Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises: Complete (Schirmer's Library of Musical Classics) Decide Now

I was an average pianist until I worked my way through this book. By this point, I can probably kick your butt. In fact, I wish I had learned piano almost exclusively by technical exercise books like this.

As it was, I learned piano through the Alfred's three-book course. The problem there is that many of the songs, besides being recognizable, are fun to play.

I officially regret this now. I wish I had found this years ago. Well, I did find them, but they seemed dreary and boring.

But it took me a while to get through the Alfred's books, because you end up reviewing songs you don't really need to review just because you like the sound of them. You end up spending a lot of time making the song sound presentable.

With books like this, though, the songs are awful. That's the point. None of them sound good. You don't like playing any of them.

Which leads you to focus on technical mastery. I'm telling you, if you've got the discipline, Hanon is the way to go. You'll make progress the fastest. Then, when you return to those Alfred's or those Bastien books, they'll seem like they were written for kids.

To be sure, what I am recommending is -- at least for sober, disciplined adults -- an approach to piano chiefly consisting of technical exercises, not necessarily this book. This is a famous one -- almost a hundred years old -- but there are others out there. There are things that disappointed me about this book:

1. The left hand and the right hand are always playing the same thing, giving it to you easy. Whereas everybody picks up a book like this to take a licking.

2. The notes are kinda small.

3. It's not spiral bound.

4. Hanon's idea of drilling you basically consists of you mastering fingering, whereas I would have liked them to have included tricky counting exercises. Instead, it's just pages and pages of 16th notes.

5. There's no point in buying this old yellow one. Alfred's has the exact same text redone: Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises. The Complete Edition. Unlike this one, it has spiral binding. Not only that, but Alfred's simply didn't just run the galleys again, they recomposited the entire text. Plus it's cheaper!Get more detail about Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises: Complete (Schirmer's Library of Musical Classics).