How to Practise on the Piano - Reflections and Suggestions

Plenty of manuals teach a pupil how to play. In How to Practise on the Piano, Heinrich Ehrlich takes on the harder question of what to do in the hours spent at the keyboard alone.

Heinrich Ehrlich (1822-1899) was born in Vienna, toured as a concert pianist, taught at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin from 1864 to 1872, and reviewed music for the Berliner Tageblatt for twenty years. He wrote this short treatise as a supplement to existing schools of playing rather than a rival to them, and his interest is not in what to play but in how: how the hand is held, how slowly to go, and the difference between working at a passage and merely running it through again.

The second half sets out directions for practising the Tausig-Ehrlich Daily Studies, book by book, followed by exercises built from broken chords, trill-studies, and studies in double-notes. First published in German in 1879 and issued in English by G. Schirmer, this fourth edition of 1901 was translated by J. H. Cornell and revised by Theodore Baker. It remains a compact and opinionated guide for anyone who suspects they are practising badly.

This edition features:

• The complete 1901 fourth edition in English, translated by J. H. Cornell and revised by Theodore Baker
• Directions for working through both books of the Tausig-Ehrlich Daily Studies, exercise by exercise
• Separate sections on broken chords, trill-studies, and double-notes, with the fingering set out in full
• Advice on the position of hand and wrist, on legato and staccato, octaves, and double trills in one hand
• A slim volume aimed at students, their teachers, and adults returning to the keys after years away

Author: H. Ehrlich
Publisher: Smith Press
Published: 03/06/2009
Pages: 68
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.21lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.16d
ISBN: 9781444601428