I got some piano books for Christmas and thought I would share in case anyone is interested.

Love Is Blind by William Boyd (2018) - this is fiction, set in 19th century, the main character is a piano tuner -- and maybe a musician? I haven't gotten far enough yet, but (despite the slightly trite title) it's really interesting so far. BTW I should mention, this one I got the audio book version, so I listened to maybe 45 minutes this morning, it's really really good!


Note by Note:Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered by Howard Smith (2020)
It's a memoir-type book, the author returned to piano in retirement. I haven't started it yet, but it looks interesting.

I just found that this one was reviewed in Interlude:
https://interlude.hk/note-for-...ble-by-howard-smith/

I also got two jazz piano books from this series:
http://www.johnkember.com/sdxjpp.htm

These books are set up so that each song has two different versions: first is the score just with melody on top line, along with lyrics, and then the chords are written as block chords on the next two lines (grand staff), along with chord names. You could use this like a lead sheet or you could also play the chords (and memorize the changes) while singing. And then the second score is a regular solo score, fully notated, intermediate-level. The books have a CD with recordings of the version in the solo score.

Last night I started "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" (Cole Porter!) and it's really cool to have the two different scores! The regular, fully notated version is sightreading-level for me (or just above, I can't play it at tempo), so I can play through that, but also I can do the chords-only version and I'm trying to learn more about improvising and playing from lead sheets.

I vote for some Cole Porter played by SK

My Cole Porter probably won’t be easy to share for … a while

Love Is Blind, I must say, brings to mind a vaguely soft-core TV romance from 20 years ago in which a blind yet young and handsome piano tuner arrives to tune a piano owned by the lady of the house and ends up servicing more than just the piano.

I think it was on some channel Oprah managed.

I had to watch it till the end, of course, only because of my professional interest in pianos.

I don't know if this one is that racy or not. I'll let you know... or not...

quote:

Originally posted by RealPlayer:
Love Is Blind, I must say, brings to mind a vaguely soft-core TV romance from 20 years ago in which a blind yet young and handsome piano tuner arrives to tune a piano owned by the lady of the house and ends up servicing more than just the piano.

I think it was on some channel Oprah managed.

I had to watch it till the end, of course, only because of my professional interest in pianos.

HAHa