The Art of Piano Technique

1
The Art of
Piano Technique
Textbook for Professional Pianists
Second Edition
A Tutorial by
E Leiuman mma
Published by Emma Leiuman Singapore, Singapore
2014
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Dedicated to all seeking piano students and teachers
2014 Emma Leiuman
PianoWell is a registered trademark.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by
any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publisher.
Published by Emma Leiuman, Singapore, Singapore.
This textbook is based on the PianoWell system and helps professional pianists improve
their playing.
The difference between this textbook and other books is in the quality of training
material by learning the system, a pianist will get all the keys for fnding his own
interpretation of musical pieces in order not to be a simple imitator of someones ideas,
but possess all necessary knowledge and skills to independently create a played piece.
The PianoWell system is the frst musical ABC. All pianists who use it can correctly
study the musical language how to correctly write words, how to correctly express
their thoughts through words. Thereby, youll have a possibility to learn to play piano
correctly. When nothing will prevent you from developing a fully fedged technique,
when youll be able to become a real musician with all aspects of musical ear fully
developed, when nothing will hinder your free expression through playing, when youll
confdently and freely play on stage, when youll be able to quickly and qualitatively
analyze and learn pieces.
Most importantly, youll have a clear system of studying when you know what
certain steps bring success and why not making these steps brings failure. Youll be fully
responsible for the results of your studies and no longer spend a mass of time at the
instrument with minimal results. Youll learn how to study effectively and independently,
and your piano practicing will again begin to give you satisfaction and joy.

Web: www.artofpianotechnique.com
E-mail: emma@artofpianotechnique.com
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Contents
Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------
Sound Timber -----------------------------------------------------------------
Sound Movement -------------------------------------------------------------
Performance ------------------------------------------------------------------
Position Change ---------------------------------------------------------------
Intonation ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Weight ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Singing the Piece with Weight -----------------------------------------------
Playing the Piece with Intonation and Weight ------------------------------
Polyphony ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Learning ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Timber and Sound Movement -----------------------------------------------
Position Change ---------------------------------------------------------------
Intonation and Weight --------------------------------------------------------
Polyphony ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Dynamics ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dynamics ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Balance ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sound Texture -----------------------------------------------------------------
Sound Texture -----------------------------------------------------------------
Musical Speech ----------------------------------------------------------------
Musical Speech ----------------------------------------------------------------
Musical Speech ----------------------------------------------------------------
Articulations ------------------------------------------------------------------
Meter ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Learning the Piece ------------------------------------------------------------
Timbre with Movement. Position Change. Polyphony --------------------
Intonation and Weight. Articulations --------------------------------------
Harmony ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Harmony ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Harmony+Dynamics and Balance ------------------------------------------
Sound Texture+Harmony ---------------------------------------------------
Sound Texture+Harmony+Dynamics and Balance ------------------------
Musical Speech ---------------------------------------------------------------
Phrasing. Motif ---------------------------------------------------------------
Playing Motifs ----------------------------------------------------------------
Phrase --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Playing Phrases ---------------------------------------------------------------
Sentence -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Playing Sentences -------------------------------------------------------------
Phrasing in the Piece ---------------------------------------------------------
Emotional Image ---------------------------------------------------------------
Form ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Playing Form+Emotional Image ---------------------------------------------
Artistry ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Artistry+Emotional Image+Form -------------------------------------------
Artistry+Emotional Image+Form+Meter ----------------------------------
Learning MEMs and Movements -------------------------------------------
LearningDiffcultFragments -----------------------------------------------
Preventing Overplaying the Piece. Creativity -----------------------------
Rehearsing for Stage Performance -----------------------------------------
Conclusion --------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix ---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Reminder-----------------------------------------------------------------
Article-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Introduction
Dear friend,
Youre now a lucky owner of this textbook which will help you learn competent
and conscious piano playing. Now its all up to you. An organized approach,
diligence, perseverance and following the recommendations and instructions
of this course is the key to your success!
After passing this course, youll acquire the skills of correct sound
production, such as sound timbre, sound movement and intonation with
weight. Youll master all musical means of expression (MEMs), develop your
internal ear, movement coordination, dexterity of fngers and learn to sing
on the instrument. Also you will learn how to correctly perform dynamics,
balance, sound texture, musical speech, articulations, harmony, phrasing,
form, meter, emotional image and artistry. Youll master the most important
stage of learning a piece competent, accurate and complete piece learning
at the fnish before a recital. All of this will allow you to effectively analyze
and learn new pieces.
After mastering all MEMs youll be able to realize your talent through
playing and get a great pleasure and content from your performance and
creativity.
Please, always keep in mind The rules of effcient learning, p. 157.
This Reminder will help you to avoid common mistakes that students make
while passing this course. You may also read Typical problems of pianists
related to wrong sound production and undeveloped internal musical ear, p.
159, an article that explains why its so important to learn all musical means
of expression to the fullest extent.
Sincerely,
Emma Leiuman
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6
Lesson 1
Sound Timbre
Each pianist should develop his internal musical ear in order to learn to
imagine music with his internal ear frst and then play the conceived idea on
the instrument. Only then a pianist will grow from an artisan to a creator
A REAL MUSICIAN. Internal ear development is one of the major aspects
of the correct sound production.
Therere several aspects of internal ear timbral, dynamical, harmonic,
intonational, metrical and architectonic. In this lesson, well begin with
timbral ear development because its one of the basics of the correct sound
production. The ability to imagine timbre of sounds activates fngertips.
And thereby, one of the main components of the correct sound production
is developed tenacious, lively and sensitive fngertips. The skill of sound
timbre is necessary for sound movement, intonation and weight.
Timbral ear is an ability to imagine (with your internal ear) sounding
of a singers voice, choir, various instruments and orchestra. For better
understanding what timbral internal ear is you may start using your own
voice.
First, you may sing out loud a given melody, then sing it in your head (without
voice). Singing in the head is what I call imagining timbre.
These are sound timbres that may be used to orchestrate a piano piece.
Below youll fnd some examples of timbres that are frequently used to
arrange musical pieces:
1. Soprano
V. Bellini. Cavatina of Norma from Opera Norma (by. A. Netrebko)
S. Rachmaninov. Romance How peaceful (by. A. Netrebko)
S. Rachmaninov. Romance How peaceful (by. N. Dorliak)
V. Bellini. Cavatina of Norma from Opera Norma (by. M. Callas)
2. Contralto
F. Schubert. Song An Die Musik (by. K. Ferrier)
English folk song (by. K. Ferrier)
3. Tenor
P. Tchaikovsky. Aria of Lensky from Opera Eugenie Onegin
(by. S. Lemeshev)
F. Schubert. Song An Die Musik (by. S. Lemeshev)
A. Varlamov. Song Metelitsa (by. S. Lemeshev)
Russian folk song Ah ty dushechka (by. S. Lemeshev)
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4. Bass
G. Verdi. Aria from Opera Nabucco (by. I. Petrov)
S. Rachmaninov. Aria of Aleko from Opera Aleko (by. N. Guselev)
5. Choir
Boys choir
Men choir with basses
Mixed choirs
6. String groups (violins, violas, cellos)
A. Bruckner. 9th Symphony, pt. 1
E. Elgar. From Violin Concerto
L. Beethoven. 7th Symphony, pt. 2
J. Brahms. 1st Symphony, pt. 4
F. Schubert. From Suite Rosamunde
V. A. Mozart. Romance
1. Soprano and violins timbres are most often used from C of the One-
line octave to C of the Three-line octave.
2. Contralto, tenor and violas timbres are used from C of the Small octave
to C of the One-line octave.
3. Bass and cellos timbres are used from C of the Great octave to C of
the Small octave.
4. Contrabass timbre is used from C of the Contra octave to C of the
Great octave.
Fig. 1. Approximate timbres ranges used to arrange a piece
C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C
Great octave
Small octave
One-line octave
Two-line octave
basses and cellos
contraltos and violas

sopranos and violins
All range limits that are mentioned here are approximate. They may
extend a few more notes in both directions (for example, not just from C to C,
but from C to A) in order not to shred a piece with timbres. You should fnd
the main range in which a melody sounds and keep those few notes which
step beyond the main range in the same timbre.
Its not important what timbers youll decide to arrange a piece with
(just use those timbers that youll fnd suitable), but its important that the
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chosen timbres will sound in your internal ear. Youll use the chosen timbres
to imagine all notes in an analyzed piece.
Assignment 1
1. Analyze timbres that are used to orchestrate the piece (Fig. 2, p. 9).
2. Complete the following exercises to develop your timbral ear:
1) Listen to a vocal piece (see video-examples, p. 6) to remember soprano
timbre. And after you fnish listening, try to reproduce the sounding of
this timbre with your internal ear. Its not important what note youre able
to imagine this timbre on the main thing is to hear-imagine the general
texture and quality of soprano timbre sounding. In order to defne internal
ear more precisely, remember timbres of voices of famous pop singers. This
ability to remember voices is a rudiment of your internal ear that youre going
to develop.
2) Try to reproduce soprano timbre on a particular pitch play note A
of the One-line octave, then try to imagine soprano timbre on note A with
your internal ear. Try to imagine the texture of this timbre as sound color.
It may be compared to playing on a digital keyboard when you select and play
a voice sound instead of a piano sound.
3) Using your internal ear, reproduce soprano sounding on each note
written in the treble clef of the piece.
Attention: dont forget to play a note before you begin imagining it. Your
ear has to remember pitch of a note in order to reproduce the desired timbre
on it. Dont imagine notes on end, but separately imagine each note in timbre.
It may be easier for you to begin imagining notes in the sounding of your
own voice. First, clearly sing the melody on Aah and then imagine each
note in the sounding of your voice (sing notes in your head).
Internal ear development is accompanied by enlightenments and
fashes. Each pianist has his own name for it. But the essence of it is the
same clearly imagined sounds begin to cut through from haziness and
darkness. Its important not to stop at this phase and continue to develop your
internal ear this way until you feel that all notes sound clear and distinct in
your head.
Assignment 2
1. Listen to an instrumental piece (L. Beethoven. 7th Symphony, pt. 2) and
set a clear goal to remember cellos timbre. After you have fnished listening,
try to reproduce this timbre with your internal ear.
2. Try to reproduce cellos timbre on note D of the Small octave and try to
imagine cellos timbre on this note with your internal ear.
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3. Use your internal ear to reproduce cellos sounding on each note written
in the bass clef.
Dont stop your progress after the frst fashes and continue to develop
your timbral ear until you feel that you can stay in the world of sounds long
enough.
Fig. 2

soprano

cellos group
1. 2.
1. 2.
anexampleof anextendedrangelimit
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Lesson 2
Sound Movement
Timbre can be imagined in movement. Sound movement is also an
important part of the correct sound production because the ability to imagine
sound timbre in movement forces your wrist to work intelligently. Thereby,
you develop one of the major components of the correct sound production
fexibility, melodiousness and free breathing in your wrist.
Assignment 1
Sound movement is easy to feel by completing the following exercise:
Sing a note and direct its fow to the right and then to the left. The sound
doesnt shift anywhere; it simply stretches horizontally from the note. Sing
on Aah with your throat open wide enough and try to sing sound movement
as long-drawn-out as possible. The pitch of the sung sound remains constant,
but sensations in your throat will vary. These sensations are very important
because you sing while playing on the instrument. And each (even the most
unnoticeable) movement of muscles in your throat affects the quality of the
sung sound. When singing, your voice has to remain free, vibrating and pretty
in sounding. There should be no pressure or tension in your voice.
Sing in your head the same sound with movement.
3. Play note A and then imagine soprano timbre on this note. Imagine
how this sound is sung on Aah. Try to stretch out this timbre horizontally
to the right and then to the left. Feel how the sound fows to the right on
the keyboard and then to the left on the keyboard. Try to imagine sound
movement as long-drawn-out as possible.
4. Analyze sound movement of each note in Minuet (Fig. 5, p. 12).
In order to analyze sound movement correctly, always follow this rule: the
direction of sound movement of a note is determined by how you approach
this note. In Fig. 3. you step up to note F. Its higher than the previous note A
it means sound movement of note F will be to the right. And in Fig. 4. you
step down to note E. Its lower than the previous note F it means sound
movement of note E will be to the left.
Always determine sound movement by the melodic line. If youre in doubt
where sound movement is directed in an interval/chord texture always go
by the melodic voice (i.e. more variable voice).
Here is the rule to imagine note values: the longer the value is and the
more it lasts in time the longer its necessary to imagine sound movement.
For instance: sound movement in a half note has to last exactly two quarter
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Fig. 3. The rule of sound movement Fig. 4. The rule of sound movement

notes in your imagination. The movement must not begin to fade away on the
second quarter note.

Assignment 2
Using Fig. 5, p. 12:
1. Imagine soprano timbre with movement on each note in the treble clef.
Remind yourself by playing the note frst in order to reproduce sound timbre
on this note with ease.
You may help yourself by singing if imagining the melody is still a
problem. Sing the melody on Aah with movement and then sing it in your
head with movement.
2. Imagine cellos timbre with movement on each note in the bass clef.

These assignments are some of the most diffcult ones, therefore, allow
more time and patience to complete them. Its important to learn to imagine
each note in the piece in timbre with movement.
Dont imagine notes on end, but separately imagine each note in timbre
with movement.
The skill of sound movement is necessary for intonation and weight.

12
Minuet

Fig. 5
1. 2.
1. 2.

BWV Anh. 132

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Lesson 3
Performance
Correct performance is necessary to effciently express each imagined sound
on the instrument. Each pianist should know: what (imagining a sound)
doesnt fully create how (correct movements to express the conceived). I.e. in
order to perform comfortably, its not enough to just be able to imagine sounds,
its necessary to correctly perform the conceived on the instrument.
Therere 13 rules of the correct sitting and hand position to effectively
express your ideas on the instrument:
1. Sit on the edge of the bench, but not too close to the keyboard.
2. Sit high enough so your elbow stays just a little above the wrist.
3. The wrist should be just a little below the hand. While playing with the
1st fnger, the wrist shouldnt rise. It should remain on the same level. The 1st
fnger plays with the edge of the fngertip.
4. Dont clasp your elbows to your torso. There has to be a little room
between them. This position of arms is also needed to correctly pass weight to
the instrument.
5. Keep your back straight, dont curve. Then, while playing with intonation
and weight, youll have a proper feeling of playing into the piano, not into the
foor. With such posture it will be easier for you not to clasp your elbows to
your torso, but keep them a little away from it.
6. Dont swing your torso. Swinging torso splashes out all energy that has
to be passed to fngertips. Swinging torso becomes the means of passing your
ideas to the instrument instead of arms and fngers, and youll have to spend
much more energy to make your arms and fngers correctly perform your ideas
on the instrument.
7. Keep your right foot on the pedal. Set your left foot backwards. Your
feet should completely stay on the foor. This position of feet is necessary to
pass weight to the instrument.
8. Dont lift your shoulders. It interferes with the natural passage of weight
to the instrument through torso and arms.
9. Dont cave in knuckles in the hand. Knuckles have to remain a little
prominent. Yet keep the wrist just a little below the hand. Only then muscles in
the hand will begin to develop correctly.
10. Dont cave in fngers in the frst phalanx. Otherwise, you wont be able
to control sound with fngertips.
11. Dont stick your fngers to keys while playing. Lift those fngers that
have fnished playing.
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12. If possible, play on that line of white keys where black keys begin. In
other words: play closer to black keys. Then it will be easy to reach black keys
with your fngers without making any additional hand twists.
13. Arms should remain free and without an unnecessary tension while
playing. Only fngertips and weight of arms should be felt. The absence of
unnecessary tension in arms will allow you to feel fngertips.
Therere two reasons for excess tension in arms while learning the
PianoWell system: arms weakness and poor discipline while learning a piece.
1. Arms weakness becomes apparent while playing f (forte) when there isnt
enough arm strength to play with free arms without excess tension. I advise
you to use weight training in order to develop arm strength (concentrating on
arms, hands, and shoulder belt), sleep and eat well.
2. Poor discipline while learning a piece becomes apparent when an
increase of tempo is forced. Tempo is incorrectly increased in hope that it will
be more comfortable to play, even though playing in the current tempo is still
uncomfortable. Being comfortable is when your arm has time to free itself
after each played note; your fngertip slightly exerts before playing a note, then
feels how it touches the key and fnally has time to free itself after playing it.
The term fngertip is a sensation of an accurate and clear touch to a key
that appears in your fngertip, as though theres a small knob on it. As a rule,
an unnecessary tension in arms prevents from feeling the fngertips. Therefore,
dont force tension in arms; your arms should be free while playing. This also
prevents various arm illnesses.
Dont strain your arm if some of the played notes dont sound at frst when
you play this way. Not sounding notes result from insuffciently developed
fngertips and untrained arms. Dont strain your arms in any event, especially
while playing f. Here arms remain just as free as while playing p (piano). An
increase in sonorousness is achieved due to applying more weight while playing.
If you dont force strain in your arms, then you will frst feel the fngertips on
the stronger fngers (2nd and 3rd) while playing p. Then this sensation will
appear on the weaker fngers while playing f without an unnecessary strain.
Additional rules for expressing timbre with movement on the piano:
Your idea of sound timbre is expressed through fngertips. Sound
movement is expressed through wrist movement: your wrist turns to the
direction of the imagined sound movement and helps to prolong the sound.
This isnt just a wrist turn, but a horizontal wrist movement to the direction of
the imagined sound movement. This movement expresses your idea of timbre
with movement similar to how an artist expresses his vision of his picture by
drawing a line by moving his arm. In a fast tempo all imagined sounds will
be naturally imagined like a single brush stroke and wrist movements will be
barely noticeable.
15
Always remember:
1. Your wrist shouldnt be raised while in movement.
2. Your elbow stays in its place (except in position changes) when your
wrist is in movement. Otherwise, the elbow begins to work instead of the wrist
that remains static and infexible.

