Practical Method for Beginners, Op. 599: Schirmer Library of Classics Volume 146 - Piano Technique and Exercise Book - Easy-to-Read Piano Scales Book

I am an adult learner who started from ground 0 in piano (and music education) in April of this year (2016). The book I chose to start with was the Alfred Adult All-In-One course Book One. I was really motivated and got to around page 90 of that book in about 3 weeks time. I guess I was trying too hard, my left hand started to hurt. I had to completely stop playing to rest my hand for about 2 weeks. I stopped learning from that book after that, plus I really didn't like the songs in that book. But by then, I had enough of the very basics to be able to learn to play some of the songs in Burgmuller Twenty Five Easy and Progressive Studies. For theories, I studied The Complete Book of Scale, Chords..... I even practiced using the Hanon book. I learned to play the complete Fur Elise (all three sections) to a fairly OK level. All seemed to go OK, until I came upon this new song. I heard on the radio and found the sheet for it. I spent 3 days on it and could not get past the first half page, I was literally mapping out each note to the fingers and was going note by note, finger by finger. Luckily, I came upon this brilliant young concert pianist Yuja Wang. She plays over 100 concerts every year all over the world and there are many clips of her amazing playing on youtube. In one of her interviews, she mentioned it usually takes her 3 days to learn a new concert piece, the kind that lasts 20, 30, 40 minutes. A light bulb went off in my head, she must not be learning it note by note, finger by finger. Long story short, in China, learning to play the piano is very popular. The serious students go through a very thorough training program that usually starts around age 6. The Czerny books are very much part of that regime. It is said if one masters Czerny book 599, followed by books 849 and then 299, that puts the person in the mid level of piano playing. While I will continue to search for more materials to supplement the three Czerny books, I know I am on the right path now. I needed to get through the past 8 months to be where I am today, I consider that pre-learning. The real learning starts with this book. In case anyone is interested, there are complete sets of training video on youtube for this book.

I bought this book a year ago and this has been the best investment made as a self-taught piano player. This book offers all the etudes needed to strengthen finger dexterity and improve sight reading skills! I would say this book best suits a beginner to intermediate piano player (ABRSM level 1-5.) Overall, the Czerny OP. 599 is a great supplemental book that offers all the technical music you would need in the beginning years of learning the piano.

Nice and clear

You will see a lot of Czerny pieces available on the web and in videos but they are using a simplified fingering version of the pieces which defeats the purpose entirely. These pieces were designed to make you think and use odd fingering at times to help you grow as a player. By simplifying these pieces to use "logical" fingering, they just become another practice piece that is no better or worse than any other practice piece out there. Get the ORIGINAL arrangements and sweat your way through. These are not performance pieces, these are exercises to make you better overall. You will not master them quickly or easily. Consider it the Dark Souls of Piano pieces. Can be hard as heck but the first time you play it through the way it was intended to be played, you feel really amazing.

The printing is clear and of good quality

It is a pretty good book for exercising the fingers. Good for any level. However, I noticed that it is different compared to other editions. Look at the photo I added. On page 9 the first measure has two sets of 16th notes. One goes up and the other down. Meanwhile, the German blue cover editions of this book are different and have them going up then again up. In the first measure I compared in the photo.

While I am not your usual beginner, having been a musician all my life, when I decided to make the piano my companion during the Covid crisis, I was able to advance quickly, but realized that I needed help to simply make me keep my fingers in the right place! I remembered Czerny. This edition is the standard, it is affordable and will give me plenty of work for a long time. It is already helping me in developing control---and a little coordination. This translates to playing my actual pieces much better, and with less blunders!

I used Opus 599 when I first learned to play the piano back in highschool. Interestingly, my mom happened to have a copy although she never played the piano and she convinced my teacher to use it on me. My teacher is a proponent of Hanon and I'm so thankful that she agreed to train me on Czerny. I'm sure Hanon is effective but I could never stand it! The Czerny etudes are very melodic so I have always had fun playing them. Unfortunately, when I went to college and after that started working, I stopped playing piano entirely. Now, 15 years later, I'm home a lot more and my husband bought me a piano! I tried to find the Czerny I used in the past but couldn't. Luckily my mom still has it and she emailed me a photo. It is exactly the same as this version (Schirmer's) except it was published by Carl Fischer - probably out of print already that's why I couldn't find it. Anyway, I highly recommend this book... you won't need anything else. Unlike the super tedious Hanon, it doesn't feel like a drudgery to go through each exercise. I was never able to play this book to the end but now I'm determined to do it. I already have School of Velocity on standby.

Me gustó mucho el contenido, son 100 ejercicios que aumentan gradualmente el nivel de dificultad. El material del libro es bueno aunque no es sencillo plegarlo para su lectura. Considero indispensable para iniciar a estudiar el piano. Junto a HANON y BURGMÜLLER son herramientas que permiten desarrollar un buen entendimiento del instrumento.

Muy buena edición con digitación correcta! Algunos comentan que está mal porque pone diferentes dedos en las mismas notas pero si eres profesional entiendes que es el mejor ejercicio para reforzar los dedos y practicar su independencia. Recomendable

from the page nr 1 there are mistakes in the numbering, ex 1 repeated note C is marked as 1 and successfully as 2 twice, it will require verifying and correcting exercises before playing. i do not advice to purchase this edition again. marked as 2 because it is Czerny and it is easy to find the right notations...

Bon

Sempre consigliati e ben fatti aiutano la crescita dello studente