I've always believed that music has the power to unite us. No matter the differences you may have, when listening....or performing.....lives are joined together in appreciation. Jeremy Denk knew at a very young age where his destiny lay and devoted his efforts to reaching the goals he had set. It was not an easy road, he faced many challenges that I'd not have seen in a musician's life, but he forged his path one step at a time. With guidance and knowledge provided by his teachers and peer group, the way forward was always visible if he put in the work. I found this story awe inspiring. Whether you listen to classical or hip hop, the book is an excellent read.

“The piano is expected to be as full and self-sufficient as an orchestra,” writes renowned musician Jeremy Denk in his memoir “Every Good Boy Does Fine.” Two hands and 88 keys are the pianist’s only tools. Balancing the question of which hand should play which notes is sometimes just “a logistical question,” akin to figuring out “which parent is able to pick up the kids from soccer practice.” Sometimes, though, their joining creates moments of transcendence: “the logistics become poetry.”

This charming book explores how Denk became a master of this poetry of music. At its heart, the memoir is about not just the pianist but the person. He considers the overlapping and sometimes contradictory lessons his teachers and friends taught him from the time he started playing the piano as a child until his graduate training at Julliard. When the author recounts the most powerful moments, such as a time when his music coach hugged him following rehearsal, an expression of acceptance and pride which his own father had never provided, he writes with great restraint and power.

One of Denk’s most important teachers offered him a gift that shapes not only his music but his writing: the utility of metaphors in making art understandable and immediate. Sometimes the author tells personal stories from his youth in order to explain musical ideas. At other times, he uses musical conceits to animate larger human questions. For example, he suggests that harmony in music is all about desire, about the “complicated sensations of motion, eloquent tensions and releases” that happen when one chord wants to resolve into the next. Eventually, when the pianist reaches that final moment in a piece, he holds the chords “in order to hear and really feel the resolution.” The piece ends; both the musician and audience are spent. He cheekily concludes, “I hope I don’t need to explain the intended entendres.”

Denk structures his book as carefully as a composer would shape a sonata. Following the harmony section comes a melody section. Melody is both “a noun and a verb,” he explains, “a being and a becoming.” The noun-like quality of stability is developed through repetition, creating a sense of coming home. But sometimes, the melody lurches forward with the goal of reshaping and redefining itself. The tension between stasis and change, between comfort and adventure, shapes where the melody eventually goes.

The book’s final section, Rhythm, explores the paradoxical nature of strict forms in music. At first, the author skewers one of his teachers by saying his advice “resembled directions that came with your IKEA furniture.” Mathematical precision should never be the goal: “If you play metronomically ‘right,’” he insists, “it is musically wrong.” Denk eventually comes to realize that rules can sometimes paradoxically expose an opportunity for freedom. When musicians play, rules define their path even as their microscopic errors introduce a larger kind of musicality. Human imperfection, he shows, is at the core of artistic perfection.

Jeremy Denk’s writing is so special and deeply relatable. I don’t know how he navigates through so many different emotions within a single paragraph or page, but it’s a wonder. Equally insightful about deep questions of music and life, and incredibly funny as well. Strong recommendation to all pianists for sure, but also for any music lovers, specialized knowledge not required. I was already a huge fan of Denk’s pianism and writing, but this memoir exceeded my high expectations.

I missed the fact this is a memoir but it was so well written and enjoyable, i felt it was fiction. I enjoyed it very much!

What a joyous memoir of a piano student. The audiobook is the way to go, as Jeremy Denk give you a masterclass while telling the story of his education. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this one.

★★★★ ☐ The publisher has provided a copy for review.

I taught piano and theory (and other musical stuff) for 33 years. First thing I noticed was the cover ... the words should go upward from Every, not down.

That said, if you read music and like a good story, you'll enjoy this one. With a classical playlist and scores inserted between text, you'll wander through the wonderland of musical education and experiences.

All of us who took lessons - whether the music captured us or was just work - will relate to this autobiography. Have fun with it.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Random House Publishing Group- Random House for an advance copy of this new memoir.

