Ways of the Hand: The Organization of Improvised Conduct - Softcover

Sudnow, David

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9780060908812: Ways of the Hand: The Organization of Improvised Conduct

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060908815 ISBN 13: 9780060908812

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1981

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An ethnographer's account of his study of jazz-piano playing, which led to discoveries concerning the ways his hands learned about the keyboard and improvisation, sheds light on the nature and range of improvised conduct

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About the Author:

David Sudnow is the author of Passing On, on the sociology of medical care; Talk's Body, on language and music; and Pilgrim in the Micro World, on the nature of the body-computer interface. Over the past two decades, he has developed a widely used piano teaching method on the basis of experiences first described in this book.

From Library Journal:

Sudnow is a trained ethnographer and social psychologist who gave up teaching in his fields to study piano and write exclusively about music. In 1978, he published the first edition of this work, a skill-development classic that documents how he taught himself to play jazz piano. The premise of that edition, as well as this update, is that the author's hands, apart from his conscious direction, learned to improvise jazz: "I sing with my fingers, so to speak, and only so to speak, for there's a new being, my body, and it is this being (here too, so to speak) that sings." This new version represents Sudnow's attempt to reach a broader, less academic audience with his findings. Although it features less scholarly diction, the text is still painstakingly detailed, which will limit the book's appeal. For academic and larger public libraries. Cleo Pappas, Lisle Lib. Dist., IL
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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