Clavichord for Beginners

"Ms. Benson provides an extremely methodical primer for beginning clavichordists, starting with the easiest fingerings and progressing to the most difficult. She invites us to delight ourselves with the tactile elements of playing and truly makes the touches come to life on the printed page."—Carole Terry, performer and pedagogue

"Clavichord for Beginners is the product of lifelong dedication and research by the world's leading expert on clavichord playing and teaching. This amazing book offers a wealth of information not only for beginners, but also for experienced music lovers. Compared to the revival of other historical keyboard instruments in the past century, the clavichord has suffered a Cinderella fate. May this book contribute to the recognition of this soulful instrument as a worthy princess!"—Paul Badura-Skoda, pianist of worldwide reputation

"If pianists learned to play on the clavichord, they would be much more careful with the kind of sound they produce on the modern piano. The clavichord is my best teacher because it makes me listen very carefully. The sound is so delicate and the touch so sensitive, it shows all my shortcomings immediately. The clavichord also helps me play Bach without the sustaining pedal of the modern piano. I would make clavichord practice compulsory for all pianists."—András Schiff, Grammy award-winning classical pianist and recipient of the Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize

"Beginners, and keyboard players from other disciplines, will profit immensely from Benson's detailed analysis of clavichord touch; the dynamic variation in her own playing, particularly her enviable pianissimos, is the best advertisement for it. The publication as a whole should appeal to a much wider public, however, as a visual and audio document of a notable twentieth-century pioneer of the clavichord revival.60 October 2014"—British Clavichord Society Newsletter