Never Too Late: My Musical Life Story [Paperback] Review

This book changed my life.It gave me the courage and inspiration to overcome a horrible childhood experience with piano lessons, and relearn to play as an adult.Playing the piano has become one of the great joys of mylife, and John Holt gave me the kick to allow that to happen.

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“If I could learn to play the cello well, as I thought I could, I could show by my own example that we all have greater powers than we think; that whatever we want to learn or learn to do, we probably can learn; that our lives and our possibilities are not determined and fixed by what happened to us when we were little, or by what experts say we can or cannot do."Best known for his brilliant insight into the way children learn, John Holt was also an intrepid explorer of adult learning. At the age of forty, with no particular musical background, he took up the cello. His touching and hilarious account of his passionate second career demolished the myth that one must start an instrument (or a sport, or a language) in early childhood, and will inspire any reader who dreams of taking up a new skill.

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Note by Note: A Celebration of the Piano Lesson [Paperback] Review

It wasn't long into Tricia Tunstall's new book, "Note by Note", that I found myself nodding again and again in agreement regarding her experiences as a piano teacher, vis-a-vis mine. We are almost exactly the same age, have taught piano for years and came from similar piano backgrounds...that is, classical music only and nothing EVER popular. So it was with good fortune that I could readily identify with her approach, student interaction and all the things that are associated with piano lessons.

By "all the things" I mean that a central point in Tunstall's book is that quite often a piano teacher does more than just teach piano. We are "psychologists" (one mother told me I was cheaper than a shrink), comforters, encouragers, enforcers, and yes, teachers. This is a generational book, I think, and one that can be best appreciated by those around our age (mid-fifties), but certainly not to the exclusion of other generations. Tunstall writes with great narrative style, and with a self-deprecating sense of humor. She covers the essentials of what is to be expected of a student....emergence, mastery, recital, etc. but she offers insight into culture that helps shape her students' (and her own) choice of pieces. The "Lure of Elise" chapter is accurate...every recital seems to have a "Fur Elise" player, and her mild bewilderment of popular music's incursion into traditional teaching mirrors mine. Perhaps we are appendices of the Madame Dmitrieff era...the days when Hanon ruled... but we've learned that jellybeans and The Beatles are often required.

Tunstall does include some musically technical points, but they never get in the way of the story. For the reader who has no knowledge of music in general or piano specifically, don't worry. Reading about poor Pia's "hydraulic lift" approach to pedaling.....a laugh out loud moment... will rescue you from any talk of half steps. It would be nice, however, if Tunstall had offered some of her experiences on how she acquires students, how she sets her rates, what she does with students who don't work out, (all of the students in the book seem to have some degree of success) and does she have any former students who come back to visit her years after lessons are over. But given the parameters of what she is trying to accomplish....the focus on the lesson, itself... it is understandable that she needs to keep things as she has presented them.

The author ends with a poignant chapter, giving us a final and most personal look at her. One can only gather that it would be wise, beneficial and very good to have Ms. Tunstall as your piano teacher. This is a terrific book and I highly recommend it.

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