FingerTips for Pianists

Hembrey has written a comprehensive book on piano technique and strategies. Whether it be how to memorise a piece, improve your sight reading or decode a piano definition or marking - you will find the information in this book. Hembrey even included detailed instruction on pedal usage - something I've not ever seen or been precisely taught. What I enjoyed most was the author's positive uplifting voice - she made me want to sit down and start practising. This book was a delight to read and I am sure I'll be frequently referencing it. My only caveat is the book might be overwhelming or not of use to an absolute beginner with no musical knowledge. However, an eager beginning student might enjoy this book as a gift to inspire them and reference as their technique improves. Also, it is a book geared for an adult reader. My perspective, incidentally, is someone who learned to play as a child and then returned to the instrument as an adult; my level of playing is advanced intermediate (grade 7 RCM). There's much knowledge and inspiration to take from this book.

This book is very useful for self-thaught pianists and those who start again after many years to refresh their knowledge. So it is a book for those who already know something about piano playing and not for complete beginners. FingerTips for Pianists include information about posture, exercises, musical symbols, how to choose new pieces to play, sight-reading, memorizing, and much more.

It was a very informative read for me, and I am sure it would benefit some pianists that would like to refresh their memory or those who don't have complete knowledge.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC and the opportunity to read this! All opinions are my own.

Fingertips for Pianists by Elizabeth Hembrey
2.5-3 Stars
I’ve taught myself to play a bit of piano, besides being a clarinet player. The illustrations were nonfunctional on my Kindle. Got around 67% though before getting bored. 2.5-3 stars

Rating 3.5 stars

We have an electronic piano at home that I dabble with from time to time and my daughter uses for her music lessons at high school, so thought this book would come in very handy for us both.

It starts with some exercises and has stickmen as illustrations! It also explains some of the musical terms and symbols from sheet music (some I knew, some I had forgotten so this was a good reminder). The book also covers practising, hand positions, majors and minors and much more, but you do need to know some music reading skills before picking this up as its quite text heavy - it's not a book for beginners really. There are lots of tips throughout the book to help you out, plus at the rear there is a glossary of musical terms.

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a honest review.

Four stars!

Useful techniques and strategies to assist any level of player to either learn something new or fine tune current abilities.

I voluntarily read an advanced copy.

FingerTips for Pianists contains some interesting and useful suggestions that cover everything from good posture to how to approach sight-reading and dealing with stage fright. Any budding pianist would find something to take away from these pages, depending on their current level of competence. I was reading an ARC, so this may be something that gets fixed prior to publication, but one issue I had with the eBook was that the images did not present well. They were overblown, distorted and often completely illegible. I was also less than impressed with the stick-figure drawings. These would have worked better if more carefully illustrated or if photos had been used instead. But the general information was, as I said, good, and I will definitely try a few of the tips as I continue my own piano practice. This was a 3.5-star read for me.