Nancy O'Neill Breth

This practice guide is actually a 4-page folder. The bulk of it consists of 58 tips for practicing. When I opened it up and folded out the 3-page spread of tips, it felt a little like that comedy bit when the husband takes the honey-do list from the wife and it unfolds out into a long page that reaches all the way to the floor. In short, my immediate thought was "Wow, if I need to know all of this to practice well, I've got a lot of work to do." It makes an already daunting task seem even more so. That said, I still like this guide, especially for serious students. My biggest beef is just the unfriendly layout. The tips themselves are good, and if you have all of these practice tools at your disposal, you should be able to learn anything! In addition to the 3 pages of tips, there is another page of good practice advice. I particularly like her discussion of how to "X-Ray" a piece before you start to practice. Another thing to be aware of - while your elementary students can certainly benefit from many of the tips here (Tip no. 49: Whenever you miss a note or rhythm, stop and play it correctly four times), the tips are not categorized or ordered in any way, and many of them are appropriate for more advanced students. Certainly, the reading level is not for elementary pianists.… (más)