Rating: 
Summary: Valuable Piano technique resource
Review: A valuable resource book for solving the techical challenges of virtuoso piano playing. As a teacher, I have found it very helpful in solving student difficulties. Dr. Fink shares with Abby Whiteside an understanding of how the pianist's whole body is involved in making music. You should also plan to buy the accompanying video, available from Amadeus Press, which contains demonstrations of each point; important, as much of this cannot be put adequately into words.
Rating:
Summary: Valuable Piano technique resource
Review: A valuable resource book for solving the techical challenges of virtuoso piano playing. As a teacher, I have found it very helpful in solving student difficulties. Dr. Fink shares with Abby Whiteside an understanding of how the pianist's whole body is involved in making music. You should also plan to buy the accompanying video, available from Amadeus Press, which contains demonstrations of each point; important, as much of this cannot be put adequately into words.
Rating: 
Summary: an extremely helpful and original work
Review: As a pianist I've read MANY books regarding piano technique. Seymour Fink's Mastering Piano Technique is a well thought out and extremely helpful addition to the literature. It is similar in content to the classic technique book by Abbey Whiteside. Based on total understanding of the pianist's physiology, both authors are in favor of utilizing shoulder, arm, torso, legs, etc. in conjunction with fingers to produce sounds. Various parts of the body work as levers - each logically taking more or less responsibility based on the demands of the music. This reduces the chances of developing tension. Fink's ideas make for better music making by having the pianists movement absolutely linked to phrasing and articulation. As with the Whiteside book, it is not always easy reading....but it is worth the effort in the end. As I mentioned, Fink has categorized different movements which correspond with certain sounds and articulation. Ultimately these movements make playing imminently easier. Fink creates keyboard choreography which the pianist can keep coming back to as the demands of the music dictate. Fink's ideas such as "fingersnaps", "pronation" etc. satisfied a variety of musical and technical requirements. In my experience no one book on technique can totally satisfy all of the technical demands of piano playing. That would be the same as claiming there is only one right interpretation for each piece of music. Fink's myriad ideas and solutions pertaining to piano technique make this book absolutely worth having: everyone can absolutely take something useful away from this book.
Rating:
Summary: an extremely helpful and original work
Review: As a pianist I've read MANY books regarding piano technique. Seymour Fink's Mastering Piano Technique is a well thought out and extremely helpful addition to the literature. It is similar in content to the classic technique book by Abbey Whiteside. Based on total understanding of the pianist's physiology, both authors are in favor of utilizing shoulder, arm, torso, legs, etc. in conjunction with fingers to produce sounds. Various parts of the body work as levers - each logically taking more or less responsibility based on the demands of the music. This reduces the chances of developing tension. Fink's ideas make for better music making by having the pianists movement absolutely linked to phrasing and articulation. As with the Whiteside book, it is not always easy reading....but it is worth the effort in the end. As I mentioned, Fink has categorized different movements which correspond with certain sounds and articulation. Ultimately these movements make playing imminently easier. Fink creates keyboard choreography which the pianist can keep coming back to as the demands of the music dictate. Fink's ideas such as "fingersnaps", "pronation" etc. satisfied a variety of musical and technical requirements. In my experience no one book on technique can totally satisfy all of the technical demands of piano playing. That would be the same as claiming there is only one right interpretation for each piece of music. Fink's myriad ideas and solutions pertaining to piano technique make this book absolutely worth having: everyone can absolutely take something useful away from this book.
Rating:
Summary: Healthy approach to piano technique
Review: As a trained dancer, pianist, and teacher I have thoroughly appreciated Professor Fink's complete physical approach to piano technique. I have found it congruent with physical movement principles and especially applaud his emphasis on movement originating from the torso and the use of large muscle groups in sound production. As a teacher I have found it an exceedingly helpful guide for developing within students a thoughtful awareness of how their body "dances" at the piano in the creation of a musically beautiful and expressive performance. This book and video promote a healthy, whole body approach that is essential to long-term physical fitness at the piano. It is thoroughly worth the time and effort to study and master the principles laid out in Mastering Piano Technique.