Assignment 1
Now youll work out the most important and basic rule to imagine a note
with your internal ear frst and then play it using the correct technique.
1. Imagine one note in soprano timbre with movement (you can remind
yourself by playing the note frst) and play it with the correct technique. Before
playing the note, prepare your arm without raising the wrist. The position of
hand is straight. Then play the note, and move your wrist to the right or left.
Release the arm without raising the wrist after playing the note.
2. Complete this assignment on all notes in the treble clef.
Attention: its necessary to play the piece note by note with correct fngering
in this assignment. Dont hurry to connect sounds right away. Never do the
following: play one note after correctly imagining it, but then play more notes
automatically without singing them frst in your head.
Assignment 2
Connect sounds using Fig. 6, p. 17:
1. Imagine a sequence of several sounds in timbre with movement in your
right hand.
The rule of imagining a sequence of sounds: imagine sounds in timbre
with movement and connect them glissando (when you gradually reach the
next sound, when one sound fows into another). You may sing a sequence of
sounds the same way to feel it better. Imagine a sequence of sounds in timbre
with movement using the same technique.
Start with small blocks of 12 measures frst, and soon youll be able to
imagine a sequence of sounds by large blocks of 12 lines.
2. Play only these imagined sounds with correct fngering.
The rules of playing a sequence of sounds: sounds that go in the same
direction are played with a single wrist movement. Dont change your wrist
position (raise or turn) while playing with your 1st fnger.
Dont play notes automatically when completing this assignment. Dont
play sounds that you havent yet imagined.
The assignment is considered fnished if youre able to imagine the right
hand in timbre with movement from the beginning to the end and then play the
whole piece imagining every single sound that youre about to play.
16
Assignment 3
1. Imagine one note in cellos timbre with movement (you can remind
yourself by playing the note frst) and play it with the correct technique on the
instrument.
2. Complete this assignment on all notes in the bass clef.

Assignment 4
Connect sounds using Fig. 6, p. 17:
1. Imagine a sequence of several sounds in timbre with movement in your
left hand.
2. Play only these imagined sounds with correct fngering.
Minuet is an easy piece, but youll work out some very important and
necessary sound production skills on it. Youll use them when playing serious
pieces, such as all virtuosic pieces by Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninov.
Therefore, imagine each sound in full measure and play each imagined sound
with fully correct technique.

17
Minuet
Fig. 6
1. 2.
1. 2.

1

5
4 3 2 3
1
4
1 2 3 5 4 3
2 1 2 1

5 4 3 2

1

5 1 2 5

1 2 1 3 2 2 3
4
3 2 1 3 2 3 4 1 2 3

1
2
3
4 2 1 4
2
5 1 2 3 4 1
2
5
5
1
5

4

3
2
3

4
1
5

1 5
4

3
2 3 4
1

5
3

2

1
1 2 4 1
2

3

4 3
2 1
3 2
1 2 3 1 2
3

4
2 1
5

4

3

4
3 2 3 1 2
1 2
3
5
1

2

1
3
2
5
5
2

1

3
5 1 5
wrist position isnt changed
BWV Anh. 132
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Lesson 4
Position Change
Position change has to be mastered in order for it to become dexterous,
comfortable and fast. It shouldnt slow down your technique due to being
awkward, constrained and stiff. While mastering position change on easy
pieces, you probably wont feel a big difference in your comfort. But your
position change skills will be simply a must with more diffcult pieces where
youll encounter fast leaps and longer distances between positions.
A position is a set of notes that you can play from your 1st fnger to 5th
fnger without shifting your hand. Shifting the 1st fnger is most of the time
a position change.
Fig. 7. Positions
Your elbow is responsible for position change: before each position
change, your elbow prepares the next position on the last or the last but one
note of the current position (Fig. 7) it moves right or left depending on the
location of the new position.
The position in Fig. 8. is lower than the previous one. Therefore, the
elbow that prepares this position moves left on the last note of the previous
position.

Fig. 8. Position change
higher position lower position
19
The position in Fig. 9. is higher than the previous one. Therefore, the
elbow that prepares this position moves right on the last note of the previous
position.
Fig. 9. Position change
Additional rules to determine transitional notes:
1. Itd be better to mark a position change on downbeat or on-beat.
2. Itd be better to mark a position change where elbow and wrist
movements go in the same direction.
3. Itd be better to mark a position change on a longer note.
4. Position change is sometimes done on the frst note of the new position.
Additional rules to make a position change:
1. On the transitional notes, frst make a full-fedged wrist movement and
only then an elbow movement. When this new, unaccustomed movement is
made a habit, youll be able to do it with fexibility, with one movement and
without an obvious boundary between your wrist and elbow.
2. When shifting your hand to a different position, your wrist should not
rise.
Assignment
1. Play fragments with position changes to work out your skill of elbow
movement.
2. Play the piece by each hand while paying attention to wrist and elbow
movements. You can control elbow movement by putting your free hand
above your elbow.
Attention: you must imagine each note youre about to play in timbre
with movement.
20
Minuet
BWV Anh. 132
Fig. 10. Fingering, sound movement, position change

1

5
4 3 2 3
1
4
1 2 3 5 4 3
2 1 2 1

5 4 3 2

1

5 1 2 5

1 2 1 3 2 2 3
4

3
2 1 3 2 3 4 1 2 3

1
2
3
4 2 1 4
2
5 1 2 3 4 1
2
5

5

1
5

4

3
2
3

4
1
5

1 5
4

3
2 3 4
1

5
3

2

1
1 2 4 1
2

3

4 3
2 1
3 2
1 2 3 1 2
3

4
2 1
5

4

3

4
3 2 3 1 2
1 2
3
5
1

2

1
3
2
5
5
2

1

3
5 1 5
1. 2.
1. 2.

21
Lesson 5
Intonation
Intonation is a technique thats used to sing any two notes. Intonation ear
is one of the elements of the correct sound production. Thanks to intonation
and weight, a pianist will be able to control movement of fngers in the hand
by developing hand muscles and master passing of weight to the instrument.
Its possible to feel musical speech (that will be studied later) only by
developing the correct intonation. Musical speech is the emotional meaning
and content of intonation. Intonation is also necessary for articulations,
harmony, dynamics, balance, phrasing, form, meter, emotional image and
artistry.
Assignment
Do the following exercise to develop correct intonation:
1. Imagine soprano (or bass) timbre with movement to the right on notes
C and F and sing these notes in an ascending movement. Sing these notes
with open mouth on Aah as though on glissando. Sing loud enough, but
without strain in voice. Singing sounds with movement is necessary for
correct intonation.
The aim of this exercise is to feel a great distance between these notes
which is passed slowly, with resistance and hard work. Its very important
to feel it with the muscles and vocal cords in the throat. Its important to
remember this sensation and maintain it while playing. Theres an exact
comparison to stretch a huge spring between sounds. You can also
imagine that the frst sound is at point A, and theres a road from it that goes
horizontally to the right to point B. And you have to pass this road slowly
and with hard work while resisting the wind that blows to your face. At last,
you may remember resistance of water when you move your hand while you
are swimming.
2. Follow this principle and sing sounds in Fig. 11, p. 22.
In ascending intervals, imagine both notes with movement to the right.
Smaller intervals (CD, CE) are harder to feel, therefore, you may want to
begin with bigger intervals.
3. By analogy complete the exercise on intonation of descending intervals
(Fig. 12, p. 22). This is a more diffcult task because going down is always
easier and you have to keep resisting. In descending intervals, imagine and
sing both notes with movement to the left.
22

Fig. 11. Ascending intervals from note C Fig. 12. Descending intervals from note C

Additional rules for mastering intonation:
1. You have to sing the ending note of the interval before singing the
whole interval. Its necessary for your vocal cords to remember the ending
note so that you hit it when singing the whole interval.
2. Always imagine the quality standard of singing frst imagine how
these sounds are sung by a beautiful, three-dimensional timbre of a male or
female singer. Then try to materialize what youve imagined by singing.
3. Dont force sound while singing. Your sound has to vibrate freely,
be beautiful, fow like water, but with resistance. While intonating, sound
shouldnt be stressed, constrained or harsh.
4. Lead sound away horizontally when singing ascending and descending
intervals. A common mistake that leads to incorrect work of throat muscles
and vocal cords and incorrect intonation is when sound is led away diagonally
upwards or downwards.
5. Choose a comfortable octave for you to sing. Its not necessary to sing
intervals from C.
C D E F G A B C
C D E F G A B C
23
Lesson 6
Weight
Weight is a sensation of freedom throughout the body. Its necessary to
develop a correct sensation of weight in order to effectively express your
internal intonation on the instrument. Weight is also necessary to properly
express dynamics and phrasing.
Dont confuse the feeling of freedom with a feeling of pressure, excess
tension and artifcial heaviness. Freedom is a state of complete relaxation
your muscles dont strain, they relax just like when submerging in a hot
tub. On the other hand, heaviness and pressure are a concentrated tension
muscles exert and a feeling of constraint appears inside. Once again: weight
is a sensation of freedom throughout the body.
Assignment 1
In order to feel passage of weight to the instrument, do the following
exercise:
1. Feel relaxation of your body as you exhale. Calmly exhale all the way
while breathing through your mouth.
2. Sit deep on the bench, put your hands on your laps. Use a bench with
a hard seat because you wont be able to correctly pass weight while sitting
on a soft armchair or sofa. Make sure to sit away from the keyboard so you
dont smash your head over it when bend forward :)
3. Bend forward so that your head hangs down and backs of your hands
are laid on the foor. Feel how a feeling of relaxation passes to your feet. Feel
full relaxation, freedom and weight of your body there.
4. Begin returning to your initial position your hands freely slide
upward along your legs. As you rise up, feel how weight passes through your
legs, pelvis, torso, shoulders and arms and pours out (like water) through
your palms to your laps. Your laps serve as an imaginary keyboard.
Do this exercise as many times as it takes you to consolidate this sensation
of weight and passage of weight to the instrument.
Assignment 2
Now move to a simpler variant that youll use each time before playing
a piece.
1. Sit high enough so that your elbow is a little higher than the wrist
while your wrist is a little below the hand. Sit on the edge of the bench so that
weight doesnt stop in your pelvis, but fows through your torso, shoulders
and arms to the instrument. The right foot should stay on the pedal; the left
24
foot is set backwards. This position of feet is necessary to pass weight to the
instrument. When you try bear on your feet to pass weight to the instrument,
it will be more effective to keep your feet in this special position. Keep your
hands on your laps or hanging down.
2. Feel how weight (full freedom) fows down to your feet and then rises
from them, passes through your torso, shoulders and arms. Put your hands on
the keyboard as soon as you feel how weight passes through your arms. You
may bend a little forward to better feel how weight fows to the instrument.
You dont need to think about gathering weight while singing or playing.
Just do it before singing or playing and this feeling will be naturally maintained
through playing with intonation during a performance.
Assignment 3
1. Imagine notes F and A in voice timbre with movement and sing these
two notes with correct intonation and weight.
Additional rules for intonation with weight:
1) Before singing intervals with weight, you need to feel weight frst and
only then sing intervals.
2) Its not enough to just feel a sensation of weight before you sing. To be
exact, its necessary to very precisely feel how weight (full freedom) passes
to your feet and then rises from them, passes through your torso, shoulders
and arms to an imaginary keyboard under your hands (to your laps your
imaginary keyboard). Otherwise, you wont be able to pass weight to the
instrument while playing.
2. Sing all ascending and descending intervals with correct intonation
and weight (Fig. 1112, p. 22).
Singing with correct intonation and weight submerges you into a three-
dimensional space of free breathing. This also provides control of fngers
while playing in fast tempos.
25
Lesson 7
Singing the Piece with Weight
Assignment
Intonate each interval with weight using Fig. 7, p. 17:
Sit correctly, imagine soprano timbre with movement on the frst notes
in the piece, gather weight, and sing sequentially all notes with correct
intonation and weight. Dont try to sing too many notes in a single breath.
Sing as many notes as you can, but dont rush. If its not comfortable for you
to sing on higher or lower notes, sing in a different octave suitable for you.
Your goal is to remember all intervals with your vocal cords.
Remember: correct intonation is free singing of sounds with movement
on glissando with resistance.
26
Lesson 8
Playing the Piece
with Intonation and Weight
Assignment
1. Play the piece by each hand. Sit correctly, gather weight and begin
playing while imagining timbre with movement on each note and singing out
loud each interval with intonation and weight.
2. Play the piece by each hand. Sit correctly, gather weight, and begin
playing while imagining timbre with movement on each note and singing in
your head each interval with weight.
While playing with internal intonation correctly, you should feel how
your throat muscles begin exerting as in singing with intonation out loud.
Your Adams apple begins moving noticeably.
Attention: the feeling of resistance must remain in intonated intervals.
Dont overfy intervals, but sing them internally with hard work and
resistance. Remember: the better resistance is in intonation, the better fngers
exert before playing, and the better fngers are controlled.
27
Lesson 9
Polyphony
Polyphony is an ability to imagine several voices in timbre with movement
simultaneously. This skill is necessary to fully control all fngers, especially
in polyphonic (many-parted) or chord textures.
Its very hard to imagine several sounds simultaneously, therefore, use
the following rule in assignments in order to develop polyphonic ear: imagine
each pair of notes in timbre with movement sequentially and gradually
reduce time between them to minimum until sounds in your imagination
start sounding simultaneously. Imagining notes in a particular order depends
on their movement. Begin imagining from the lower note if sound movement
of both notes is directed to the right. Begin imagining from the upper note if
sound movement of both notes is directed to the left. Imagine as you choose
if sound movement of notes doesnt match.
Keep using this technique to imagine simultaneous notes when you will
start having chords in future pieces. Youll soon be able to clearly imagine
chords at once.
Assignment
1. Sing out loud each pair of notes, and then imagine sequentially each
vertical pair of notes in timbre with movement and gradually reduce time
between them to minimum (DA, DE, FD, GB, CA, AA, FD, EA,
DD) (Fig. 6, p. 17).
The task is considered done when each pair of notes is imagined
simultaneously, vertically.
2. Imagine both voices together in timbre with movement (Fig. 6, p. 17).
Remember: the longer a notes value is, the longer it should be imagined.
3. Sit correctly and play the piece by both hands without intonation
while imagining each pair of notes that youre about to play in timbre with
movement (Fig. 10, p. 20).
4. Sit correctly, gather weight, and play the piece by both hands with
intonation and weight while imagining each pair of notes that youre about
to play in timbre with movement.
28
Lesson 10
Learning
A pianist cant play a piece and complete all set goals without the process
of correct learning. This is because performing all MEMs at once is possible
only when theyre converted by 90% to muscular memory, i.e. to movements
of arms and fngers.
Repeating small parts of a piece many times is necessary for effective
and quick learning. Your fngers will then begin to remember the piece better
and quicker, therefore, itll be simpler and easier for you to play the piece by
both hands and complete all MEMs.
A piece is considered well learned when a room for freedom and creativity
appears in your head while playing. When you begin to dose all MEMs and
create a piece, not simply fully accomplish all MEMs.
Assignment
Sit correctly, gather weight, and play the piece with intonation and weight
while imagining the whole polyphony in timbre with movement:
Play the 1st line of Minuet by both hands 10 times in a row in slow
tempo (Fig. 10, p. 20)
Play the 2nd line by both hands 10 times
Play the 3rd line by both hands 10 times
Play the 4th line by both hands 10 times
Play the frst two lines by both hands 10 times
Play the last two lines by both hands 10 times
Play the whole piece by both hands 10 times
Youll feel a positive result in a week only if you use this plan of learning.
Attention: if you feel that youre losing control and concentration while
playing by both hands, then play additionally 10 times by each hand. Dont
play automatically. Make sure to imagine and perform each note correctly.
29
Lesson 11
Timbre and Sound Movement
Assignment
1. Analyze what timbres may be used to orchestrate the piece.
2. Imagine each hand in timbre. Imagine notes in the left hand by the rule
of polyphony: begin to imagine sounds in intervals sequentially and gradually
reduce time between them to minimum until sounds in your imagination start
sounding simultaneously. Do this task if you cant yet imagine several voices
simultaneously right away.
3. Analyze sound movement.
4. Imagine each hand in timbre with movement.
5. Play the piece by each hand using correct technique (without elbow
movements) and imagining each note in timbre with movement.
As you acquire the skill of analyzing and imagining sound movement,
youll gradually learn to imagine timbre and movement simultaneously
without preliminary analyzing sound movement.

