Piano Lessons: Music, Love, and True Adventures
by Noah Adams
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Book Summary Information
Author: Noah AdamsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-03-10
ISBN: 0385318219
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Delta
Book Reviews of Piano Lessons: Music, Love, and True Adventures
Book Review: How music makes life richer; LOVED this book!
Summary: 5 Stars
I LOVED this book. How come, I wonder? Lemme see, maybe it was an early reference to the resonant bass chords from Jerry Lee Lewis' fifties recording of "Whole Lot of Shakin' Goin' On" which really hooked me. Or it could have been Adams' casual remarks about growing up in southern Ohio (which, as everyone knows, is ALmost Kentucky), with the jacket flap photo of his 13 year-old self w/ a modified DA and shades - a persona that I once went through too. But most probably it was his self-professed life-long fascination with music and musicians - music of ALL kinds; there's no evidence of musical snobbery here, although Adams obviously knows a helluva lot more about classical music than I ever will. In fact the piece he picks to try to learn in the course of a year of studying the piano is Schumann's "Traumerei," a composition which I don't know at all (did I spell that composer's name correctly?), but it becomes evident in the course of the narrative, that it is NOT an easy piece to learn, and certainly not for a beginner. So it wasn't the classical part that drew me in. No, it was the all-music-is-good attitude that Adams displayed that attracted me. And maybe his nearly year-long attempt to learn to play (by ear) "Misty," an old jazz favorite of mine (and yes, I do know the Eastwood film too). His talks and interviews with music teachers - in downtown NYC and on a mountaintop in Vermont, as well as a whole family of piano teachers in a music camp for adults - are also arrestingly interesting, as are his talks with Minnesota pianists Lori Line and Butch Thompson, who talked of his truck-driving father, who taught him to love the big band and jazz music of the 40s, while Butch tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to introduce his dad to Jerry Lee and Elvis.
"He did like, my dad, to hear Elvis sing 'Peace in the Valley'."
Glen Gould, Horowitz, Mancini, Eubie Blake, Pinetop Perkins, Teddy Wilson - so many piano players and "pianists" are mentioned here that it's hard to remember them all. But the thing is, Piano Lessons is really mostly a love story. It's about loving music, of course, but it's also, at least peripherally, about how much Adams loves his wife and how he keeps on plugging away over the course of a busy year, trying to make time to learn the piano, so he can play this one beautiful piece ("Traumerei") as a special gift to her. And he succeeds. Admittedly, he makes mistakes and falters, but it's a gift that matters. And this is a book that matters too, especially if you are a music lover. Bravo, Maestro Adams! - Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER: A ONE-YEAR JOURNAL OF READING, REFLECTING & REMEMBERING
Summary of Piano Lessons: Music, Love, and True Adventures
Piano Lessons is Noah Adams's delightful and moving chronicle of his fifty-second year--a year already filled with long, fast workdays and too little spare time--as he answers at last a lifelong call: to learn to play the piano. The twelve monthly chapters span from January--when after decades of growing affection for keyboard artists and artisans he finally plunges in and buys a piano--through December, when as a surprise Christmas present for his wife he dresses in a tuxedo and, in flickering candlelight, snow falling outside the windows, he attempts their favorite piece of music, a difficult third-year composition he's been struggling with in secret to get to this very moment.Among the up-tempo triumphs and unexpected setbacks, Noah Adams interweaves the rich history and folklore that surround the piano. And along the way, set between the ragtime rhythms and boogie-woogie beats, there are encounters with--and insights from--masters of the keyboard, from Glenn Gould and Leon Fleisher ("I was a bit embarrassed," he writes; "telling Leon Fleisher about my ambitions for piano lessons is like telling Julia Child about plans to make toast in the morning") to Dr. John and Tori Amos.
As a storyteller, Noah Adams has perfect pitch. In the foreground here, like a familiar melody, are the challenges of learning a complex new skill as an adult, when enthusiasm meets the necessary repetition of tedious scales at the end of a twelve-hour workday. Lingering in the background, like a subtle bass line, are the quiet concerns of how we spend our time and how our priorities shift as we proceed through life. For Piano Lessons is really an adventure story filled with obstacles to overcome and grand leaps forward, eccentric geniuses and quiet moments of pre-dawn practice, as Noah Adams travels across country and keyboard, pursuing his dream and keeping the rhythm.
The difference between the piano lessons Noah Adams took and the ones most of us took was that he was 51, not 7, and -- lucky Noah -- his mother didn't make him practice. This is not only a delightful account of his twelve-month nose-to-the-grindstone attempt to learn to play the $11,000 Steinway he bought on a whim, but also the story of his many-year process of falling in love with music and its history.
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