Rating: 
Summary: Tons of info., no help
Review: I have owned this book and the accompanying video since they were first published, and worked through all the movements he describes for myself and with students. While Prof. Fink has done admirable research into the anatomy and uses of the pianist's mechanism, the exercises and suggested movements he puts forth reveal an irresponsible, if not dangerous, lack of differentiation between efficient and inefficient motion at the keyboard. There is no commentary on what the effects are, for example, of abducting and adducting the hands at the wrist joint to the extremes of their range-of-motion. It's called tendonitis. The array of primary movements in the opening chapters have nothing to do with actually solving musical/technical problems, and there is a disturbing contradiction in his advice on the use of isometrics. There is no analysis of which parts of our bodies are best geared for fast, effortless motion at the keyboard--indeed, nowhere does he state what a free, unfettered, coordinated technique should look and feel like. He falls back upon the old cop-out that "there are many correct ways to play," as if we are creatures built with an infinite variety of differently-working muscular and skeletal structures. We all have the same basic structures, which obey the kinetic dictates of their makeup. What is most unsettling, though, is the explanation of hand/finger positions on pp. 36 and 37. All three positions pictured are at best fatiguing and at worst dangerous when applied to playing--especially fast passagework. Also, the use of the thumb in scale playing as explained on p. 115 "passed-under and prepared...pronate arms and abduct hands..." is very dangerous and, if one follows his direction to "ingrain" this motion, will cause injuries. There are too many other problems and inconsistencies in the book to list, but the best summary I can make is that it presents information without evaluating it, and lulls students into thinking that none of these motions will hurt them. Instead of "rest(ing) at the onset of fatigue or tension," (p.115) one must realize that fatigue and tension are signs that something is wrong. The goal of technical training should be to create comfort and freedom without compromising the music, not to force a bunch of unnatural movements into our bodies. The best book on technique isn't out yet, but it's by Dorothy Taubman. Look for it.
Rating:
Summary: Tons of info., no help
Review: I have owned this book and the accompanying video since they were first published, and worked through all the movements he describes for myself and with students. While Prof. Fink has done admirable research into the anatomy and uses of the pianist's mechanism, the exercises and suggested movements he puts forth reveal an irresponsible, if not dangerous, lack of differentiation between efficient and inefficient motion at the keyboard. There is no commentary on what the effects are, for example, of abducting and adducting the hands at the wrist joint to the extremes of their range-of-motion. It's called tendonitis. The array of primary movements in the opening chapters have nothing to do with actually solving musical/technical problems, and there is a disturbing contradiction in his advice on the use of isometrics. There is no analysis of which parts of our bodies are best geared for fast, effortless motion at the keyboard--indeed, nowhere does he state what a free, unfettered, coordinated technique should look and feel like. He falls back upon the old cop-out that "there are many correct ways to play," as if we are creatures built with an infinite variety of differently-working muscular and skeletal structures. We all have the same basic structures, which obey the kinetic dictates of their makeup. What is most unsettling, though, is the explanation of hand/finger positions on pp. 36 and 37. All three positions pictured are at best fatiguing and at worst dangerous when applied to playing--especially fast passagework. Also, the use of the thumb in scale playing as explained on p. 115 "passed-under and prepared...pronate arms and abduct hands..." is very dangerous and, if one follows his direction to "ingrain" this motion, will cause injuries. There are too many other problems and inconsistencies in the book to list, but the best summary I can make is that it presents information without evaluating it, and lulls students into thinking that none of these motions will hurt them. Instead of "rest(ing) at the onset of fatigue or tension," (p.115) one must realize that fatigue and tension are signs that something is wrong. The goal of technical training should be to create comfort and freedom without compromising the music, not to force a bunch of unnatural movements into our bodies. The best book on technique isn't out yet, but it's by Dorothy Taubman. Look for it.
Rating: 
Summary: Try the video
Review: I've owned the book for two years; I read well, and am a serious pianist. Yet I have not penetrated beyond the first quarter of the book. The author's prose is not tangled, nor troubled by academic jargon. It has, however, a creepily lobotomized quality. One feels as if one is translating each sentence into human speech as one reads: a tedious process. The content appears useful and trustworthy.
Rating:
Summary: Try the video
Review: I've owned the book for two years; I read well, and am a serious pianist. Yet I have not penetrated beyond the first quarter of the book. The author's prose is not tangled, nor troubled by academic jargon. It has, however, a creepily lobotomized quality. One feels as if one is translating each sentence into human speech as one reads: a tedious process. The content appears useful and trustworthy.
Rating: 
Summary: response to dishuey
Review: reading dishuey's review suggested a couple of important cautions to me- you cannot literally follow the motions Mr. Fink describes in the book and play comfortably- for demonstration purposes, he shows an extreme version of the actual motion. You will notice in the video that when he is moving quickly, the "pronating/suppinating motions" among others are almost invisible. This is a dipping into book, and quite dreary to just plow through. Also, I emphasize to my students that technique ideas are just part of a pianist's "bag of tricks." We pull something out of the bag that might help us solve a problem, but nothing in the bag is an end in itself. Awkwardness or gracelessness of motion indicates a problem in my experience, and certainly an exacting adherence to anybody's system is going to do harm because of the uniqueness of each pianist.
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