We were recently at Long and McQuade to pick up some scores for students when we happened upon this fantastic series of comics written by a piano professor called Peter Coraggio. Titled the Art of Piano Performance, the five titles include: Musical Style, Imagery in Music, Pedaling – “The Soul of the Piano”, Perfect Practice and The Spectrum of Expressive Touches.

The comics are illustrated by Jon Murakami and feature Maestro Profondo and Musabella, his teaching assistant, who guide the young student, Agitato, through different ideas and concepts related to music and piano.

Written in a casual and fun style, the comics are very easy to read. We highly recommend them as they contain a lot of valuable information presented in a fun way. The physical motions at the piano can be complicated at times to grasp, even for advanced students, and the comic breaks it down in easy to understand chunks, accompanied by entertaining and helpful illustrations.

Musical Style covers the different stylistic periods of music history and introduces the main composers of those periods. Imagery in Music is a dictionary of Italian terms commonly used in music. Pedaling – “The Soul of the Piano” reveals the technique of the pedal and the many ways it is used in playing the piano. Perfect Practice takes the student through common mistakes in piano practicing, how to correct them and practice in the most effective and efficient way. Last of all, The Spectrum of Expressive Touches explores the different types of sounds at the piano and the physical motions used to create those sounds.

We have enjoyed reading these comics ourselves and found them extremely instructive. They can be found at or ordered at the music bookstores in town – Long and McQuade or Tom Lee Music. We were also able to find a few of the titles on Amazon and sheetmusicplus.