30
The Squirrels

violas
violins
violins violas
violins
31
Fig. 13
violas

violas
violins
violins
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Lesson 12
Position Change
Assignment
1. Analyze position changes (transition notes for elbow movement).
2. Play the piece by each hand using correct technique and imagining
each note in timbre with movement.
Lesson 13
Intonation and Weight
Assignment 1
This assignment is necessary only on the stage when the sensation of
internal intonation isnt yet fully consolidated.
1. Sing each interval in the piece with weight (Fig. 13, p. 30).
2. Gather weight and play the piece by each hand in timbre with movement
using correct technique and intonating each interval with weight. Sing out
loud while playing (Fig. 14, p. 33).
Assignment 2
Gather weight and play the piece by each hand in timbre with movement
using correct technique and intonating each interval with weight. Sing in
your head while playing.

33
The Squirrels
position change variant
34
Fig. 14

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Lesson 14
Polyphony
Assignment 1
1. Imagine each vertical pair of notes in timbre with movement by the
rule of polyphony.
2. Imagine the whole piece in timbre with movement (both hands
together).
Assignment 2
1. Gather weight and play the piece by both hands using correct technique
and imagining each note in timbre with movement.
2. Gather weight and play the piece by both hands using correct technique,
imagining each note in timbre with movement and intonating each interval
with weight. Sing in your head (intonate internally) while playing.
Prior to the stage of Learning, its necessary to play the piece in slow
tempo in order to have time to imagine and perform everything correctly.
36
Lesson 15
Dynamics
Dynamics is related to timbre. Dynamic ear means how bright and clear
youre able to imagine timbre in various dynamic nuances with your internal
ear.
Assignment 1
1. Listen to a recording of a vocal or orchestra piece with the maximum
loudness. Remember this loudness. Stop the playback and imagine the
recordings loudness with your internal ear. It doesnt matter what notes you
imagine the loudness on, however, its important to imagine timbre of the
sounds youve just heard in a huge, three-dimensional sounding of ff.
2. Decrease the recordings loudness to f and complete the same exercise.
3. Complete the exercise in all dynamic nuances: ff, f, mf, mp, p, pp.
Its an important exercise to learn imagining all dynamic nuances with a
maximum contrast.
Assignment 2
1. Imagine soprano (tenor or bass) timbre on note A with movement to
the right. Imagine it in a huge sounding of ff. The sounding shouldnt be fat
and harsh; it has to be three-dimensional and huge. Then imagine timbre
with movement on note A in all dynamic nuances. Precisely defne what
sounding will be the loudest for you, what sounding will be mf and mp and
what sounding will be related to the quietest and most transparent p.
2. Imagine a sequence of 5 notes A, B, C, D, E in timbre with movement
to the right.
Imagine crescendo from A (p) to E (ff). And then imagine diminuendo
from E to A (E with movement to the right; D, C, B, A with movement to the
left).
Imagine diminuendo from A (ff) to E (p). And then imagine crescendo
from E to A.
3. Gather weight and play the sequence of notes on crescendo and
diminuendo. Play with correct technique and with intonation and weight.
Intonate these sounds with weight and you will feel that you naturally
begin to give more weight with an increase in loudness and dose weight with
a decrease in loudness.
Thanks to the ability to naturally distribute weight in intonation of
sounds, youll be able to express loud and quiet sounds on the instrument as
37
precisely as youve imagined them.
All exercises for dynamic ear development should be done very
accurately: the difference between dynamic nuances has to be very large, not
just slightly noticeable. Keep in mind that you can always imagine p much
quieter, and ff much louder.
Lesson 16
Assignment
1. Imagine each note in timbre and marked dynamics with movement.
2. Gather weight and play the piece by each hand and express dynamics
accurately.
3. Gather weight and play the piece by both hands and express dynamics
accurately.
Keep in mind that you need weight to express dynamics successfully.
Therefore, you must always gather weight before playing.
Attention! Do this exercise as many times as it takes to develop a stronger
sensitivity in fngertips: when p is played as quietly as youve imagined it;
when f is played as loudly as youve imagined it. This exercise takes more
patience and time than it may seem.
38
The Squirrels
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Fig. 15

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Lesson 17
Balance
Balance is a variant of dynamics. In order for voices to sound in relief
on different levels and not to mingle with each other, one of the voices has to
stay as though on the frst plan.
Therere 3 rules to fnd the leading voice.
1. In a melody + accompaniment texture, the leading role is given
to the melody. It sounds on the frst plan with the accompaniment on the
background.
Fig. 16. Balance, rule 1
2. The bass sounds closer in the accompaniment.
3. The 5th fngers (extreme voices) sound closer in chords (Fig. 18A).

In intervals and octaves, one of the voices also has to be leading its
either the upper voice (Fig. 18B) or the lower voice (Fig. 18C).
melody closer
accompaniment farther
A B C
41
Assignment
Using Fig. 16, p. 42-43:
1. Analyze what voices in the piece are leading. The leading notes of
balance are marked with the star sign.
2. Imagine the whole piece in timbre, dynamics and balance with
movement.
3. Gather weight and play the piece by both hands while intonating
sounds with weight and accurately imagining all dynamic nuances (Fig. 15,
p. 38).
Keep in mind that all leading voices of balance are imagined as though
on the frst plan, closer to you; all other voices are imagined in the far
background.
Balance is a fner gradation of dynamics; therefore, being accurate in
imagining and expressing balance is very important in this assignment.

42
melody is on the 1st plan, leading voices in accompaniment are on the 2nd plan
melody
The Squirrels
43
Fig. 19. Dynamics and balance
44
Lesson 18
Sound Texture
Sound texture is necessary to develop a feeling in fngers that Sergey
Rachmaninov called the growth of fngers through keys. While playing
with this feeling, all movements become even smaller and deeper. Sound
texture also transfgures intonation making it deeper, freer, more three-
dimensional and less fat.
Sound texture is necessary to control sound better. You step into the
three-dimensional space and depth of sound (sound texture) from the fatness
of sound timbre. Sound texture is an ability to imagine sound timbre in the
texture of ocean water that has depth of a 25-story building. In order to feel
this depth, imagine how you stand on the roof of a 25-story building looking
down. And you see the whole volumetric depth of this space. Now imagine
that this space is flled with the mass of ocean water. The main thing is not to
imagine that youre already on the bottom looking up. On the contrary, pass
the whole water depth from the top to the bottom.
Its important to understand that its necessary to concentrate more on
the tactile-visual imagining of the ocean water mass and less on the water
color itself.
Sound texture is inseparably connected with sound timbre you cannot
imagine it immediately without timbre. Keep in mind: sound texture gives
depth to timbre, but cannot replace it.
Assignment
1. Imagine note A in soprano (tenor or bass) timbre with movement to
the right, then to the left and then sing it. Now imagine this timbre in sound
texture with movement to the right, then to the left and then sing note A.
If you do everything correctly, then youll defnitely feel the difference in
singing: youll open your mouth differently, your voice will sound as though
from the depth and not on the surface.
In order not to lose sound movement, imagine how you descend in sound
texture through the mass of ocean water and there, in the depth, make a
movement to the right. Dont forget to imagine movement horizontally all
the way, not diagonally upwards.
2. Imagine note A in timbre of a group of violins in sound texture with
movement. As you begin imagining timbre of violins in sound texture, you
should feel how the texture of timbre changes. It starts gaining depth and
volume in sounding.
3. Play note A with correct technique imagining it in sound texture with
45
movement. In this course, timbre thats imagined in sound texture will be
simply called sound texture.
4. Imagine each hand in sound texture with movement (Fig. 13, p. 30).
Imagine a note in timbre of violins frst, and then at once imagine it in texture
with movement. Youll gradually learn to imagine timbre in sound texture
with movement at once.
5. Gather weight and play the piece by each hand with internal intonation
while imagining sound texture with movement (Fig. 14, p. 33).
46
Lesson 19
Sound texture may also be imagined in necessary dynamics and balance.
Dont try to imagine just texture in dynamics its impossible, as its
impossible to imagine just depth in dynamics. Keep in mind that its frst
necessary to imagine timbre in dynamics and only then sound texture and
dynamics.

Assignment 1
1. Imagine a sequence of notes A, B, C, D, E in soprano timbre with
movement to the right, then to the left.
Imagine gradual crescendo from A (p) to E (f). Then imagine diminuendo
from E to A. Now do the other way around.
2. Imagine a sequence of notes A, B, C, D, E in sound texture with
movement to the right, then to the left.
Imagine gradual crescendo from A (p) to E (f). Then imagine diminuendo
from E to A. Now do the other way around.
3. Play the sequence of notes on crescendo and diminuendo while
imagining sound texture in dynamics with movement.

Assignment 2
Using Fig. 15, p. 38-39:
1. Imagine each hand in sound texture and dynamics with movement.
2. Gather weight and play the piece by each hand with intonation and
weight while imagining sound texture in dynamics with movement.
3. Imagine the whole polyphony in the piece in sound texture, dynamics
and balance with movement.
4. Gather weight and play the piece by both hands with intonation
and weight while imagining sound texture in dynamics and balance with
movement.
Do these exercises gradually one by one and complete each one
qualitatively.
47
Lesson 20
Musical Speech
Musical speech is the second element of correct intonation. If correct
intonating is the technology of intonation, then musical speech is the
emotional meaning of intonation.
Therere nine basic intervals that are distinguished by their number of
tones.
Each interval in its intonation, when notes in intervals are played in a
sequence, not simultaneously, has its own meaning:
A second or seventh tension, waiting, request, uneasiness.
A third and sixth beauty, lyricism, romance.
A fourth energy, activity.
An augmented fourth mysticism, tense instability, fear.
A ffth contemplation and conciliation.
An octave open statement.
A unison confdent expression.
Minor and major intervals also differ by the nature of their intonation:
minor intervals sound tighter, busier and sadder in comparison to major
intervals.
Thereby, some intervals can sound tighter and busier when compared to
other intervals that sound calmer and more open.
Ascending and descending intervals give a fner interpretation of
intonation. Youll feel it yourself with practice after developing the sense of
musical speech. When intervals in melodies will be intonated as naturally as
you intonate your speech while talking to someone.
Attention! Its not enough to just think and imagine what meaning to
assign to each interval. Its possible to feel musical speech only by the correct
intonation of sounds. In other words, its necessary to intonate sounds with a
feeling of emotional meaning of each interval.
Now you dont simply intonate abstract sounds, but know what interval
you intonate at the moment.
Assignment
Imagine voice timbre with movement and then sound texture with
movement on two notes of an interval. Gather weight and sing each of 9
intervals in texture with movement, with correct intonation and weight while
feeling the meaning of each interval.
This exercise takes multiple repetitions and patience because you wont
feel any difference in intonated intervals during your frst days of work. But
youll gradually feel the fne difference between them with practice.
48
Lesson 21
Assignment
1. Analyze the meaning of each interval in the piece.
2. Gather weight and sing out loud each interval in the piece with
intonation and weight while feeling how you express the meaning of each
interval through intonation. Sing notes in texture with movement.
After some practice, youll be able to feel musical speech in intonated
intervals without a preparative analysis.
The notes that should be additionally intonated with musical speech are
marked with special slurs.
Lesson 22
Assignment
1. Gather weight and play the piece by each hand with musical speech.
Feel how you express the meaning of intervals through intonation. Imagine
only sound texture with movement before playing each note.
2. Gather weight and play the piece by each hand with musical speech.
sound texture in dynamics and balance with movement before playing each
note.
3. Gather weight and play the piece by both hands with musical speech.
sound texture in dynamics and balance with movement before playing each
note . While playing by both hands, youll be able to intonate musical speech
in both voices at the same time.
Attention! This stage is very important because you wont be able to feel
musical speech right away. Keep in mind that its not enough to just correctly
do the exercise; its necessary to repeat the correct actions as many times as
it takes you to develop intonation-melodic ear.
49
The Squirrels
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Fig. 20

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Lesson 23
Articulations
Articulations are variants of intonation. The principle of correct intonation
is preserved in all articulations the distance between sounds is passed
slowly and with resistance.
Therere six types of articulations: legato, tenuto, non legato, staccato,
marcato and martele.
Legato is basic intonation with spring stretching from one sound to
another.
Tenuto is intonation with weight increase to the next sound.
Fig. 21. Tenuto
Non legato is basic intonation, but lighter than legato.
Fig. 22. Non legato
Staccato is intonation with acceleration (extreme speeding up) to the
next sound.
Fig. 23. Staccato
Marcato (marked) is intonation with weight increase and acceleration
to the next sound .

