Piano Lessons: Music, Love, & True Adventures (Thorndike Press Large Print Paperback Series) - Softcover

Piano Lessons is Noah Adams's delightful and moving chronicle of hisfifty-second year--a year already filled with long, fast workdays and toolittle spare time--as he answers at last a lifelong call: to learn to play thepiano. The twelve monthly chapters span from January--when after decades ofgrowing affection for keyboard artists and artisans he finally plunges in andbuys a piano--through December, when as a surprise Christmas present for hiswife he dresses in a tuxedo and, in flickering candlelight, snow fallingoutside the windows, he attempts their favorite piece of music, a difficultthird-year composition he's been struggling with in secret to get to this verymoment.

Among the up-tempo triumphs and unexpected setbacks, Noah Adams interweaves therich history and folklore that surround the piano. And along the way, setbetween the ragtime rhythms and boogie-woogie beats, there are encounterswith--and insights from--masters of the keyboard, from Glenn Gould and LeonFleisher ("I was a bit embarrassed," he writes; "telling Leon Fleisher about myambitions for piano lessons is like telling Julia Child about plans to maketoast in the morning") to Dr. John and Tori Amos.

As a storyteller, Noah Adams has perfect pitch. In the foreground here, like afamiliar melody, are the challenges of learning a complex new skill as anadult, when enthusiasm meets the necessary repetition of tedious scales at theend of a twelve-hour workday. Lingering in the background, like a subtle bassline, are the quiet concerns of how we spend our time and how our prioritiesshift as we proceed through life. For Piano Lessons is really anadventure story filled with obstacles to overcome and grand leaps forward,eccentric geniuses and quiet moments of pre-dawn practice, as Noah Adamstravels across country and keyboard, pursuing his dream and keeping therhythm.

Copyrigt © 1996 Noah Adams