Music At Your Fingertips: Advice For The Artist And Amateur On Playing The Piano

by Ruth Slenczynska, Ann M. Lingg

Intended for the aspiring artist as well as the enthusiastic amateur, this invaluable guide to piano practice and performance covers every major aspect of pianistic technique. Drawing from more than forty years experience as a teacher and highly acclaimed performer, as well as from her studies with Rachmaninoff, Schnabel, and Cortot, Slenczynska clearly demonstrates such basics as the proper use of hand positions, fingering, pedaling, ornamentation, various fingering touches, and counting.

She also gives detailed instructions on the art of program building, carefully analyzing the concert programs of Horowitz, Rubinstein, and Serkin and pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of their program construction. She includes repertoire lists for performance at various levels of ability, a complete chart of ornament interpretation, and authoritative advice on posture, sight-reading, rhythm, note-learning, and memorization. Her book is essential reading for all who enjoy the piano-beginners, serious students, teachers, and listeners.

Genres: Music

160 pages, Hardcover

First published March 21, 1974

Reviews

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one for every pianist’s book shelf. For those of the Alexander and Taubman schools, there are some questionable body position suggestions, but I suspect the goal is the same. There are exercise suggestions, including for common technical challenges, suggestions for practice, and even a list of lesser known repertoire suggestions, ranked and rated (D stands for Delightful). This too-thin volume is like spending an afternoon with an experienced mentor teacher.

[Baby Tron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would argue this book is just as great as the Josef Lhevinne book which is excellent. There is also an ornament chart on the last pages that’s useful.

[Ivy Zhuang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short but useful tips for effective piano practicing. And it aligns with what my piano teacher has been telling me.