Piano Lessons(ISBN=) 英文原版

“Piano Lessons provides that rare and special pleasure of
finding both entertainment and information in the most unexpected
places.”
–Bailey White, author of Sleeping at the Starlite Motel

Piano Lessons is Noah Adams’s delightful and moving
chronicle of his fifty-second year–a year already filled with
long, fast workdays and too little spare time–as he answers at
last a lifelong call: to learn to play the piano. The twelve
monthly chapters span from January–when after decades of growing
affection for keyboard artists and artisans he finally plunges in
and buys a piano–through December, when as a surprise Christmas
present for his wife he dresses in a tuxedo and, in flickering
candlelight, snow falling outside the windows, he attempts their
favorite piece of music, a difficult third-year composition he’s
been struggling with in secret to get to this very moment.

Among the up-tempo triumphs and unexpected setbacks, Noah Adams
interweaves the rich history and folklore that surround the piano.
And along the way, set between the ragtime rhythms and
boogie-woogie beats, there are encounters with–and insights
from–masters of the keyboard, from Glenn Gould and Leon Fleisher
(“I was a bit embarrassed,” he writes; “telling Leon Fleisher about
my ambitions for piano lessons is like telling Julia Child about
plans to make toast in the morning”) to Dr. John and Tori Amos.

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

Acknowledgments
Introduction
JANUARY
Why does a fifty-one-year-old
man decide he has to have a
piano?
FEBRUARY
Here comes the truck! What
do I do now?
MARCH
Getting past middle C with
a computer looking over my
shoulder
APRIL
The oldest piano in the
world plus the sweet
inspirations of rock and roll
MAY
John Grisham? I’ve met him.
He’s rich. Bet he can’t play
the piano
JUNE
The attack of the humidity
monster and a songwriter’s
million-selling moment
JULY
Throwing a firefly to Kansas
could be easier than learning
“Misty”
AUGUST
I’m riding this piano bicycle
through the puddles, and
there’s a big wet streak up
my back
SEPTEMBER
An assignment in Ireland,
two weeks off in Maine.
What’s a piano?
OCTOBER
Salvation at a music camp,
but they make me play in
front of people
NOVEMBER
A Vermont guy who loves
free pianos and a New York
teacher who adores Steinways
DECEMBER
My wife falls in love with a
piano player in a tuxedo, and
the night is still young
Afierword
References and Reading