<P>Ways of the Hand tells the story of how David Sudnow learned to improvise jazz on thepiano. Because he had been trained as an ethnographer and social psychologist, Sudnow was attentiveto what he experienced in ways that other novice pianists are not. The result, first published in1978 and now considered by many to be a classic, was arguably the finest and most detailed accountof skill development ever published.Looking back after more than twenty years, Sudnow was struck bythe extent to which he had allowed his academic background to shape the book's language. He realizedthat he could now do a much better job of describing his experiences in a way that would not requirefacility with formal social science and philosophical discourse. The result is a revised version ofthe book that carries the same intellectual energy as the original but is accessible to a much wideraudience.</P>