Piano Lessons

Amazon didn't carry direct links to "The Little Pischna" or Joseffy's "School of Advanced Piano Playing", so i was able to find alternate links with Sheet Music Plus instead:

The Little Pischna By Johann Pischna. Edited by Willard A. Palmer. For Piano. Piano Collection. Alfred Masterwork Edition. Masterwork. Level: Intermediate / Early Advanced (grade 4/5/6/6+). Book. 48 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing. (500) See more info...

School of Advanced Piano Playing Piano Technique. By Rafael Joseffy. Piano Method. 132 pages. Published by G. Schirmer, Inc. (50325630) See more info...

I'm a big fan of CD Sheet Music's offerings - if you want an "ultimate collection" of etudes and exercises that includes generous helpings of Czerny, Pischna, Kullak, Burgmuller and others all in one CD compilation (at a fraction of the cost of paper versions), you might want to check this out:

Piano Studies & Exercises: Ultimate Collection (Version 2.0) CD Sheet Music. By Various. (Piano). CD Sheet Music (Version 2.0). CD-ROM only. 8 pages. Published by CD Sheet Music. (220520) See more info...

After "graduating" from Pischna and concurrent with my Joseffy exercises, Mrs. Sokoloff had me working on these delightful etudes by Moszkowski - much more musically satisfying than the dry finger-buster technique books!

15 Etudes De Virtuosite, Op. 72 By Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925). Opus 72. Collection for solo piano. 68 pages. Published by G. Schirmer, Inc. (HL.50261830 ) See more info...

tags: piano, technique, etudes, exercises

i had the great privilege of working with Eleanor Sokoloff as a young boy. Her regimen specialized in developing strong technical facilities, particularly individual finger strength and powerful versatility with scales and arpeggios.

Here are the books that i consider absolutely foundational for any young pianist who wants to build "fingers of steel" (please be careful and don't overwork on these exercises without good supervision from a teacher!)

Little Pischna (48 Practice Pieces): Piano Solo: this is a great preparatory book for the "big" Pischna book below. Perfect for developing individual finger coordination and chromatic transposition skills.

This is the "big" Pischna book - if memory serves me correctly, this was my "book of pain" for 3 years, but boy am i glad that i survived that regimen! The kind of exercises that can get you to crack walnuts with your pinkie!

School of advanced piano playing: (exercises) - by Rafael Joseffy. This was the book that "Pischna graduates" progressed to. The exercises are more thematic in nature, dealing with various intervals techniques, scale patterns, and by far the most despicable trill exercises ever devised by man...your pinkie muscles will bend nails after that!

On a slightly more humble tangent, here is a basic book for scales and arpeggios (considered the technical building blocks and musical "ABC's" of foundational piano playing):



More etude books to come...