I loved your book! I found it very informative, entertaining and a wonderful guide to anyone thinking of buying a piano or for just learning to love your piano. For the very experienced, as you say it is a search for your soulmate; for the hobby player, it is what you want to make of your experience; for the novice, it is a formidable purchase fraught with many unknowns. You address all of these points very well and you place your comments in todays world of instant research and assumed knowledge. I found comments from pianists at the very beginning a great beginning that made you want to read on. The descriptive chapter on buying the right piano and the illustrative story was absolutely spot on. You make your point that it really is a love affair of the buyer and the piano very clear and time should be taken to make the choice and that for a beginner, it is a beginning of a journey.

My experience has been very interesting as well. As an avid listener of music, in my mid sixties, after perhaps 2 years of piano as a part of education in my youth, I decided to learn to play all over again. My fingers will never be able to play the keys very well but the joy and enrichment is the same. There is something different with my enjoyment in that being an experienced listener of music, the few keys I play to form a simple melody connects to something so much greater and I am transformed into a world of complex emotions and sounds. For example, I am playing the "single note with a few chords" version of Scheherazade. I swear when I am playing, I do not hear my single notes but the gorgeous orchestral version in my head. That to me is what is so remarkable and enjoyable about learning to play the piano at my age, it takes you beyond what I am able to do, I feel a true link with the greater masterpiece. I think there are many older people out there who would want to learn to play the piano or to start again like me, and to be connected with something greater than yourself.

~ Naomi Minegishi