Today’s guest post has been written by Israeli pianist, teacher and writer Rami Bar-Niv, who is no stranger to my blog. Rami has recently published a new book, ‘Piano Playing Wisdom’, and in this post, he writes about the inspiration behind it.

Piano-Playing Wisdom

After the success of my book ‘The Art of Piano Fingering: Traditional, Advanced, and Innovative’, people have been asking me to write a book dedicated to piano-playing technique. Knowing what it takes to write a book, I was naturally reluctant to even think about it. However, I was actually writing the book without knowing it: I was asked to write a series of articles about injury-free and tension-free piano-playing techniques. That was not as scary as writing a whole book. I could take my time, write each article as a unique project on its own, and not be under any pressure of having to complete a huge project. My articles appeared on Melanie Spanswick’s blog and were very successful, so I was asked to write even more articles. All of a sudden, by the eighth article, it dawned on me that I actually already had the book and all I had to do is compile the articles into one publication. Adrenaline started flowing once again and the result is presented in my new book ‘Piano-Playing Wisdom’. It is a compilation of eight articles. Five articles are devoted to my five pillars of injury-free piano-playing technique, and three more are about Interpretation, Music and Sight Reading, and Performance Joy (as opposed to anxiety).

The five pillars of injury-free piano-playing technique that I discuss in my book are: vertical wrist movements, wrist circles, forearm rotation, the butterfly technique, and the grabbing-releasing technique.

Similarly, I didn’t think I would write more about my life after my autobiography book ‘Blood, Sweat, and Tours: Notes from the Diary of a Concert Pianist’ was published in 2020. However, five years passed and between the ages of 75 and 80 I still kept on going strong with my performances, travels, and piano camps for adults. Every time something happened, good or bad, or plain amazing, I thought to myself that it would have been an appropriate addition to my book.

The past five years of my life would have not made a worthwhile project on its own, but using the opportunity of publishing my articles in a single book seemed like a good idea of a home for this too. So I used this perfect opportunity to also share some highlights of the past five years of my life.

I start Blood, Sweat, and Tours 2020-2025 with some relevant parts from the Postlude of the original book:

“At age 75, my health is quite stable, my eyesight is pretty good, and my hearing is good. I am pretty active, though I must admit that I have slowed down quite a bit. It is a pleasure not to have to rush and to be able to do my work leisurely. I still travel internationally for concerts, master classes, workshops, and private teaching. My calendar does have various engagement dates around the world for the future. It isn’t anywhere near the 250 concerts a year that I used to do in my heyday, when I used to tour the whole world alone and with chamber groups, being a slave to gruelling schedules and programmes. My compositions are performed and recorded all over the world, and my sheet music and piano-fingering book are selling well. Interviewers often seek to interview me about all my musical activities.

Nowadays, I make sure that I plan tours with plenty of rest days in between and no concerts on actual travel days. That is, of course, as much as I can help it. I still go swimming twice a week, take pretty brisk walks, and do my own exercises and stretches at home. I still give piano lessons to my grandchildren and run my piano camps for piano teachers and adult players on both coasts of the USA. I am also the administrator of ten piano groups on the Internet and am an active member of some 100 other groups.

Life has been quite a roller coaster. God could have been kinder.”

Five years later, at age 80, things are pretty much the same with me. But various personal, national, and worldwide events happened during these five years. However, my book is not about the world events, but rather about my life during these world events and how some of these events affected it. For example, one event that shook the world was of course the outburst and worldwide spread of Covid 19. I was forced to stay at home like the rest of the world, and cancel all travels, concerts, piano camps, and teaching. However, I became very productive with composing, arranging, writing, and publishing music and books.

After a year or so, things slowly started to return to normal. I resumed travels, concerts, piano camps, and even explored new countries, like Poland which is where my mother was born.

Life doesn’t fail to constantly amaze me.

Thank you, Melanie Spanswick, for asking me to write my articles and for posting this synopsis on your blog.