Playing Beyond the Notes: A Pianist's Guide to Musical Interpretation - Softcover

I find the book by Deborah Rambo Sinn a most valuable addition to the library of a performer, teacher, and music lover. It is in my opinion a must for any music shelf. (Menahem Pressler, Distinguished Professor of Music, Indiana University, pianist of Beaux-Arts Trio, and soloist)

Deborah has written an amazingly thorough compendium of the pianist's interpretive dilemmas. With precision, insight, and a strong dash of unique humor, she has addressed complex issues in a highly understandable way - providing an excellent resource for performers, teachers, and students! (Timothy Shafer, Professor of Piano, Penn State University)

A useful and intelligently written book and seems to represent years of accumulated teaching wisdom. Sinn is tireless in the pursuit of solving passages unto the last sixteenth note, and often refreshingly precise in her explanations...Will allow teachers and students to think analytically about common interpretive situations at the piano. (College Music Symposium)

A perfect resource book (aka tool) for the studio teacher or for teen and adult students. It is written clearly, without either pretension or condescension and with detail but not great length...You can find a specific piece of advice or answer to a question, or, you can immerse yourself and read the entire book from cover to cover. Since it is intended as a textbook, it is perfect for studio group lessons as well...This book is a keeper! (PianoAddict.com)

Playing Beyond the Notes: A Pianist's Guide to Musical Interpretation demystifies the vague and complex concept of musical interpretation in Western tonal piano music by boiling it down to basic principles in an accessible writing style. Its intended audience is performing pianists, independent piano teachers, and piano pedagogy students, and the over 200 repertoire excerpts in the book cover the intermediate to advanced piano literature. Rather than dealing with issues pertaining to performance practice, specific composers, or genres, this book focuses solely on musical interpretation. Each chapter tackles a different interpretive principle, explaining clearly, for example, how to play effective ornaments and rubatos or how to understand transitional sections of pieces. The author supplies a helpful checklist of questions at the end of each chapter. The book aims to help pianists understand concrete ways to apply interpretive concepts to their own playing and to give teachers practical ways to teach interpretation to their students. The book is supplemented by a companion website that hosts over 100 audio recordings to enhance the reader's experience.