Review: Explains how music works and how to make music in a way that is easy to understand but also pretty thorough. Although primarily about piano, the information is easily applicable to other instruments or groups of instruments. This book is easily the best book about music I have ever read. I think with enough practice and patience, just about anyone could learn to play piano very well from this book. My only complaints are (1) alot of the songs used as examples are unfamiliar to me, and (2) too much attempt at humor. These may not be considered weaknesses by others, and both are easily offset by the quantity and quality of information in the book -- information that I've never seen in such a clear form anywhere else.
Rating:
Summary: Lucid and sturdy foundation to making music
Review: For what it is, *How to Play the Piano Despite Years of Lessons* is an excellent book in priming anyone to begin the music-making process. The greatest help it provides is in not frightening beginners at the outset with so much dry technical jargon about chords and their inherent value in different inversions, scales, modes, and such things. The logic of building on what has been learned in a previous chapter is possibly the most sound of all beginning music books. And the authors encourage the readers to hear music as it should be heard--that whatever sounds good is good--something very in tune with such great innovative classical artists as Glenn Gould, John Cage, Varese, even Landowska, etc. A few flaws, however, may be counterproductive to those readers who are not careful at reading behind the humorous tone of the authors. For instance, the lessons on counterpoint are not only skimpy, but are announced by the authors as being only so simple. Those learning from this book and only from this book will probably not understand a Bach Invention any time soon, not with trying to manage altered *arpeggios* as counter-melodies. The songs referred to are quite often too old, and despite what the authors say about their familiarity in our culture, I'm afraid that many of these show tunes are not; therefore, the authors' plan to have us alter familiar songs to hear the effects of different arrangements will be lost on many. Those who are big fans of musicals or classical music will have quite an advantage over many readers who are not well studied in those genres. The minor mode was barely touched upon, to save confusion, I suppose, but it is a huge development in Western music that it should have been run through with more pages. The word *overtone* was never defined; however, it is used a number of times. The authors do hint, though, that the lessons in this book are only the beginning, and I suspect that they will want their readers to go on to study a bit more formally on harmonic progressions, knowing scales, modes, and such technicalities. Overall, they have done an immeasureable service through this book by not only helping us understand more clearly and simply the inner workings of past music, but by reminding us that we should learn to make music with our ears in place of learning an instrument only.
Rating:
Summary: Great....
Review: I am a total beginner when it comes to playing the piano, so I found this book very hard to read. I think it assumes a certain level of knowledge on the reader. However, I did understand alot of it because I read basic piano theory from the book called "Play Piano in a Flash". That book was over simplified, but it taught me enough to understand alot of this book. There are some major problems that I found with this book. First, all the diagrams are hand-drawn. I found it very distracting to read notes that are hand-drawn... sometimes very sloppily. And many of the weird piano symbols are hard to make out because of the sloppiness. The book was written in the 1970's so that helps explain why it's hand-drawn instead of a nice sharp computerized graphic. I also found that the explanations of the diagrams were not good. Some chord notes that were drawn didn't seem to be in the right place... either there are lots of mistakes, or i'm just not understanding things. This added to the frustration. The sample songs are just not familiar to me. Maybe if you're 50+ years old you would know the songs, but not if you're younger! I actually did learn things in this book... that is why i gave it 2 stars. Maybe I would like this book better if I alreay had lots of piano experience. I don't know. I'm totally frustrated with this book. I'm going to buy a similar book called "How to play from a Fake book". Hopefully that will be better for me.
Rating:
Summary: Not an easy read for a beginner
Review: I am a total beginner when it comes to playing the piano, so I found this book very hard to read. I think it assumes a certain level of knowledge on the reader. However, I did understand alot of it because I read basic piano theory from the book called "Play Piano in a Flash". That book was over simplified, but it taught me enough to understand alot of this book. There are some major problems that I found with this book. First, all the diagrams are hand-drawn. I found it very distracting to read notes that are hand-drawn... sometimes very sloppily. And many of the weird piano symbols are hard to make out because of the sloppiness. The book was written in the 1970's so that helps explain why it's hand-drawn instead of a nice sharp computerized graphic. I also found that the explanations of the diagrams were not good. Some chord notes that were drawn didn't seem to be in the right place... either there are lots of mistakes, or i'm just not understanding things. This added to the frustration. The sample songs are just not familiar to me. Maybe if you're 50+ years old you would know the songs, but not if you're younger! I actually did learn things in this book... that is why i gave it 2 stars. Maybe I would like this book better if I alreay had lots of piano experience. I don't know. I'm totally frustrated with this book. I'm going to buy a similar book called "How to play from a Fake book". Hopefully that will be better for me.
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