Practising studies? 'Yes, of course', some say. 'No, rather not,' others say. The educational benefit of studies for the training as a pianist, however, is undisputed among experts if the study is not played mechanically but used specifically to learn to master certain technical and musical problems. The present 'great book of studies' contains everything that is needed for the technical training on the elementary and intermediate levels of piano lessons - including beautiful studies by Bertini, Burgmüller, Czerny, Duvernoy, Gurlitt, Heller, Lemoine, Schumann, Türk, and many others. The great book of studies is divided in 14 chapters, each of which dealing specifically with different technical issues. In so-called 'preparatory exercises', the player can work on the respective technical problems in a concentrated and problem-oriented manner. The subsequent studies have been chosen such that they are both technically useful and musically appealing.