The Complete Pianist: from healthy technique to natural artistry offers a new and unique approach to piano playing, in which Penelope Roskell shares a lifetime’s experience of teaching, performing and ground-breaking research into healthy piano playing. Containing more than 500 pages of text, 300 videos and 200 exercises newly devised by the author, this is the most comprehensive book ever written on piano playing. The book has something new to offer to all pianists and keyboard players – student and teacher, professional and amateur.
Penelope guides pianists through the early stages of learning a piece, through all the technical challenges and interpretative choices, towards inspired performance. Each new aspect of playing is addressed through a series of practical exercises which proceed, step-by-step, from the basics towards more advanced applications. Penelope demonstrates all the musical and technical points herself in videos accessible by smartphone, tablet or computer.
The Complete Pianist comprises 22 sections, including:
- A whole-body approach
- Finger touch and tone production
- Playing at speed
- Fundamentals of chord playing
- Advanced chords
- Rotation
- Lateral movements
- Tone and texture
- Pedalling
- Learning, memorizing and sight-reading
Penelope Roskell is Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London and at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. As a soloist she has played in major concert halls in more than thirty countries. She is the leading UK specialist in healthy piano playing, and Piano Advisor to the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine, where she holds a clinic for pianists with tension or injuries.