Fig. 24
Martele is intonation with weight increase and acceleration to the
next sound. Its intonated maximally energetically and distinctly.
52

Fig. 25. Martele
All accelerations and increases of weight have to be started from the
second half of the way. The frst half of the way has to be passed slowly and
with resistance. Acceleration has to be maximally fast. Imagine that you stay
by a racing track and watch cars racing, and the cars hurtle past you. This is
the speed that should be in intonation of articulations staccato, marcato and
martele.
The duration of tenuto, staccato and accent depends on the duration of a
note to which they belong. If tenuto, staccato or accent belong to a half note
or quarter note, then these articulations are played a little longer than those
that belong to an 8th note or 16th note.
Assignment
1. Gather weight, then play and sing all basic intervals with articulations
legato, tenuto, staccato and marcato. Sing all sounds in texture with
movement.
2. Sing intervals in the piece with correct articulations (Fig. 26, p. 55).
3. Gather weight and play the piece by each hand with musical speech
and accurate articulations. Imagine sound texture in dynamics and balance
with movement before playing each note.
4. Gather weight and play the piece by both hands with musical speech
and accurate articulations. Imagine sound texture in dynamics and balance
with movement before playing each note.
53
Lesson 24
Meter
In a musical piece, meter is the steady pulse that unites and organizes
sounds in time. Its necessary to develop the sense of organization of time
space in the sound idea of a piece learn to choose a correct tempo and
keep strict (uniform, without tempo deviations) meter while playing a piece.
Assignment
1. Defne the unit of pulse in the piece. Youll conduct this pulse (dropping
your arms down and raising them up) and breath correctly (exhaling and
inhaling).
2. Complete the following exercises to develop the internal sense of
pulse:
a) Conduct the whole piece in calm tempo: the arms go down with
exhalation on the frst pulse; the arms go up with inhalation on the second
pulse. Breathe through your nose inhalation and exhalation will be felt
more precise. At the same time sing in your head the melody of the piece.
b) Now try to feel the internal pulse without conducting and the special
breathing technique while singing the piece internally. This pulse should be
felt like a heartbeat, but its more visible.
Work on this exercise long enough because the sense of pulse (meter)
isnt developed quickly.
3. Tune in to the mood of the piece and feel its internal pulse in slow
tempo frst, and then in lively tempo. Conduct the piece in various tempos to
get a more accurate feel of the pulse. Feel how the mood of the piece changes
in accordance with a chosen tempo: in slow tempo it would sound calmer,
more melodious and unhurried; in lively tempo it would sound lively and
actively. Pay attention: at the end of the piece you should feel a movement
slowdown and then enter the original tempo right away (Fig 26, p. 55).
4. Before starting to play, feel the mood of the piece, feel its pulse, gather
weight and play the piece by each hand (Fig. 26, p. 55). Play with intonation
and articulations while imagining sound texture in dynamics with movement
and feeling musical speech in intonated intervals.
Play in slow tempo for now choose one in which youll be able to
complete everything with quality while having time to imagine all MEMs.
Attention: if you dont feel meter, the pulse of the piece, then youve poorly
completed point 2 of the assignment. Keep in mind that tempo (meter) has
to be strict without accelerations and decelerations. All agogical deviations
54
of tempo that are connected to intonation of musical speech should be done
within the strict bounds of meter.
5. Before starting to play, feel the mood of the piece, feel its meter,
gather weight and play the piece by both hands. Play with intonation and
articulations while imagining sound texture in dynamics and balance with
movement and feeling musical speech in intonated intervals.
55
The Squirrels
Allegro
56

2

3

2

3
2 2

1

4

2

4

1

4

2

4

1

1

1

1

3

3

2

1 4 2 4 4 4

2

5
4
1

4

2

2

2

2

1

2

1

2

2

2

1

2
3

4

5

2

2

4

2

1

1

5

3

2

5
poco rit.

a tempo
Fig. 26
57
Lesson 25
Learning the Piece
The process of correct learning is the guarantee of fast and comfortable
piece learning. It also prevents arm illnesses. The idea of learning is that you
repeat small fragments of a piece as many times as it takes to feel comfort
when playing these fragments. The main criterion of comfortable playing in
any tempo is to feel fngertips on each played note with a maximally possible
freedom in arms. Your fnger has to timely exert before playing a note and
become free right away after playing it.
This technique is used to learn a fragment on all tempo levels (slow,
moderate, lively and fast). After feeling comfort in slow tempo, move on to
moderate tempo and achieve the same level of comfort in this new tempo
by the means of repetition. In any case, dont move on to a faster tempo
without feeling full comfort in the previous tempo, otherwise, it will lead
to an uncomfortable piece learning when your arms and psyche will be in
constant strain. Self-control is very important! You may cross out your entire
correct piece analysis with one wrong step.
The idea of correct learning is that you should feel comfort while playing
in fast tempo just like while playing in slow tempo. I.e. you should feel each
played note with your fngertips while your arms remain free even when
playing f. You may repeat lines more than fve times until you feel comfort
in arms and fngertips.
The piece is considered well learned when a room for freedom and
creativity appears in your head while playing. When you begin to dose all
MEMs and create a piece, not simply fully accomplish all MEMs.
The process of learning a piece is quite monotonous. The key to success
here is to be patient while repeating small fragments of the piece. Its important
to repeat every fragment of the piece as many times as its indicated in the
plan. Its important to play in those tempos that are indicated in the plan
without increasing tempo a little bit from time to time. Only then you begin
to feel that a repeated fragment of the piece becomes easier to play over time
all movements become more precise, accurate and small; dexterity of
fngers begins to develop; and it becomes easier for you to stay in the world
of imagined sounds without jumping out of it. You also learn the piece by
heart.
Most importantly, you learn to tune in and concentrate on the necessary
MEMs before playing. If in the beginning of learning it used to take you
around one minute to tune in you couldnt imagine everything at once,
then by the end of learning youll be able to tune in in a matter of a few
seconds.
58
Such monotonous work exists in all felds of work: frst goes creativity,
and then monotony. Its the only way to bring all started matters to the
end. Its the only way for a creation to come to life.
Assignment
Before starting with lively and fast tempos, make sure to feel the pulse
of the desired tempo. Its necessary to feel the pulse while playing the piece
as well.
Complete the following tasks using Fig. 26, p. 55:
Day 1. Play the piece by one line:
5 times in slow tempo;
5 times in moderate tempo;
5 times in lively tempo;
5 times in fast tempo.
Day 2. Play the piece by 2 lines:
Day 3. Play the piece by 4 lines:
Day 4. Play the whole piece;
Day 5. Play diffcult fragments in the piece several times (until you feel
comfort in fngertips and freedom in arms) in slow tempo, moderate tempo,
lively tempo and fast tempo.
Mark new diffcult fragments that youll learn the next day.
Youll be able to play The Squirrels easily in fast tempo only with such
learning.
59
Lesson 26
Timbre with Movement.
Position Change. Polyphony
Assignment
1. Analyze timbre and sound movement in the piece.
2. Analyze position changes.
3. Imagine each hand in timbre with movement. Imagine double notes
by the rule of polyphony.
4. Play the piece by each hand with correct technique while imagining
5. Imagine both hands in timbre with movement.
6. Play the piece by both hands with correct technique while imagining
60
Ave Maria

violas

cellos

soprano

simile

3

4

54

5 4 1 3

3 3

5 5

4 3 4 2 4 2

4 4
1

1

5
4

5 5 2 2
61
Fig. 27
Preserve timbre movement in mordents:
5 4 3 2 3 2 3 2
2 1 1 1 2
5 2 2 2 5

2 3 2
3
4 3 2 1

54

3
62
Lesson 27
Intonation and Weight.
Articulations
Assignment
1. Gather weight and play the piece by each hand with correct technique
while imagining each note in timbre with movement and intonating each
interval with weight and correct articulation.
2. Gather weight and play the piece by both hands with correct technique
while imagining each note in timbre with movement and intonating each
interval with weight and correct articulation.
Attention: before playing with intonation and weight, dont forget to
gather weight (feel how freedom in your body passes to your feet and then
raises from your feet, passes through your pelvis, torso and hands to the
instrument).
From now and on, play the piece with intonation and articulations and
gather weight before playing.
63

3

4

54

5 4 1 3

3 3

5 5

4 3 4 2 4 2

4 4
1

1

5
4

5 5 2 2
Ave Maria

soft staccato or non legato the scheme to intonate the accompaniment
simile
64
5 4 3 2 3 2 3 2
2 1 1 1 2
5 2 2 2 5

2 3 2
3
4 3 2 1

54

3
Fig. 28
65
Lesson 28
Harmony
Harmonies are consonances of notes. Harmonies in a score exist as
chords or assembled consonances. In order to feel harmony, its necessary to
play a chord or assemble it from notes.
Harmony is necessary for a saturated, deep and fne sense of timbre, fner
intonation and brighter idea of a pieces emotional image.
By singing a sound imagined in timbre and harmony, its possible to
feel how vibrations in that sound change, how that sound begins to vibrate
differently in your voice depending on harmonys tint.
Assignment 1
Using Fig. 29 play a chord on the pedal and listen to its tint so that
harmonys sounding is refected in your heart with a particular mood,
experience. Play chords in various octaves this will give additional
emotional shadings of harmony.
Fig. 29
C major C minor

C major C minor D major D minor E major E minor
E major E minor F major F minor F major F minor G major G minor
A major A minor A major A minor B major B minor B major B minor
66
By working on this assignment, you prepare your harmonic ear to feel
emotional variance in more diffcult harmonies of pieces.
Pass this assignment 20 times and youll gradually begin to tune in to a
necessary wave, learn to submerge and remain in the world of harmonies.
Assignment 2
1. Imagine note C in soprano (tenor or bass) timbre with movement and
paint timbre with the tint of C major (frst remind yourself by playing this
harmony). Gather weight and sing the imagined sound.
2. Imagine note C in timbre with movement and paint it with the tint of
C minor. Gather weight and sing the imagined sound.
3. Complete the assignment on all notes in 24 keys.
67
Lesson 29
Assignment 1
Using Fig. 35, p. 68, listen to harmonies of the piece and fnd an emotional
color of each harmony. The assignment is considered well done if you can
build a clear harmonic dramaturgy of the piece in your head and harmonic
ear after listening to harmonies what the overall image is, how emotions
inside the piece change.
Assignment 2
1. Imagine each hand in timbre and harmony with movement.
The rule of imagining a note in harmony is the same as imagining a note
in sound texture: imagine the note in timbre frst, then imagine it in harmony
immediately after.
2. Gather weight and play the piece by each hand in timbre and harmony
with movement while intonating all intervals with weight.
As you play while imagining harmony, youll be able to fnely feel how,
depending on the tint of harmony, your sensation of touching a key with your
fngertip changes, and how intonation of sounds becomes fner and more
fexible.
3. Imagine both hands in timbre and harmony with movement.
4. Gather weight and play the piece by both hands in timbre and harmony
with movement while intonating all intervals with weight.
68
Ave Maria
1.
majestically, calmly
2.
rich
3.
spiritually,
deeply,
calmly
4.
strictly,
sternly, tightly
5.
majestically,
calmly
5. 6.
saturated,
earthly
harmony, more
tense
7.
strictly,
nobly
8.
saturated,
all-
embracing
9.
profoundly, strictly,
sadly
10.
strictly,
rich
11.
saturated,
warmly
12.
majestically,
calmly
13.
tensely,
tightly, dark
14.
strictly,
dark
15.
tensely,
tightly, dark,
with pain
16.
dark, saturated
harmony
17.
new, tight harmony,
with pain
18.
strictly,
sadly
19.
saturated,
tensely
20.
warm,
light
harmony
21.

saturated,
warmly
22.
light,
warmly,
strictly
23.
saturated, warmly
24.
simply, light
69
Description of harmonies in this score is just a hint for your own defnition of a harmony.
Therefore, frst attentively listen to a harmony and then look up its description. All descriptions
should be felt as sound tint.
25.
warmly, saturated
26.
majestically, warmly
27.
saturated, warmly
28.
profoundly, strictly,
sadly
29.
majestically,
light
30.
majestically,
light
31.
strictly, sternly, majestically
32.
dark, strictly
33.
profoundly,
strictly, light
34.
warmly, softly
35.
majestically,
calmly
36.
saturated,
earthly
harmony, more
tense
37.
strictly,
nobly
38.
saturated, all-
embracing
39.
40.
rich
41.
spiritually,
deeply,
calmly
42.
strictly,
sternly,
tightly
43.
Fig. 30
70
Lesson 30
Harmony
+Dynamics and Balance
In order to join harmony with dynamics and balance in your internal idea
and performance, its necessary to learn to imagine notes in harmony and
dynamics with balance simultaneously.
Assignment 1
1. Imagine a sequence of notes C, D, E, F, G in voice timbre in harmony
C major with movement. Imagine this sequence on p, f, crescendo and
diminuendo.
2. Gather weight and play this sequence in timbre, harmony and the
imagined dynamics with movement.
Assignment 2
1. Imagine each hand in timbre, harmony and dynamics with movement.
2. Gather weight and play the piece by each hand in timbre, harmony and
dynamics with movement.
3. Imagine the accompaniment in timbre, harmony, dynamics and balance
with movement.
4. Gather weight and play the accompaniment in timbre, harmony,
dynamics and balance with movement.
5. Imagine both hands in timbre, harmony, dynamics and balance with
movement.
6. Gather weight and play the piece by both hands in timbre, harmony,
71

3

4

54

5 4 1 3

3 3

5 5

4 3 4 2 4 2

4 4
1

1

5
4

5 5 2 2
Ave Maria

melody on the 1st plan, lower voice in bass on the 2nd plan,
higher voice in the accompaniment on the 3rd plan
72
Fig. 31
5 4 3 2 3 2 3 2
2 1 1 1 2
5 2 2 2 5

2 3 2
3
4 3 2 1

54

3
73
Lesson 31
Sound Texture+Harmony
In order to join harmony with sound texture in your internal idea and
performance, its necessary to learn to imagine sound texture in harmony.
Assignment 1
1. Imagine note C in sound texture with movement and paint it with the
harmony tint of C major. Youll feel how space begins to be flled with the
harmony tint. Gather weight and sing the imagined sound.
2. Imagine note C in texture with movement and paint it with the harmony
tint of C minor. Gather weight and sing the imagined sound.
3. Complete the assignment on all notes in all 24 keys.
Assignment 2
1. Imagine each hand in texture and harmony with movement.
2. Gather weight and play the piece by each hand in texture and harmony
with movement.
74
Lesson 32
Sound Texture+Harmony
+Dynamics and Balance
In order to join harmony and dynamics with sound texture in your internal
idea and performance, its necessary to learn imagining sound texture in
harmony and dynamics.
Assignment 1
1. Imagine a sequence of notes C, D, E, F, G in texture and harmony
(C major) with movement. Imagine this sequence on p, f, crescendo and
diminuendo.
2. Gather weight and play this sequence in texture, harmony and the
imagined dynamics with movement.
Assignment 2
1. Imagine each hand in texture, harmony, dynamics and balance with
movement.
2. Gather weight and play the piece by each hand in texture, harmony,
3. Imagine both hands in texture, harmony, dynamics and balance with
movement.
4. Gather weight and play the piece by both hands in texture, harmony,
5. Mark pedal in the score.
dynamics and balance with movement and pedal (Fig. 32, p. 75).
Play the piece with pedal from this moment on.
75

