[MrGando]

The methods that work and are the kind of thing that any good teacher will tell you to do over a conversation in a coffee shop, meaning that you don't even need a piano to learn about them. Yes they do work, eg: learning a few bars at a time and separate hands.

The book totally falls apart when getting into the weeds. Piano is a corporal activity after all and while yes, there's definitely "frameworks" to make learning pieces more efficient, or practicing more efficient, the author gives very bad advice when he starts crossing the threshold towards what's technical and corporal... because he just doesn't know.

[spekcular]

Is that "corporeal" information actually written down anywhere? I've read a few books about piano technique and pedagogy, and they contain some mix of "obvious" stuff (also in this book), wrong/misinformed stuff, and poor written descriptions of various body movements.

It seems to me that piano is a physical activity that is impossible to teach through text, and that a good teacher is the only way. But I'd like to be wrong, or at least find some useful tips.

(This is to say nothing of interpretation and other musical matters, which seem even more impossible to transmit through writing...)

[MrGando]

You can read only up to a certain level (not super high). Out of the context of music, it would be like thinking about learning to play Tennis to a very high-level just by reading books. It's just extremely unlikely these days. In Piano, you might find some examples here & there (hard in classical, but look more into Jazz)... but the reality is that those folks were exceptional.

In piano (but true for a lot of sports too), when you hit a certain level, it will be more about how to make a lot of things work for your body, your hands... the way you are built. Doing that alone is possible, specially if you had a lot of instruction before. It does require a lot, a lot of intuition and a very solid foundation. It's also easier with the appropriate teacher, or mentor/s I should say.

Hopefully this helps you out a little?