This book ain't no dummy
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| Review Date: March 31, 2001 |
| Reviewer: , |
| This book is GREAT! It is helpful to have some type of background before reading it but still a very helpful book. It comes with a CD so you can hear what they are talking about in the book -very helpful for those of us who prefer to play by ear rather then read music. The information is short and to the point - stuff, no fluff. The information made sense. I was playing so much better in just the first day of reading it. Stick with it and read it over and over. It sinks in and makes sense - stay with it. |
A solid choice for a disciplined student
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| Review Date: January 26, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Jonathan T. Maslan, Bellingham, WA |
You may not like the sense of humor, the book may not cover every little nuance of proper piano technique, and yes, it has that annoying word "dummies" in its title. Agreed.
However, try this on for size: I'm learning to play the piano and I can attribute that directly to this book. I found this book more accessible than three other piano books I checked out in my library; the pace and organization are just right; and there's a helpful accompanying CD that lets one measure up to "the real thing."
I've had very little musical experience in my life, but thanks to this book I can play quite a few songs after only a month and a half and I'm confident that I'm on the road to being a pretty darn decent pianist. Assuredly, I expect that at some point I'll need a real human being to steer me along, but at this point there's no need to spend $30-$40 an hour to learn musical fundamentals that can easily be obtained in a book.
I can confidently recommend this book. |
Rekindled my interest
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| Review Date: February 12, 2000 |
| Reviewer: , |
| I took lessons as a child but had been away from the piano for over 20 years. This book gave me just what I needed to jump-start my piano playing again. It is written with a sense of humor that kept my interest--UNLIKE most books of this type which are written by musicians who take themselves far too seriously. |
One heck of a helpful book!
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| Review Date: January 18, 2000 |
| Reviewer: , |
| One of my biggest dreams is to be able to play the piano. About 80% of my family can already do so, but no one ever had the time or the patience to teach me. Now I'm well on my way to fulfilling my dream with a little help with this funny and easy to understand book. I love it. I also enjoy playing along with the CD it comes with. |
Could not put this book down!
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| Review Date: December 2, 2002 |
| Reviewer: J.J., Naperville, Illinois USA |
| I have been playing for only 6 months and am taking lessons and found this book a great help in learning about the piano. It is fun to read and has slot of very useful information and ways to remember things about the piano. Some interesting history behind the piano and ways to buy and maintain the piano. I have more pages in the book dog eared than any other piano book I have. You must get this book and the CD that comes with the book is a real help in learning timing and the way a song is to sound. |
easy to read
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| Review Date: October 1, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Brad, |
| This is an excellent book for teaching yourself piano. All the reviewers who slam this book for corny humor can go jump in a lake. There are plenty of serious music books that just shovel out the facts in a dry manner, so if that is what you want, fine, no reason to get uptight about a book that trys to use a more human touch. I want to also make it clear that the book does not tell jokes per say, so you dont have to read through long groaners to get to the material. The author simply interjects personal examples. Its a technique that is used in all the dummies books, if you dont like it, dont read dummies books. |
Great for beginners
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| Review Date: October 28, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Chavez, |
| I did not have any idea how to play a piano-this book really helps explain in an easy to understand format. |
in an hour I'm playing Ode to Joy
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| Review Date: January 18, 2009 |
| Reviewer: J. T. Kemper, Orlando, Fl USA |
| Alright, so I got my keyboard this afternoon, picked this book up, and with no previous keyboard experience in an hour I'm playing Ode to Joy on my right hand. That's awesome. |
Perfect just for beginners
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| Review Date: May 14, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Filipe T. Carvalho, Belo Horizonte, MG Brazil |
| This book is perfect if you want to play piano and you don't know anything about it. The book is plenty of jokes and all kind of information but nothing complex that you can't take it. This book is worthy of its title :-P I bought this one because I bought first "The piano handbook" and this one is not so good for beginners, but perfect for intermediate and advance that missed something or what to learn a different scale or style. |
Piano for Dummies
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| Review Date: May 23, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Nguyen Ta, |
| I like this book, well organized and easy to follow instructions. Easy to read to. Basic concepts are covered with some expanded details. Definitely recommend to other for its well written. |
great book for beginners
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| Review Date: March 4, 2009 |
| Reviewer: David L. Arkles, jackson Mi. |
| I don't have time to go to a teacher. This book answers all the questions that the other teach yourself books don't answer. The CD that came with it is very helpful also. |
Piano for Dummies
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| Review Date: April 2, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Marvin O. Modeen, |
| Returned to piano after 30+ years. Bought this book & was amazed how much I'd forgotten. Recommend to all with the interest. |
An easy way to learn...