3

4

54

5 4 1 3

3 3

5 5

4 3 4 2 4 2

4 4
1

1

5
4

5 5 2 2
Ave Maria

simile
( )
( ) ( )
( )
76
Fig. 32
5 4 3 2 3 2 3 2
2 1 1 1 2
5 2 2 2 5

2 3 2
3
4 3 2 1

54

3
( ) ( ) ( )
( )
77
Lesson 33
Musical Speech
Assignment
1. Gather weight and separately play the melody and accompaniment
with musical speech. Imagine sound texture in harmony, dynamics and
balance with movement.
Intonate musical speech in the accompaniment by the leading voices of
balance:
Fig. 33. Musical speech
2. Gather weight and play the piece by both hands with musical speech.
78
Lesson 34
Phrasing. Motif
Phrasing
Phrasing is a MEM that is used to semantically allocate musical phrases
by delimiting periods, sentences, phrases and motifs in order to fnd the
meaning and logic of a musical thought.
In simple words, form of a musical piece consists of several blocks:
periods, sentences, phrases and motifs. These blocks are necessary for
organization of intonation because musical intonation needs completeness
just like intonation of human speech. This completeness is like some
punctuation signs thanks to which your musical speech obtains structure and
completeness.
Blocks of a Musical Piece
1. Periods
Period is a large complete block of a musical piece. A small piece is
sometimes written in the form of period. A period consists of 23 sentences.
There will be no further discussion of it because the knowledge of it doesnt
have much effect on performance.
2. Sentences
Sentence is a complete musical thought, its a large block inside a period.
A sentence consists of 2 or sometimes 3 phrases.
3. Phrases
Phrase is a relatively complete musical thought, its a mid-sized block
inside a sentence. A phrase usually consists of 2, 3 or more motifs.
4. Motifs
Motif is a short sequence of sounds united by one logical accent; its a
small block inside a phrase.
In order to understand how motifs and phrases work together in a
sentence, lets take a look at one sentence in Fig. 34, p. 79:
79
Fig. 34.
Therere two phrases in this sentence when spring comes and
snowdrops bloom. Therere three motifs in the frst phrase when,
spring, comes. Therere two motifs in the second phrase snowdrops
and bloom.
Theres a hierarchy in a musical sentence like in human speech. The
2nd phrase in the sentence When spring comes, snowdrops bloom is
culminating. The 3rd motif in the 1st phrase is culminating. The 2nd motif
in the 2nd phrase is culminating.
Its necessary to know about phrasing (structure and hierarchy of blocks)
to be able to correctly distribute weight in intonation while playing a piece.
Motif
Motif is the simplest rhythmic unit of melody that consists of a short
sequence of sounds united by one logical accent. Two-part, three-part and
multi-part motifs differ by the position of that accent:
1. Two-part motifs consist of 2 syllables:
In a trochee, the accent is on the 1st syllable music.
In an iambus, the accent is on the 2nd syllable perform.
2. Three-part and multi-part motifs consist of 3 or more syllables:
In a dactyl, the accent is on the frst syllable symphony.
In an amphibrach, the accent in on the middle syllable conductor.
In an anapest, the accent is on the last syllable atmosphere.
The rules of correctly performing these motifs will be given in the next
lesson.
Identifying Motifs
Always make two steps to identify motifs in a score:
1. Find the limits of motifs in the piece.
Therere two types of motifs:
a) Short motifs usually last 2 measures; sometimes they last 1/2 or 1
measureor 1 measure.
When spring comes snowdrops bloom
Sentence
Phrases
Motifs
When spring comes, snowdrops bloom.
80
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
81
Fig. 35. Short motif
b) Long motifs usually last 4 measures.
a.
b.
c.
Fig. 36. Long motif
Slurs that are shown in an ordinary score belong to phrasing and show
phrases, motifs or simply a small group of notes. Unfortunately,they are
marked without a system and often interfere with correct identifcation of
phrases and sentences and correct distribution of weight while playing. This
is why you need to learn to fnd correct phrasing independently.
2. Find the culminating interval in motifs (i.e. the stressed syllable in a
word).
The culminating interval in short or long motifs is determined by
downbeat (or on-beat), or a longer note, or an ascending interval.
82
.
b.
c.
d.
Fig. 37. Stressed interval in short motif
Fig. 38. Stressed interval in long motif
83
Composers sometimes mark culminating intervals with an accent symbol.
.
b.
Fig. 39. Stress in motifs
An exception: if notes in a short upbeat motif have an equal value, then
the frst note in the slur will be culminating. The interval to the culminating
note is intonated, but more weight is given right before the culminating note
after the last note of the previous motif (not from the last note of the previous
motif).
Fig. 40. Stress in short motif (an exception)
84
Lesson 35
Playing Motifs
When playing motifs, culminating intervals should be intonated with
more importance and as though with more weight, and their subordinate
intervals should be intonated easier, with less importance and as though with
less weight.
Assignment 1
Two-Part Motifs
1. Trochees. A trochaic motif is intonated from its culminating interval
(from the motifs frst syllable, like in music). Give more weight to the
motifs more important frst note in such intonation (similar to intonation of
short up-beat motifs in Fig. 40, p. 83).
Fig. 41. Trochaic motif
Sing with weight and then play a short trochaic motif with the culminating
interval GF (append., p. 156). Before imagining the frst note G, imagine an
invisible note A from which you should give more weight. Sing with musical
speech imagining sounds only in texture with movement.
2. Iambuses. An iambic motif is intonated to its culminating interval (to
the motifs second syllable, like in perform). Start gradually giving more
weight from the motifs less important frst syllable distributing more weight
on the culminating interval.
Fig. 42. Iambic motif
85
Sing with weight and then play a short iambic motif with the culminating
interval FG (append., p. 156).
Three-Part and Multi-Part Motifs
Amphibrachs and anapests. A motif is intonated to its culminating
interval. Dactyls are rare.
a.
b.
Fig. 43. Amphibrachic motif
Fig. 44. Anapestic motif
Assignment 2
While fnding limits and types of motifs independently, remember that
therere several variants of interpreting motifs. By relying on the main rule,
you can variously arrange limits of motifs and stresses in motifs and choose
a variant suggested by your intuition. Its up to you to decide whats more
important in a motif the downbeat, or the longest note, or the ascending
interval. Its up to you to decide how to arrange limits in motifs so that
marked motifs are organized into a clear system of phrases and sentences for
you.
Find types of motifs (their culminating intervals) in examples in Fig.
4547, p. 86:
86
Sonatina
5
10
15
20
87
Sweet Dream
88
89
6
13
20
26
Old French Song
Fig. 45-47
90
Lesson 36
Phrase
Phrase is a relatively complete musical thought. A phrase consists of 2, 3
or more motifs united by one logical accent. Two-part, three-part and multi-
part phrases differ by the position of that accent:
1. Two-part phrases consist of 2 motifs:
In a trochee, the accent is on the 1st motif (word) tell me.
In an iambus, the accent is on the 2nd motif my story.
2. Three-part and multi-part phrases consist of 3 and more motifs:
In a dactyl, the accent is on the 1st motif Who is it?
In an amphibrach, the accent is on the middle motif I love it.
In an anapest, the accent is on the last motif Is it you?
Such hierarchy of motifs also exists in multi-part phrases.
Identifying Phrases
Always make two steps to identify phrases in a score:
1. Find limits of phrases in a piece.
Therere two types of phrases:
a) A short phrase usually lasts 4 measures; sometimes it lasts 2 or 3
measures (depending on the length of motifs).
a.
b.
91
c.
d.
e.
f.
Fig. 48. Short phrase
b) A long phrase usually lasts 8 measures.
a.
92
b.
c.
d.
Fig. 49. Long phrase
93
2. Find culminating motifs in phrases (stressed words in phrases).
The culminating motif in a short or long phrase is determined by an
ascending or higher motif. A repeating motif can also be culminating.
a.
b.
c.
d.
94
e.
f.
Fig. 50. Stressed motif in phrase
95
Lesson 37
Playing Phrases
When playing phrases, culminating motifs should be intonated with
more importance, and their subordinate motifs should be intonated with less
importance as though from afar.
Assignment 1
Two-Part Phrases
1. Trochees. A trochaic phrase is intonated from its culminating motif
(from the frst motif, like in tell me). The culminating motif should be
intonated with more importance, and the subordinate motif should be
intonated with less importance.
Fig. 51. Trochaic phrase
Sing with weight and then play a trochaic phrase with iambic motifs
(append., p. 156). Sing and play with musical speech imagining sounds only
in texture with movement. Gather weight before singing.
2. Iambuses. An iambic phrase is intonated to its culminating motif
(to the second motif, like in my story). The culminating motif should be
intonated with more importance.
a.
96
b.
Fig. 52. Iambic phrase
Sing with weight and then play an iambic phrase with iambic motifs
(append.).
Three-Part and Multi-Part Phrases
Amphibrachs and anapests. A phrase is intonated to its culminating motif.
Dactyls are rare.
Fig. 53. Amphibrachic phrase
Sing with weight and then play an amphibrachic phrase with iambic
motifs (append.).
a.

97
b.
c.
Fig. 54. Anapestic phrase
Sing with weight and then play an anapestic phrase with iambic motifs
(append.).
a.
b.
Fig. 55. Multi-part phrase
Assignment 2
Identify types of phrases in Fig. 5659, p. 98101:
98
Lullaby
99
Sarabande
100
Happy Farmer
101
The Squirrels
102
Lesson 38
Sentence
Sentence is a complete musical thought. Its a large block inside a period.
A sentence consists of 2 or 3 phrases united by one logical accent. Two-part
and three-part sentences differ by the position of that accent:
1. Two-part sentences consist of 2 phrases:
In a trochee, the accent is on the 1st phrase Enjoy the weather, dont
be bored.
In an iambus, the accent is on the 2nd phrase Flowers bloomed
its spring!
2. Three-part sentences consist of 3 phrases:
In a dactyl, the accent is on the 1st phrase Flowers bloomed as it was
spring and the sun was warm.
In an amphibrach, the accent is on the middle phrase Dont come
tomorrow, come today before its late.
In an anapest, the accent is on the 3rd phrase Apple is good, orange
is better, but nectarine is the best!
Identifying Sentences
Always make two steps to identify sentences in a score:
1. Find limits of sentences in a piece.
Therere two types of sentences:
a) A short sentence usually lasts 8 measures.
.
103
b.
c.
d.
104
e.
f.
Fig. 60. Short sentence
b) A long sentence usually lasts 16 measures.
a.
105
b.
106
c.
Fig. 61. Long sentence
As a rule, in simple pieces the number of measures in a sentence remains
constant for the entire piece. So it serves as a basis and clue to correctly
identify limits of phrases and motifs.
c) A phrase can sometimes be equal to a sentence (Fig. 6264, p. 107).
107
The Lark
108
The Squirrels
109
8
3
8
3
New Doll
Fig. 62-64
110
2. Find culminating phrases in sentences.
The culminating phrase in a short or long sentence is determined by a
higher or repeating phrase (because an exactly repeated phrase in a sentence
may express a bigger insistence).
a.
b.
c.
Fig. 65. Stressed phrase in sentence
111
Lesson 39
Playing Sentences
When playing sentences, culminating phrases should be intonated with
more importance, and their subordinate phrases should be intonated easier,
with less importance.
Assignment 1
1. Sing with weight and then play a trochaic sentence with trochaic
phrases (append.). Sing and play with musical speech imagining sounds only
in texture with movement. Gather weight before singing.
2. Sing with weight and then play an iambic sentence with iambic phrases
(append.).
Three-part sentences are rare.
Assignment 2
Identify types of sentences (their culminating phrases) in Fig. 66-70 p.
112.
112
Sweet Dream
113
114
Italian Song
115
116
Sonatina
5
10
15
20
117
Old French Song
6
13
20
26
118
Happy Farmer
119
Lesson 40
Phrasing in the Piece
Assignment
After analyzing motifs, phrases and sentences in the piece in Fig. 71, p.
120:
1. Separately play the melody and accompaniment while thinking about
motifs and their culminating intervals and correctly distributing weight in
intonation. Weight distribution will be natural if you intonate culminating
intervals in motifs with more importance and subordinate intervals with less
importance. Play with musical speech while imagining sounds in texture,
harmony, dynamics and balance with movement. Dont forget to gather
weight before playing.
One motif (in the melody) may contain several smaller motifs (in the
accompaniment).
2. Play the piece by both hands while thinking about motifs and their
culminating intervals and correctly distributing weight in intonation.
phrases and their culminating motifs and correctly distributing weight in
intonation.
4. Play the piece by both hands while thinking about phrases and their
culminating motifs and correctly distributing weight in intonation.
sentences and their culminating phrases and correctly distributing weight in
intonation.
6. Play the piece by both hands while thinking about sentences and their
culminating phrases and correctly distributing weight in intonation.
Attention: while playing with complete phrasing, its necessary to see the
whole picture of phrasing culminating phrases in sentences, culminating
motifs in phrases, culminating intervals in motifs. Then youll correctly
distribute weight in phrases and motifs. Always think about sentences frst
and distribute weight so that more weight is given to the culminating, most
important phrase and its culminating motif.
Slurs in Fig. 71 are just a hint. All phrasing should be in your head.
120

3

4

54

5 4 1
3

3 3

5 5

4
3 4 2 4 2

4 4
1

1

5
4

5 5 2 2
Ave Maria
simile
( )
( )
( )
( )
Further slurs point out
culminating motifs in phrases
121
5 4 3 2
3

