I'm another non-pianist who'd like to know more about what's possible to do with a piano in arrangements. My ear isn't good enough to understand what's happening just by listening; I'd like to add my eye to the process, and I wouldn't at all mind reading some explanatory text.

Specifically, I'm hoping that there's a web site or book along the lines of "Handbook of typical folk and popular piano styles", something that would give brief examples of blues, ragtime, cabaret, Cape Breton, and other styles, many of whose names I don't even know, especially as these styles are used in song accompaniment. I'd like to be able to look at a few lines of music in standard notation and hear the corresponding sound, either as an .mp3 file or a MIDI file. Does anyone know of such a resource?