The world has never been kind to artists. From the most successful to the most driven, to those who find after they have given up, either life or their passion, art never stops the outside from forcing its way in to the artists reality. To a parent berating a child during a school performance, to a bus full of of enraged elementary school students trying to find who had the affrontery to dare play classical music by destroying everything around them. Jeremy Denk got to experience this first hand. Piano and math were his passions as a child under ten, so an outsider he was doomed to be. In his memoir, Every Good Boy Does Fine: A Love Story, in Music Lessons, the MacArthur Genus Grant and renowned classical pianist Jeremy Denk, shares stories of his childhood, his love of the piano, and of the teachers who showed him the way.

Known his his liner notes, blog and other writings on classical music and how to appreciate it, Mr. Denk is as good on this kind of keyboard as he is on the piano. Mr. Denk tells of his parents, and their interesting backstories, his moves as a child which might have made it harder to socialise, gifted programs, bullying, math love and piano, piano, piano. Mr. Denk's early love/ hate with the musical instrument will be familiar to many a burgeoning rock star, he loved to play, hated to practice. Along with stories of growing up, Mr. Denk adds in stories and appreciations on various composers and their works, what makes one piece resound so, what makes another one forgettable. Some musical discussions might be a a bit much for some, but it is interesting and gives insight into how Mr. Denk's mind works.

The writing is both loose and informative. Some incidents a reader would like to know more about, some incidents the reader might wonder why they were included. What comes across is that without good teachers, Mr. Denk might have been lost. Not that all his teachers were sterling, but enough of them cared, and tried to help what sounded like a unhappy child, be a little less lost.

A well written memoir about a person with gifts who was lucky to have teachers and even occasionally parents that tried as best they could to make a good person. The parents had their own burdens, but they tried, and in the end, succeeded. A very good book about the power of music, family dysfunction, and the Great Composers. Recommended for music fans of all kinds, and especially for parents whose children might be gifted with musical talent.

‘I hope it doesn’t sound silly to say that for me there is a connection between the task of piano playing, trying to find the elusive combination of nuances that bring the phrase alive, and the search for the ‘perfect’ combination of words to express something...I guess the common thread is communication and hopefully that “shiver of delight” when something is expressed in an imaginative, unexpected way.’ - Jeremy Denk, New Yorker Magazine, 4/08/2013

This memoir by pianist Jeremy Denk traces his life from his early years living in New Jersey. By the age of six, the piano was his first love, and he was already considered to be advanced in his skills - for his years. And while there is considerable focus on his love of music, there is so much more to his story.

This began as a short story published in The New Yorker in April of 2013, but there is so much more to his story that is included in this memoir. The internal stress of striving for perfection, and how his life changed when his family moved, necessitating finding new a piano teacher. For those whose dream from a young age hadn’t reached the form of obsession, that may not seem like much, but at the time it must have seemed like being ripped away from his safety net.

At the age of twelve, he talks about visiting a record store in the then ‘new mall’ to choose a new record. A journey that always necessitated holding the albums in ordered to determine which one he truly wanted. He recalls it being one of the happiest acts in his life, enhanced by his parents trusting him in this area of choice. He talks about the joy in bringing home a cassette of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante performed by the Cleveland Orchestra, based on their legendary status. Listening to the cassette, the music revealing a story. A powerful memory that he still retains.

Now at the age of 51, Denk has written this memoir, sharing his journey, journeys, along the way. Personal relations through the years, both with friends and more. This is a personal journey, and while it includes his achievements it is not about the glamour, it is firmly rooted in the years of work, the personal reflections, the personal toll of seeking perfection. The pressure and the stress it creates. The love of music, of sharing this gift, and his love of teaching others.

A beautifully written memoir, for those who appreciate the power of music to enhance our lives, move us, and lead us to a place that stirs something in us, personally, emotionally will enjoy this aspect, but there is much more to this. His personal growth, for one, the struggles along the way, but also, the personal acceptance for who he is, and was always meant to be, as well. Reading his thoughts on the emotions attached to music, the need for perfection in his own performance, as well as the unmitigated joy he finds in music, and the emotions and thoughts it provokes. How a passage of music can move us to tears for its beauty or the memories it stirs in us.


Pub Date: 22 Feb 2022

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Random House Publishing Group - Random House