2 3

2

2

1

1

2

5

2

2

5

2 3 2
3
4 3 2 1

54

3
( ) ( ) ( )
( )
Fig. 71
122
Lesson 41
Emotional Image
Emotional image is constructed from those emotions and feelings that
rise in your heart while you listen to a musical piece. And in order for you
to express these feelings through playing, you need to learn to express
emotional image through musical speech. Listen to harmonies of a piece to
dive deeper into its emotional image. This will give you a possibility to dive
into fner nuances of feelings.
If there are no abrupt and obvious changes in emotional image, then just
try to tune in to one certain emotional image and maintain it throughout the
piece. Harmonies, articulations and dynamics that are intonated with musical
speech will add all the nuances to emotional image.
Assignment 1
1. Sing major and minor intervals:
Tune in to the feeling of joy. Imagine 2 notes of the interval only in
texture with movement. Gather weight and sing the interval with musical
speech flling it with an emotional-imaginative meaning.
Tune in to the feeling of sadness. Imagine 2 notes of the interval only
in texture with movement. Gather weight and sing the interval with musical
2. Play these intervals:
Tune in to the feeling of joy. Imagine 2 notes of the interval only in
texture with movement. Gather weight and play the interval with musical
Tune in to the feeling of sadness. Imagine 2 notes of the interval only
in texture with movement. Gather weight and play the interval with musical
3. Tune in to emotional image, gather weight and sing the melody only
in texture with movement feeling how you express emotional image through
musical speech.
4. Tune in to emotional image, gather weight and separately play the
melody and accompaniment only in texture with movement feeling how you
express emotional image through musical speech.
5. Tune in to emotional image, gather weight and play the piece by both
hands only in texture with movement feeling how you express emotional
image through musical speech.
123
Assignment 2
1. Do the following steps:
a) Separately play the melody and accompaniment only in texture with
movement while thinking about motifs and their culminating intervals and
feeling how you express emotional image through musical speech.
b) Separately play the melody and accompaniment only in texture with
movement while thinking about phrases and their culminating motifs and
c) Separately play the melody and accompaniment only in texture with
movement while thinking about sentences and their culminating phrases and
2. Do the following steps:
a) Play the piece by both hands only in texture with movement while
thinking about motifs and their culminating intervals and feeling how you
b) Play the piece by both hands only in texture with movement while
thinking about phrases and their culminating motifs and feeling how you
c) Play the piece by both hands only in texture with movement while
thinking about sentences and their culminating phrases and feeling how you
3. Gather weight and play the piece by both hands in sound texture with
harmony, dynamics and balance with movement while accurately following
phrasing and feeling how you express emotional image through musical
speech.
124
Lesson 42
Form
Musical form is a compositional scheme, its the principle of structure
and succession of musical material.
Form of a piece is the emotional-dramaturgic meaning (content) of
sentences of a piece which is expressed through musical speech.
If in phrasing any musical sentence may be compared to a literary
sentence, then in form any musical composition may be compared to a story.
Theres a dramaturgic plot in a musical piece just like in a story:
Beginning. The sky was clear early in the morning.
Development. Soon the frst clouds appeared in the sky.
Intensifcation. In the afternoon the clouds darkened and the sky was
clouded.
Rising to climax. Soon the thunder could be heard and lightning
appeared.
Climax. And then the storm started and it rained heavily.
Conclusion. After a little while the rain was over, all clouds dissipated,
the sky cleared, and I saw the sunset.
If theres no plot in a story and it only has a collection of loosely connected
sentences, then no one will listen to it because itll be boring and dead.
Form is the compositional meaning put in each sentence of a musical
piece, i.e. each sentence is a part of the compositional scheme of a piece.
Therere various types of compositional schemes:
1. Beginning, development, rising to climax, climax (Fig. 72, p. 125).
2. Beginning, development, intensifcation, rising to climax, climax (Fig.
74, p. 127).
3. Beginning, development, rising to climax, climax, rising to climax,
climax.
4. Beginning, development, rising to climax, climax, conclusion.
5. Introduction, beginning, development, rising to climax, climax,
conclusion.
6. Beginning, rising to climax, climax (Fig. 73, p. 126).
Various combinations of sentences are possible in form.
Short pieces consisting of two sentences are an exception. You can
structure form by phrases, not by sentences, in them (see p. 135).
125
Wild Horseman
climax
beginning
development
1. 2.
rising to climax
126
Little Piece
beginning
climax
rising to climax
climax
beginning
127
The Squirrels
beginning
development
intensifcation
beginning
development
intensifcation
128
Identifying Form
Always make these main steps when analyzing form:
1. Find climax. As a rule, culminating sentences are more expressive,
ascending and dynamically brighter.
2. Find rising to climax.
3. Find the remaining parts of form (beginning of story, development of
plot, conclusion).
Thereby, you create a necessary composition scheme that suits the
meaning of music. There can be several composition schemes and templates in
a piece. Form may be written in one simple scheme (beginning, development,
intensifcation, rising to climax, climax) (fg. 75, p. 129). There can be several
templates in a piece (fg. 76, p. 131).
rising to climax
climax
Fig. 72-74
129
Sweet Dream
beginning
development
intensifcation
beginning
development
intensifcation
130
rising to climax
climax
131
Sonatina
beginning
beginning
rising to climax
rising to climax
climax
climax
5
10
15
20
Fig. 75-76
beginning
beginning
132
Lesson 43
Playing Form
+Emotional Image
Assignment 1
The sense of form, like emotional image, is expressed through musical
speech.
1. Sing all intervals:
Tune in to a part of the composition scheme (introduction, or beginning,
or development, or rising to climax, or climax, or conclusion) and imagine
two sounds of an interval only in texture with movement. Gather weight and
sing the interval with musical speech flling the interval with a dramaturgic
meaning.
2. Play these intervals similar to singing them in point 1.
Assignment 2
Now you need to learn to simultaneously express emotional image and
form through musical speech.
Tune in to the feeling of joy and a part of the composition scheme.
Gather weight and sing all intervals with musical speech flling them with
an imaginative-dramaturgic meaning.
Tune in to the feeling of sadness and a part of the composition scheme.
Gather weight and sing all intervals with musical speech flling them with an
imaginative-dramaturgic meaning.
2. Play these intervals similar to singing them in point 1.
Assignment 3
Analyze form on the examples in Fig. 7781, p. 133.
133
The Lark
134
Sarabande
135
Old French Song
an example of distribution of parts of form by phrases, not by sentences
6
13
20
26
136
Happy Farmer
137
Italian Song
138
Fig. 77-81
139
Assignment 4
1. Analyze form in the piece.
2. Sing the melody in the piece:
Tune in to the pieces emotional image and a part of the composition
scheme; imagine the frst sounds only in texture with movement. Gather
weight and sing the melody with musical speech flling each interval with an
imaginative-dramaturgic meaning.
3. Separately play the melody and accompaniment in the piece:
weight and play the piece while thinking about phrasing (sentences, phrases
and motifs) and feeling how you express emotional image and form through
musical speech.
4. Play the piece by both hands:
weight and play the piece while thinking about phrasing (sentences, phrases
and motifs) and feeling how you express emotional image and form through
musical speech.
5. Play the piece by both hands:
scheme; imagine the frst sounds in texture, harmony, dynamics and balance
with movement. Gather weight and play the piece while thinking about
phrasing (sentences, phrases and motifs) and feeling how you express
emotional image and form through musical speech.
140
Lesson 44
Artistry
Artistry is a MEM that is related to performing a piece on stage.
Theres a difference between playing music while practicing at home and
playing music in front of an audience:
1. While practicing at home, you create a beautiful world your own
space full of harmony, beauty, order and love. Any stranger will destroy
this order and create chaos and uncertainty. And youll no longer get any
satisfaction from playing.
2. While playing in front of an audience, you experience feelings that
are impossible to produce while playing to yourself. Performance is a type
of communication, energy exchange between people by the means of sounds
without words. Therefore, this communication is fner and deeper you
feel the energy of your listener and he feels yours. And this communication
becomes harmonious only if you, as a story teller, begin to lead your listener.
Performing before an audience is the only opportunity to feel your audiences
admiration for your playing, experience a divine feeling when your audience
listens to you with all their hearts, when they breathe with you, when they
totally agree with you, when their hearts are open. And it inspires you even
more, it nourishes you and gives you energy to create such a piece on stage
that no one ever felt or performed like you before!
So, if youve decided to risk and experience new feelings while playing
before an audience, then youll need artistry so that this communication
would give pleasure and satisfaction to you and your audience. Artistry is an
ability to fully express on stage all MEMs and feelings that youve learned
before at home. Artistry is a feeling of self-control, as well as control of your
instrument and audience.
When you played something to other people, you probably remember that
you usually get shy, dont play as confdently as you could while playing to
yourself and even begin losing yourself. This is a very unpleasant feeling and
its caused by worry. Worry is a natural feeling that is caused by uncertainty
about those important things that you do for the frst time or havent done in
a while. Its a natural, normal feeling and you shouldnt fght it. But worry
can grow into two feelings:
1. A feeling of fear and panic before the unknown; a feeling of losing
yourself while playing; a feeling that you lose everything youve learned
when a feeling of failure and dissatisfaction remains after a performance.
2. A feeling of anticipated bright joy and confdence about your
performance on stage when you control your playing, when you lead your
141
audience and together create such a piece that couldnt be created in solitude.
You need artistry to make your worry grow into the second feeling, and
so that a feeling of satisfaction, amazing time and a desire to repeat it again
would remain with you after your performance.
It will be a surprise for you, but your audience isnt initially 100% ready
to listen to you. Their thoughts are someplace else, even if just a little bit, yet
enough not to be totally with you at your performance.
Therere two exercises which will help you to transform the invisible
dialogue during your performance into a confdent and imperious monologue.
By saying the invisible dialogue, I mean, in a negative sense, all distracting
thoughts of other people that interfere with your monologue and create
haziness in your head. This haziness is an obstacle for your clear expression
on stage. You try to move through it with your eyes closed in fear of losing
yourself. At such moments you feel yourself like a frightened victim:
your voice (your sound) becomes quiet, your pronunciation (articulation)
becomes weak, your thoughts freeze in fear this affects your intonation,
which becomes listless and inexpressive. Your playing is a materialization
of things that happen on the energy-mental level. Those things that no one
seemingly sees, but everyone perfectly hears and unconsciously feels.
Assignment 1
Exercise 1. Repeat one simple phrase listen to me.
You should know that its possible to attract people only with extra-bright,
strong and sincere feelings. And you need to recall your deepest, brightest
and most secret feelings to do that: when have you cried with happiness, or
sobbed from grief, or suffered from a desperate situation and prayed for help.
These are the strongest feelings youve ever experienced. And before saying
listen to me, you dive into the feeling youve chosen a very deep, very
personal feeling that you, perhaps, havent yet shared with anyone. And now
you open up and speak about it with just one phrase listen to me. And at
heart you know that everyone listens to you during this moment because
everyone is attracted to this deeply beautiful and powerful feeling. No one
will remain indifferent. Everyone will empathize to you and totally listen to
you!
The phrase has to be said loudly and clearly. And if youre a modest and
shy person by nature, this exercise will give you many new sensations that
are a must for any actor-orator when he speaks on stage and 1000s of people
listen.
Exercise 2. This exercise is a reproduction of the invisible dialogue
when the actor starts speaking and the audience sort of listen to him.
142
1. Play a recording of a musical piece at high volume and begin playing
your piece at the same time. Youll feel that youre losing control and
cant hear yourself. This is an exact reproduction of what happens on stage
unnoticeably to everyone and what terribly disturbs the performer.
2. Tune in to listen to me and feel the joy of free and confdent expression
when every listener seats motionless, stops muttering and starts listening
to you with bated breath. Turn on the recording and start playing. And you
should now feel that you hear your every sound, control every sound and
hold your fortune in your hands. Theres no trick here the loudness of
the recording hasnt changed, its you who has stepped up to a new level.
You no longer react to the loud sound, but hear yourself brighter and act
independently.
These two exercises develop a feeling of imperiousness and creativity
on stage. If you can hold the ground on stage, then you play as freely and
skillfully as youve never played before in solitude.
Assignment 2
Tune in to the feeling of artistry, imagine two sounds of the interval only
in texture with movement. Gather weight and sing the interval feeling how
you express artistry through musical speech.
2. Play all intervals:
Tune in to the feeling of artistry, imagine two sounds of the interval only
in texture with movement. Gather weight and play the interval feeling how
you express artistry through musical speech.
3. Gather weight and separately play the melody and accompaniment
only in texture with movement feeling how you express artistry through
musical speech.
4. Gather weight and play the piece by both hands only in texture with
movement feeling how you express artistry through musical speech.
5. Gather weight and play the piece by both hands only in texture with
movement while accurately following phrasing and feeling how you express
artistry through musical speech.
dynamics and balance with movement while accurately following phrasing
and feeling how you express artistry through musical speech.
143
Lesson 45
Artistry+Emotional Image
+Form
You should learn to simultaneously express artistry and emotional image
through musical speech. If you simply express emotional image through
musical speech without artistry, then you wont be able to fully open up and
express yourself on stage youll be disturbed, unfree and dependent. If
you simply express artistry through musical speech without emotional image,
then your playing will be one-sided, dull and uninteresting. This is why you
need to develop a new sensation to feel how you express emotional image
by the means of artistry.
Assignment 1
1. Tune in to the feeling of joy and artistry and feel how youll express
emotional image by the means of artistry. Gather weight and sing all intervals
only in texture with movement feeling how you express emotional image by
the means of artistry through musical speech.
Tune in to the feeling of sadness and artistry and feel how youll express
emotional image by the means of artistry. Gather weight and sing all intervals
2. Play all intervals:
Tune in to the feeling of joy and artistry and feel how youll express
emotional image by the means of artistry. Gather weight and play all intervals
Tune in to the feeling of sadness and artistry and feel how youll express
emotional image by the means of artistry. Gather weight and play all intervals
3. Play the piece:
Tune in to emotional image and artistry and feel how youll express
emotional image by the means of artistry. Gather weight and play the piece
by each hand only in texture with movement while accurately following
phrasing and feeling how you express emotional image by the means of
144
by both hands only in texture with movement while accurately following
phrasing and feeling how you express emotional image by the means of
by both hands in texture, harmony, dynamics and balance with movement
while following phrasing and feeling how you express emotional image by
Assignment 2
Now its necessary to develop the ability to simultaneously express
emotional image, form and artistry through musical speech. Form should
be included into the system because you wont be able to feel and express
it while playing according to the system if this element is out of the system.
1. Tune in to the feeling of joy, form (a part of the composition scheme)
and artistry and feel how youll express emotional image and form by the
means of artistry. Gather weight and sing all intervals only in texture with
movement feeling how you express emotional image and form by the means
of artistry through musical speech.
Tune in to the feeling of sadness, form (a part of the composition scheme)
and artistry and feel how youll express emotional image and form by the
means of artistry. Gather weight and sing all intervals only in texture with
movement feeling how you express emotional image and form by the means
of artistry through musical speech.
2. Play all intervals the way youve sung it.
3. Tune in to the feeling of emotional image, form and artistry and feel
how youll express emotional image and form by the means of artistry.
Gather weight and separately play the melody and accompaniment in texture,
harmony, dynamics and balance with movement while accurately following
phrasing and feeling how you express emotional image and form by the
means of artistry through musical speech.
Tune in to the feeling of emotional image, form and artistry and feel how
youll express emotional image and form by the means of artistry. Gather
weight and play the piece by both hands in texture, harmony, dynamics and
balance with movement while accurately following phrasing and feeling
how you express emotional image and form by the means of artistry through
musical speech.
Complete these exercises well until you clearly feel that you express
emotional image and from by the means of artistry. It may take a few months
for a fully developed sensation to appear.
145
Lesson 46
Artistry+Emotional Image
+Form+Meter
While playing with emotional image, form and meter, you should
feel how emotional image and from merge into one image and become
supplemented with the internal pulsation.
Assignment
1. Tune in to the pieces emotional image, form and meter. Gather weight
and play the piece by both hands in texture, harmony, dynamics and balance
with movement while following phrasing and feeling how you express
emotional image, form and meter through musical speech.
2. Tune in to the pieces emotional image, form, meter and artistry.
Feel how youll express emotional image, form and meter by the means of
artistry. Gather weight and play the piece by both hands in texture, harmony,
dynamics and balance with movement while following phrasing and feeling
how you express emotional image, form and meter by the means of artistry
through musical speech.
Pulsate internally by 8th notes (not by quarter notes) in order to keep a
steady meter while playing the piece. At such pulse, meter becomes simply
calm, not infnitely slow. Sing the piece in your head (without intonation) in
emotional image with tempo that youll use to play the piece while feeling
the pulsation by 8th notes.
Attention: when playing, you have to imagine artistry, emotional image,
form and meter in the succession they are written.
You may use Fig. 71, p. 120 to imagine phrasing clearer.
146
Ave Maria