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| Review Date: July 16, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Luis E. Rodriguez, |
| It's very easy to learn piano with the this book and it's really funny. You learn without the stress of a regular "learning manual". |
excellant book
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| Review Date: February 15, 2004 |
| Reviewer: , Hong Kong |
| I like this book very much. I myself can play the piano up to grade 5, but I still like to read this kind of books to improve my skills. I found out that it is very inspiring, and corrected a lot of my wrong concepts. I really recomend this book to all of you. |
One heck of a helpful book!
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| Review Date: January 18, 2000 |
| Reviewer: Ty Hutchison, |
| One of my biggest dreams is to be able to play the piano. About 80% of my family can already do so, but no one ever had the time or the patience to teach me. Now I'm well on my way to fulfilling my dream with a little help with this funny and easy to understand book. I love it. I also enjoy playing along with the CD it comes with. |
you'll be playing tunes for the family pet before ya know it
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| Review Date: December 8, 2002 |
| Reviewer: , CleverJoe.com Canadian musician's resource |
| Okay, so the title and book cover design are extremely overused (whoever came up with the original title must be just rolling in dough from the licensing fees), but this is a really good book for those with absolutely no previous music experience. It gently walks you through the basics of learning piano, and you'll be playing tunes for the family pet before you know it. Highly recommended, CleverJoe gives it three big thumbs up. |
A Fine Introduction for Adults
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| Review Date: June 28, 2000 |
| Reviewer: M. Morrison, |
| I was looking for an introductory book for adult piano student. Although I could do without the title "dummies," the cartoons, and the jokes, the meat of this book was the best of all the others on Amazon. Most of the other books teach very little except simple popular ditties. This book actually had -- yes -- scales and other exercises for both the left and right hands, with fingering techniques simply applied, but fully explained. And for those who want some tunes, there are (in addition to the standard ditties) actually some worthwhile classical adaptions, such as some of the best-known themes from the Bach cantatas. I was quite impressed with how much basic and even intermediate material was included in the book, and explained with clarity and simplicity. Since I read music already, I was able to skip many of the first chapters and get right into the practice and technique material, so I can't comment on how clear the music-reading chapters would be for a total beginner. However, I expect that if they are as good as the rest of the material, they should be fine for that purpose as well. |
Not for DUMMIES!; Great way to begin!
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| Review Date: September 29, 2001 |
| Reviewer: Marquis, Jersey City, NJ United States |
| I bought this book 2 months ago and started practicing an hour from it daily. The results were shockingly great and speedy. After a week of practice I would go back and shoot through the preliminary songs as if they were child's play! My one problem with it is the way you're presented with practice material. It's never specified how long or often you should practice something before moving on. Just be patient and ONLY MOVE ON ONCE YOU'RE COMFORTABLE WITH A PIECE. Do that and this minor problem won't affect you at all. I really like the play along cd. It does help alot. Also, the humorous way in which you're presented with all of the material this book contains will have you learning great amounts of theory and technique without even realizing it. This book is great as a reference book as well. So, although it's challenging (sight-reading in particular), you'll soon learn that with a little consistence and assiduity you'll be on your way to "tickling the ivories with the best of 'em"! |
Great intro to music theory incl. keys and chords.
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| Review Date: August 16, 1999 |
| Reviewer: , |
| Contains a wealth of music theory for the beginner, and as such it's a valuable addition to the beginning student's resources. However, it's not a really good exercise book. The CD included with the book contains blurbs of the music examples in the book, but I don't know WHERE they got the performances, which are of uneven quality and are not particularly good for the listener trying to hear a good piano line. |
Good reference for ppl with music knowledge..not for dummies
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| Review Date: December 4, 1998 |
| Reviewer: , |
| I have some basic knowledge on Indian classical music. I wanted to learn Electronic Keyboard and hence chose the dummies book. The first few pages were great to learn the basics. Once I crossed chapter 4 I was lost. The important thing I wanted to know was the fingerings. There is no mentioning of extending the fingerings from the basic position. I would rather prefer a lesson & practice approach. When it comes to Music (instruments), the approach must be "build one block over other". Precisely a strong foundation. The Author must emphasise more on practice sessions and most importantly the recommended No. of hours for an average beginner to get hold of the piece. I am sure the book will be really useful if I know the basics of (piano) music or if I'm a student in a music school. Last word, very nice to learn basics, misses important aspect....Fingerings.... |
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