Darswords

The Complete Piano Player: Books 1,2,3,4, and 5 by Kenneth Baker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a great book to review with. After years away from the piano, I am finally back. But where do I fit?

I had been playing around with songs I learned a long time ago. At twelve, I was a far better player than I am now. In my forties, I was far better than now. Now at 76, I am just struggling to grow and start to enjoy this torture device/toy.

In a group dedicated to piano returnies, someone mentioned this book. I decided to try to see where I fit. I started with lesson one, book one. Much from there and in the next few books, I found I could sight-read much. My glaring mistakes showed up in rhythms. I practiced the bits and moved on.

Along the way, there are many beautiful, fun pieces. Very few were boring or impossible to learn. My favorite thing was that, with the exception of the very last song, all songs were on two pages. No turning pages! What I am worst at right now is the dreaded page-turn. So I make copies of all songs and tape them together to avoid having to turn the page while playing.

Speaking of making copies, there are so many songs I still want to play from this book that I am selecting some so I can save the book for others, or future me. So much diversity, classical, Beatles, and a most beautiful song I’d never heard from Elton John, Song for Guy. I’m so far from perfecting this one, but I will try forever, if I can, to get that under my belt.

I highly recommend this book for beginners and beyond. Stick with the challenging ones until you get it, and move on through. Now I feel I’d like to find the next Omni for Books 6 and beyond.

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