Lento
poco rit.
beginning
introduction 1
introduction 2
rising to climax
beginning
147
a tempo
rit.
development
climax
introduction 2
conclusion
Fig. 82
148
Lesson 47
Learning MEMs and Movements
Learning is necessary, frst of all, to train your concentration of attention
on sound, phrasing, emotional image, form, meter and artistry, as well as on
the ability to feel all MEMs simultaneously so that you could submerge and
remain in the deep world of music throughout an entire played piece without
jumping out after a few seconds.
Attention: its important to repeat each part of the piece exactly 5 times.
You move to a new level of performance only your 5th time: your fngers
begin to feel keys much better; they begin to play imagined sounds fner
and more accurately; dynamics, balance, phrasing and musical speech are
played more accurately; it becomes easier to control your sitting position.
Assignment 1
Feel the pulse of the needed tempo before playing.
Day 1. Play the piece by sentences using Fig. 71, p. 120:
5 times in moderate tempo.
Day 2. Play the piece by 2 sentences:
Day 3. Play the piece by 4 sentences:
Day 4. Play the whole piece:
149
Assignment 2
On this stage you maximize precision of all movements and perfect your
technique make sure that you have time to control each fnger and each
leap while intonating each interval with musical speech.
Day 1. Separately play the melody and accompaniment by sentences:
Now do the same by both hands.
Day 2. Separately play the melody and accompaniment by 2 sentences:
Day 3. Separately play the melody and accompaniment by 4 sentences:
1 time in slow tempo;
Day 4. Separately play the melody and accompaniment in the entire piece:
1 time in slow tempo;
Learning blocks by 2 and 4 sentences is necessary for learning all
transitions between sentences, as well as to train stamina of mind and whole
arm muscles.
Learning virtuosic pieces this way excellently develops muscles and
dexterity of hands.
150
Lesson 48
Learning Diffcult Fragments
Theres a moment at a certain stage of learning a piece when only a few
diffcult fragments, which remain less comfortable for you to play, separate
you from a fully completed and qualitative learning. Here its necessary to
stop and fully concentrate on learning just those fragments without playing
the whole piece once again in hope that these fragments will be somehow
learned.
When learning diffcult fragments, focus your attention on even clearer
sound idea and even more accurate technique (wrist and elbow movements).
As a rule, these MEMs become less noticeable for your attention by the time
of learning a piece.
Assignment
1.Learndiffcultfragments.
Play the fragment by each hand:
2.Learndiffcultfragmentsincontext (1 line before and 1 line after
the fragment).
Play the fragment in context by each hand:
3.Playthewholepiecetoidentifynewdiffcultfragments.
Play the piece by both hands noticing all diffcult fragments.
Mark new diffcult fragments for further learning.
Practice shows that its enough to learn diffcult fragments for 12 days
using this plan for a piece to be learned completely. If you dont use this
plan, but continue to sort of learn diffcult fragments by repeating them just
several times while playing the whole piece, then the process of learning
may be delayed for months.
151
Lesson 49
Preventing Overplaying the Piece.
Creativity
Preventing Overplaying the Piece
Overplaying a piece happens when a piece is already learned, your
attention weakens, your ear becomes dull from repeating the piece many
times and you begin to play all MEMs at 1/2 quality. This mistake leads
you to begin playing less comfortably every time, and you begin playing
automatically and stop controlling your playing.
To avoid overplaying, its necessary to put aside the played piece for some
time (1-2 months). After the break, remember the piece by the following plan
and purge all MEMs that you imagine while playing.
Assignment 1
Imagine and play all MEMs more accurately, in relief, fner and deeper
while completing the assignment.
1. Sound texture with movement and intonation with weight
Imagine both hands in sound texture with movement. Gather weight
and play the piece. Pay attention only to sound texture with movement and
correct technique (play without pedal).
2. Harmony
Attentively listen to harmonies of the piece. Imagine both hands in sound
texture with harmony and movement. Gather weight and play the piece.
Pay attention only to sound texture in harmony with movement and correct
technique (play without pedal).
3. Dynamics and balance
Imagine both hands in sound texture with harmony, dynamics and
balance with movement. Gather weight and play the piece. Pay attention to
sound texture in harmony, dynamics and balance with movement and correct
technique (play with pedal).
4. Musical speech
Gather weight and play the piece with musical speech. Pay attention to
sound texture in harmony, dynamics and balance with movement.
5. Phrasing
Gather weight and play the piece with musical speech and phrasing. Pay
attention to texture in harmony, dynamics and balance with movement.
152
Creativity
Creativity is a stage for which youve learned to correctly analyze and
learn a piece. This is the stage when all ideas and movements are learned so
well that you can turn your attention to those feelings that are the deepest
and most secret for you. Those feelings that refect your life: your desires,
aspirations, hopes, joy, love, frustrations, low spirits, depression, new hopes,
new happiness in a few words, what Your Life consists of.
You can tell about all of it when you play a piece and make all MEMs
serve the main idea. Its similar to painting: youve got all necessary paint
colors (ideas of MEMs), all brushes and an experienced hand (performance
of MEMs). Now you can close your eyes and imagine the painting that
you want to paint. You pick the right colors in the right quantities for your
painting. You make movements with your brush to refect your idea.
And this is the meaning of creativity: fnding the balance and correct
dose of each MEM so that music sounds and lives in harmony. Dive deep
into your world, concentrate all of your attention on it and simply follow the
movement of your soul while performing all MEMs. Forget about the score
and concentrate on your spiritual world.
Assignment 2
Feel how music may refect your life to allow music to fow from your
heart completely opening up your soul and creative potential. Add your
feeling of inspiration to the pieces emotional image. Tune in to emotional
image as youve done earlier, and now enrich this image by your inspiration.
Thereby, youll as though merge with emotional image and tell the story of
your own life. Thereby, image-inspiration is immersion into maximally
bright emotional image of a piece. Its necessary to learn to arouse inspiration
with the power of your soul and learn it by movements of hands and touches
of fngertips in order to feel comfort while playing with inspiration on stage.
1. Image-inspiration
Tune in to image-inspiration, gather weight and play the piece paying
attention to sound texture in harmony, dynamics and balance with movement
and phrasing, feeling how you express image-inspiration through musical
speech.
2. Form
Tune in to image-inspiration and the part of the composition scheme,
gather weight and play the piece paying attention to sound texture in harmony,
dynamics and balance with movement and phrasing,
feeling how you express image-inspiration and form through musical
speech.
3. Meter
Tune in to image-inspiration, form and meter, gather weight and play the
153
piece paying attention to sound texture in harmony, dynamics and balance
with movement and phrasing, feeling how you express image- inspiration,
form and meter through musical speech.
4. Artistry+image-inspiration+form+meter
Tune in to image-inspiration, a part of the composition scheme, meter
and artistry, gather weight and play the piece paying attention to sound
texture in harmony, dynamics and balance with movement and phrasing,
feeling how you express image-inspiration, form and meter by the means of
Optionally, you can repeat the Assignment 2 from Lesson 47 (p. 149)
and the Assignment from Lesson 48 (p. 150).
Thanks to purging all MEMs, you perfect your internal ear ideas and
your physical movements you reach a new level of dexterity and strength
of fngers that seemed impossible to achieve before.
154
Lesson 50
Rehearsing for Stage Performance
Begin rehearsing your piece to an audience as soon as its completely
learned. The plan of rehearsing is as follows:
1. Begin rehearsing before the most calm listeners toys. When no
one interferes with your energy while you play. When the energy exchange is
minimal and it doesnt distract you from playing.
2. Then move to a friendly and appreciative audience. When a listener
is ready to listen to you with an appreciation, and his light and warm energy
supports and nurtures you and doesnt disturb your monologue. Begin with a
minimal number of listeners one person will be enough for training your
endurance and will.
3. As soon as you feel that you can play confdently and lead one person,
begin to add a new listener one by one. You have to control your playing
before your audience feel whether you resist and lead or sink in
thoughts and energy of your audience.
And fnally, if you have to play in a new room and on a new instrument,
keep in mind that the room and the instrument both have their own energy
that you need to bend to your will, no matter how exciting and unconquerable
this road might be.
Thereby, youll gradually train your will to overcome malevolent and
indifferent listeners, untamed instruments and cold concert halls.
Youll move to a higher and better level of performance after such
performances:
1. Your will is going to get stronger itll become easier to hold your
audience and subdue your instrument.
2. Itll become easier to perform a piece technically sensations in your
fngers and arms will be changing. Fingertips will better, stronger and more
confdently feel their point of contact with keys after each performance, all
arm movements will get deeper and more accurate.
Attention: your subconsciousness is responsible for 90% of workload
during a performance. Therefore, all MEMs, which youve analyzed in a
piece, need to be learned completely so that all information would have time
to submerge into your subconsciousness.
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Conclusion
Studying with the PianoWell system is hard work, high exactingness
towards yourself and a passionate desire to reach perfection in performance.
This system is currently the only possibility to realize a dream about free,
virtuosic and truly musical playing. Only this system develops all types of
internal ear that each pianist needs. It develops coordination of movements
(correct sound extraction, fuent technique) and teaches all musical means of
expression including artistry. Thanks to all above, a pianist is able to correctly
analyze a piece in a short time, quickly learn it and effectively rehearse it on
stage. All of this makes the learning process maximally effcient, smart and
conscious.
A professional pianist can master the whole system within 6 months of
active studies, and, pending on good physical and organizational grounds,
become a successful and recognizable pianist after quickly gathering a
necessary repertoire for recitals and competitions.
The PianoWell system is just a material, an opportunity for success. As
always, the main thing is YOU, your desire or unwillingness, your ability to
work, your patience or laziness. The difference between this system and other
studies is in the opportunity for each pianist with a successful personality to
really reach the desired result.
Good luck!
Sincerely,
Emma Leiuman
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Appendix
Motifs
1. Trochee 2. Iambus

Phrases
3. Trochee 4. Iambus

5. Amphibrach
6. Anapest
Sentences
7. Trochee
8. Iambus
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The Reminder
The Rules of Effcient Learning
Its necessary to follow the rules of completing assignments in order to
pass this course effectively while studying independently:
1. Accurately follow all tasks in assignments. Dont invent anything
new in assignments. Imagine all MEMs in an indicated succession. This
course has been thoroughly thought out; all steps have been well considered.
Failing to follow the system in assignments will lead you away from desired
results and whittle away your efforts and time which you spent to complete
the assignments.
2. Carry out each task in assignments to a quality result. Dont consider an
assignment to be too easy, unimportant or too boring. Dont skip assignments;
dont rush to play something right away. Be patient while completing easy
assignments.
3. Dont consider the pieces from this textbook too easy for you. Theyre
selected to make sure you pass the course effectively, with maximum quality
and in short time. Only pieces with such transparent texture will allow you
(in the beginning stage of studying) to dive deep into the world of music
when, while playing, your internal ear and head will be working 100 percent.
4. If your frst attempt to complete an assignment wasnt successful,
it doesnt mean that the assignment is impossible to complete or cant be
understood as written.
In this course, everything is written clear, all assignments are feasible
regardless of your current musical abilities. All assignments are geared
towards development of absolutely new qualities for you (whether in
performance or in internal ear ideas).
Therefore, you need to step over your laziness and apply more effort and
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time to lead an assignment to a desired result.
5. Theres no soup in this course. All information is highly concentrated.
Therefore, give your complete attention to each phrase, dont miss
anything!
6. In this course, each new assignment is built on the basis of the previous
material. Each new assignment is a bit more complex than the previous one.
Therefore, complete each assignment carefully in order to pass the course
with ease and content.
7. Be patient and honest while completing assignments. Dont complete
assignments by halves. You wont be able to master new MEMs without
mastering previous MEMs in full measure. Keep in mind, if you think youre
doing an assignment at your best, in reality youre working 1/10 of your
strength.
Try to reach the impossible: do everything even better and more accurately
this is the key to your success!
The PianoWell system only gives you an opportunity to solve your
problems and reach a desired result. 90% of success in passing this course
depends on you only!
If necessary, you can always get a Skype consultation about completing
assignments.
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Timbre
1. Tenacious, lively and smart fngertips that play sounds are absent.
Fingertips are sluggish and insensitive.
Timbral ear development activates fngertips making them lively and
tenacious because a clearly imagined sound is transferred to fnger pads with
a lively impulse.
2.The1stfnger(thumb)isdependent.Thetenaciousfngertipisabsent.
Correct hand position, wrist movement and clear timbre idea force the 1st
fnger to work independently. It plays a note not at the expense of hand, but
reaches it independently.
3. A pianist cant name sounding notes in a piano or simple orchestra piece.
Hecantclearlysinganotewithoutplayingthisnotefrst.
Developing internal timbral ear develops absolute pitch.
4. While listening to a piece, all sounding instruments seem to blend into
one general sounding: its hard to distinguish separately sounding groups
of instruments and hear those instruments that are almost unnoticeable at
frst.
Thanks to timbral ear development, a pianist hears-sees the whole timbral
texture while listening to a piece (how violins, cellos and violas sound, where
brass instruments enter, how polyphony is distributed between instruments).
He hears a hardly noticeable sounding of instruments, discovers new nuances
in the sounding of familiar instruments. Therefore, the pianist even better
memorizes all timbres of instruments and voices with his internal ear. The
pianist feels a great beauty of music with such listening because he feels the
whole musical texture more completely and fner.
Such concentration and conscious approach to sound allows the pianist to
hear notes that sound in music. The pianist will soon feel that he is able to
distinguish notes and clearly name them. Timbral ear will begin to develop
absolute pitch.
Typical Problems of Pianists Related to Wrong Sound
Production and Undeveloped Internal Musical Ear
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Sound Movement
1. The wrist is static and tensioned.
The correct position of wrist and internal idea of sound movement that is
coordinated with wrist movement make the wrist melodious, free, fexible and
elastic.
frst.
When concentrating on discerning sound movement, a pianist begins to feel
timbres of instruments even fner, all music ceases to be static and begins to
revive and move in space.
Polyphony
1. Some notes dont sound in chords; intervals dont sound simultaneously.
Polyphonic ear development (an ability to imagine all notes in intervals
or chords simultaneously) and the skills of correct sound production allow to
control each played sound.
2. Problems with learning polyphonic pieces by heart. Inability to control
sounds in several voices simultaneously.
An ability to imagine all voice lines with timbral ear allows quickly imprinting
a polyphonic piece in your internal ear and pre-hearing and controlling several
voices simultaneously while playing.
frst.
Thanks to polyphonic ear development, while listening to a piece, a pianist
sees the whole picture of polyphonic texture, feels the parallel development
of voices and can concentrate on several voices simultaneously, therefore,
widening the perception limits of music.
Performance
1. A wrong sitting position: an excessive swinging of torso, curved back
and raised shoulders, a detached sitting position, wrong bench height,
wrong feet position that prevent the passage of weight to the instrument
during a performance.
The correct sitting position is connected with an effcient expression of the
conceived on the instrument, i.e. external movements are coordinated with
internal ideas of sound by certain rules. Therefore, correct sound ideas will
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naturally create correct movements. Sitting position is in the system with
MEMs and, therefore, its under constant control during a performance.
2.Awronghandposition:collapsingknuckles,collapsingfngerphalanxes,
a wrong high position of the wrist.
The correct hand position (its alignment) is connected with an effective
expression of the conceived on the instrument, i.e. external movements are
coordinated with internal ideas of sound by certain rules. Therefore, correct
sound ideas will naturally create correct movements. Arm movements are in
the system with MEMs and, therefore, they are under constant control during
a performance.
3. A wrong elbow position and movement. The elbow is too static and
clasped to the torso or too loose.
The correct elbow position and movement are connected with maximally
precise and dexterous position changes. All movements are in the system with
MEMs and, therefore, the elbow is under constant control during a performance.
4. Problems with leaps, arpeggios, and position changes: playing isnt
dexterous, comfortable and easy, there are many unnecessary movements
and mishits.
An exact knowledge of where and how the elbow prepares a new position
allows developing skills of accurate, smart and planned arm movements.
5.Unnecessaryfngermovements:overliftingoffngers.Unnecessaryarm
movements: unnecessary hand, wrist and elbow movements.
Unnecessary fnger movements are caused by the absence of tenacious
fngertips when its not enough to simply put a fnger on a key to play a note,
but its necessary to lift the fnger. Unnecessary fnger movements are caused
by the absence of correct intonation of intervals. This leads to a wrong idea
that the dexterity of fngers is located in fngers themselves while, in reality, the
dexterity of fngers is located in the joints, tendons and muscles of hand.
Unnecessary arm movements are caused by the absence of fexible and
melodious wrist when a pianist has to intuitively make additional movements
to release his arms. Unnecessary arm movements are caused by an incorrectly
working elbow when it doesnt help technically and creates additional
unnecessary movements obstacles for a dexterous and comfortable playing.
Thanks to active fngertips, correct elbow movements and correct intonation,
the pianist doesnt spend time on unnecessary movements. His playing becomes
fexible, dexterous, comfortable and fast.
Intonation and Weight
1.Ashort(notsinging)sound:soundsseemseparate,theydontfowone
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into another.
Mastering internal intonation with weight and correct arm movements
allows singing played sounds legato when sounds fow one into another as
though being born one from another.
2. Sound is weak, empty and clamorous.
Mastering weight and correct sitting position flls torso and arms with free
energy that fows to the keyboard through hands flling up sounds with free
vibration. Thanks to playing with intonation and weight, sound becomes full,
three-dimensional, relief, expressive, colorful, juicy and melodious.
3. All movements are uncomfortable, jerky and fussy.
Mastering intonation allows maintaining a feeling of weight while playing.
Weight makes all movements more plastic, free, fexible and dexterous.
4.Armsgetfatiguedfast.Dexterityoffngersdisappearsinafasttempo.
Establishing the correct sound production and correct work of arm muscles
without unnecessary movements allows saving time and energy while playing.
The correct breathing of arms is developed as well. Thanks to this, arms
dont get fatigued and strained even in fast tempos.
5. A stomping, not singing sound. An upright key touch.
Mastering timbre, sound movement and correct wrist and elbow movements
allows developing a correct sliding key touch with fnger pads. Further
development of intonation and weight makes sound rich and melodious.
6. Playing as though in suspense, restraining weight in arms. Playing not
into the piano without passing weight to the instrument.
Proper hand position, proper sitting position with straight back, correct wrist
and elbow work and the skill of playing with weight (which is passed through
intonation) allow playing with weight which is freely passed to the instrument
without restraining energy in torso and arms.
7. No control over sound: a pianist hears that everything sounds harsh, but
cantfxit(hewantstoplayanotesofterandgentler,butthenotedoesnt
sound; he wants to play a note richer, louder and deeper, but it sounds
harshandclamorous).
The pianist develops his skills of pre-hearing sounds of necessary quality
and correct sound production when his arms accurately express his ideas
allowing him to control each played sound.
8.Fingersaresoft,weakandhollow,notstrongandfrm.
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Constant playing with correct sound production (correct arm movements,
intonation and free passing of weight to the instrument) gradually strengthens
the muscles of fngers and hands. A pianist begins to stand on his fngers.
9. Hampered energy and constrained torso and arms.
The correct sitting position helps, not hampers, weight pass to the instrument
and allows energy to freely pass to the keyboard removing all unnecessary
tension in torso and arms.
10. All passages are hollow and inexpressive; theyre played unevenly and
loosely.
Thanks to internal intonation, fngers exert before playing a note and control
sound. Sounds are no longer loose and sound equally and evenly; all passages
are played plastically and fexibly.
11. Octaves are played uncomfortably; arms and wrists get strained.
Octaves are played dirty in fast tempos.
Imagining timbre with movement, correct sound production (active
fngertips of the 1st and 5th fngers, correct [slightly low] wrist position and
proper elbow movements in position changes) and the skill of passing weight
to the instrument through intonation and correct sitting position make playing
octaves fexible and dexterous.
12.Wristsgettiredindoublenotes,fngersdontmovesynchronously.
Hand muscles and tendons begin to develop thanks to the correct idea of
timbre with movement, correct wrist movement, active fngertips and internal
intonation of sounds with weight. They, in fact, control fnger movement while
playing double notes.
13. All dynamic nuances and articulations are done improperly and
unnaturally giving a pianist even more discomfort and tenseness.
Internal singing with weight of all imagined dynamic nuances and
articulations

