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by andrepd 1697 days ago
Starting a book by singing one's praise is already dubious. Then you come across this

>(...) Mental Play (...) It is almost unbelievable that such an essential skill has been mostly neglected by piano teachers.

which is a top "crank red flag".

3 comments

In the context of practising a piece initially much slower than it's intended to be played:

> The probability of playing incorrectly is nearly 100%, because there is almost an infinity of ways to play incorrectly but only one best way.

I'm sure this book has some useful information within, but my 5 minutes spent checking out different parts have so far left a very poor impression. Combined with its verbosity, it's hard to justify giving it serious attention...

The book uses a lot of hyperbolic wording, but the techniques in the book are generally sound. Mental practice in particular is an established pattern for top performers across sportive disciplines.
Astoundingly, I have never heard another source advise doing this, and this includes professors at Juilliard. I don't work on all my pieces using pure Mental Play as frequently as I should, but trying to 'play on phantom limbs' without being at the instrument is like trying to remember the exact details of a painting you have looked at. Though there are many parts of the book that are a bit more... cranked.