Dynamics
1. Fine gradations of dynamics are absent, approximate mf and mp instead
of a rich and bright dynamics palette.
The skills to imagine timbre in various dynamic nuances from pp to ff and
correctly play the conceived on the instrument allow playing the whole range
of dynamic nuances with a greater quality and fneness.
2. All crescendo and diminuendo are approximate.
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The skills to imagine all gradations of crescendo and diminuendo with
timbral ear and correctly perform the conceived on the instrument allow all
volume increases and decreases to be performed maximally accurately and
clear.
3. The feeling of dynamics while playing isnt connected with the ability
to pass weight, but connected with even more constraint and discomfort.
P is insuffciently quiet, even, transparent and delicate; sounds often
disappear. While playing p, a pianist constrains even more being afraid
thathissoundwilleitherjumpout(soundtooloud)ordisappear.Fis
insuffcientlyrichandloud;itdoesntsoundinfullscaleorsoundsharsh.
While playing f, the pianist constrains even more and applies more force,
but not free weight.
Imagining sound timbre in a necessary dynamic nuance develops a skill to
play as much sound with an active fngertip as it was imagined. And the skill of
playing with weight allows playing with a full prop. This full prop, depending
on a necessary dynamic nuance, will be of various quality.
Balance
1. Its hard to highlight a sound or voice in an interval or chord while
preserving synchronicity in playing notes.
Imagining balance with timbral ear (a skill to imagine several voices
simultaneously in various dynamic nuances) allows to simultaneously control
several fngers. And the skill of passing weight to the instrument allows to
accurately distribute weight between fngers.
2.Themelodyisntclear,melodiousandfoating.
The skills of balance and intonation with weight allow to freely sing the
melody enjoying its beautiful, melodious and free sounding.
3. It seems like therere too many sounds in a played piece, sounding isnt
balanced.
The ability to imagine the whole polyphony (texture) in a piece on various
levels of dynamics and balance develops a fner control of weight and simplifes
playing a piece, even one with a very thick texture.
4. While listening to a piece, a pianist hardly notices changes in dynamics
and doesnt see the whole picture of dynamic nuances.
By focusing attention on identifying dynamic nuances that sound in a
melody, accompaniment, bass or passages and focusing on increasing volume
in crescendos and gradually decreasing volume in diminuendos, the pianist
begins to better and fner feel the whole dynamic picture of the piece, he begins
to hear dynamics multilayer. With such listening, the pianist develops a wider
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range of his dynamics ear his ear notices both the quietest and the loudest
sound nuances and he memorizes the sounding of texture in an accurate
balance.
Articulations
1. Articulations are inaccurate and unnatural: accent is too slack or hard;
tenuto is shallow and unnoticeable to ear; staccato is inaccurate, not too
sharp or too jerky. All articulations are uncomfortable to play; arms and
energy stiffen even more on articulations.
Mastering intonation and weight is the foundation of correct and comfortable
playing of all articulations. Correctly distributed weight and speed in intonation
of articulations allow all articulations to be played accurately. And correct
playing allows weight to pass to the instrument without obstacles and tensions.
Its impossible to successfully play articulations without the skills of intonation
and weight.
2. Articulations dont express anything in intonation of musical speech. It
all comes down to a short, long or sharper key touch.
Its possible to feel the meaning of an articulation only through intonation
and musical speech (the skills of musical speech make articulation sensing even
brighter and clearer). Only then articulations will supplement the meaning of
a played piece. A simple imitation of the sounding of an articulation will do
harm to a performance by creating an indistinct sounding and unnecessary
tension in the mind and arms.
3. While listening to a piece, a pianist doesnt pay attention to how
articulations are performed; they dont express anything for him in music.
By intonating the melody together with the performer, the pianist feels how
differently its intonated: where intonation is with an accent, or light staccato,
or plangent tenuto, or soft legato, or clear non legato. He feels a multilayered
texture (for example, a simultaneous intonation of legato and staccato). Such
parallel intonation of melodies together with the performer develops a good
skill of correct intonation of articulations.
Sound Texture
Thefeelingofafngerthatgrowsthroughakeyisabsent.Adeepand
sonorous sound is absent.
Development of a three-dimensional and deep sound idea allows the muscles
of fngers in the hand to begin working even better making the muscles even
more plastic, elastic and strong. Such key touching adds softness and fullness to
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sound. Such imagining of deep sound infuences the quality of singing sounds
and makes intonation even more spacious.
Musical Speech
1. A pianist doesnt feel any emotional meaning in intervallic steps. He
doesnt feel any difference between them and between ascending and
descending intervals. For example, the pianist doesnt know what a third
or a second speaks about.
Mastering musical speech on the basis of intonation develops intonational-
melodic ear that allows to emotionally feel the difference between various
intervals.
2. The absence of live musical speech while playing a piece everything
soundsfat,nonreliefandboring.Musicdoesntexpressanything,theres
no breathing, free motion and beauty in it.
Thanks to a fne feeling of meaning in intervallic steps, intonation fnds the
main thing emotional texture. All melodic patterns are fnely and fexibly
intonated expressing the smallest nuances of changing emotions in intonated
intervals.
A pianist begins to feel that by intonating intervals he discovers a musical
form of speech musical speech. The pianist begins to speak using sounds:
his speech transforms to intonated intervals and his voice transforms to sounds
of the instrument. Thanks to musical speech, the pianist is able to express the
fnest nuances of human speech through playing.
3. All agogical deviations related to musical speech are played and sound
unnaturally and farfetched without providing any pleasure.
As soon as a pianist masters musical speech, all rubato in his performance
become natural and beautiful because intonation of sounds with musical
speech makes intonation itself more expressive, deeper and fner. And thats
what infuences the hardly noticeable tempo deviations in intonated melodies.
4.Apianistconfusesafourthwithaffthoraffthwithasixthbyearand
cant always clearly sing these intervals. While singing a familiar melody,
the pianist doesnt feel intervals, but simply sings familiar sounds.
By internally intonating musical speech and developing intonational-
melodic ear, the pianist notices that all music is flled with intervals he
clearly feels them in pieces played by others as well as in his own singing.
5. While listening to a recording, a pianist cant always identify whether
the melody goes up or down, cant clearly hear on what interval the melody
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goes or what it is that intervals express.
By developing intonational-melodic ear, the pianist begins to feel musical
speech in intervals through intonation (their direction and emotional texture)
and no longer passively perceives sounds by ear. Such intonational listening to
music develops melodic ear very well because its trained to decode a mass of
musical patterns typical for musical speech.
Meter
1. A pianist cant always choose a necessary tempo in which he is going to
play a piece: its too hurried and fussy or too listless and stagnant.
By developing the sense of pulse (the internal sense of meter), the pianist
feels a necessary pulse and meter that refect emotional image of a piece.
Therefore, the pianist always chooses the right tempo.
2. Its hard for a pianist to keep a strict and single tempo while playing a
piece. A metronome has to be used often for an even tempo and meter.
By developing metro-rhythmical ear and working out the internal sense of
meter, the pianist feels and keeps a single pulse while playing, combining it
into the system with all other MEMs.
3. Crescendos are played with a small acceleration of tempo; diminuendos
areplayedwithasmalldecelerationoftempo(allofwhichiswrong).Its
hard for a pianist to enter the original tempo after a tempo deviation
(rubato). All ritenuto and accelerando are played inaccurately and
untimely.
Keenly feeling all necessary tempo deviations by the internal pulse, the
pianist always accurately calculates all accelerations and decelerations and
easily enters the original tempo. All tempo changes are natural in the pianists
performance because they are connected with his breath.
4.Apianistexperiencesdiffcultyfeelingmeteremotionallywhilelistening
to a piece.
While listening to a performance, the pianist can always feel the pulse of
music his own pulse and breathing tune in to the performance and allow
him to submerge deeper into the pieces emotional image. At this moment
meter stops being just a metronome and begins to express music it becomes
energetic, active, excited or calm, not just fast or slow.
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Harmony
1. A pianist doesnt emotionally feel changes of harmonies; he doesnt feel
deep and three-dimensional texture of harmonies. If asked to show the
tonic or a bright and colorful harmony with more expression, the pianist
willdoitartifciallyintheformofrubatoordynamicnuances,butwont
feel harmony with his own internal vibrations and wont be able to express
harmony coloring through sound and performance. This show off
harmony wont give the pianist any pleasure and comfort while playing.
The ability to imagine timbre in emotional coloring of harmony and feel
various vibrations in various harmonies makes intonation fner, prettier, deeper
and more diverse and flls it with a greater meaning and expressiveness. All
smallest agogical tempo deviations that are related to intonation of harmonies
sound naturally giving the pianist even more pleasure and freedom.
2. All harmonies sound the same with the same vibrations and colors in
a performance. Its boring and tiresome to listen to this performance; the
listeners ear has nothing to catch on and nowhere to rest. Theres a feeling
that the music expresses the same mood all the time and that sounds have
the same color.
A pianist whos able to imagine harmony and clearly express it through
playing gives his audience a possibility to feel all nuances of intonation and
sounding harmonies. Such playing is always interesting to listen to; music
shows relief, logic and development.
3. While looking at a chord in a score, a pianist cant hear its harmonic
coloring with his internal ear.
The pianist isnt able to clearly differentiate harmonies while listening
to a piece; he confuses the dominant with other chords and often cant even
differentiate the tonic. The pianist cant clearly differentiate major from minor.
He cant name the tonality of a piece by ear.
Thanks to a developed harmonic ear, the pianist is always able to feel
harmonies in scores and performances. By trying to catch all harmonies while
listening to a piece, the pianist better feels all harmonic changes and colors.
He begins to clearly differentiate the tonic, subdominant, cadence, dominant,
diminished chords, deviations and modulations to other tonalities.
Phrasing
1. A pianists performance seems like an incoherent and endless speech.
If the pianist wants to somehow demarcate this endless and collaterally
unsubordinated sound stream and give it a certain completeness, then its
expressedinhisperformanceonlythroughartifcialrubatoanddynamic
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nuances that simply imitate natural phrasing. The pianist doesnt feel the
breath of motifs, phrases and sentences and doesnt feel natural beauty of
the completeness of musical speech in them.
By mastering correct phrasing, the pianist learns to correctly distribute weight
in sound blocks. The completeness of musical blocks lies in this hierarchy. It
adds wholeness, logic, unity and completeness to the vivid musical speech. A
similarity to verse rhymes is felt here: theres always one main (stressed) word
that unites the structure together, and all other words yearn to this word.
When the pianist feels (through intonation of musical speech) the hierarchy
and integration of intervals in a motif, motifs in a phrase, and phrases in a
sentence, then the pianists musical speech obtains fexibility and completeness.
Therefore, all agogical tempo deviations start being played absolutely naturally
within the frameworks of beautiful phrasing. Playing becomes very convenient
and easy because the integration of intonation leads to less noticeable arm
movements (all movements become very small, they are dosed within
performed phrasing) and less noticeable weight distribution (its also dosed
within performed phrasing).
2. A pianist doesnt feel the breath of motifs, phrases and sentences while
listening to a piece. All sounds seem like an endless stream.
By delineating sounds of melodies, feeling how smaller blocks are united
into bigger blocks, gradually structuring phrasing from motifs, phrases and
sentences, the pianist develops his architectonic ear.
By listening to a performance with intonation, musical speech and phrasing
(could be started with fnding motifs), the pianist begins to intonationally feel the
hierarchy of intervals they start joining towards culminating intervals and
create a sensation of completeness of motifs, phrases and sentences. By listening
to a piece this way, the pianist practices to decode motifs combinations of
iambs, trochees, dactyls, amphibrachs, anapests; the pianist trains himself to
correctly identify culminations of motifs in a score. The pianist learns to see
the structure of motifs, memorizes all possible combinations, trains to correctly
distribute weight in phrasing by intonating all culminating intervals with more
weight and expressiveness while listening to a piece.
Then, by focusing on motifs hierarchy, the pianist begins to see phrases
and even sentences. He begins to sense which motifs and phrases are intonated
with more weight and are culminating. The pianist gradually learns to see,
grasp and retain large blocks of a piece with his thought and learns to feel their
completeness.
Form
1. Its hard for a pianist to grasp a played piece and distribute energy in it.
The whole piece is played on a single energy level either on a low or high
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level. Theres no plot development, it seems like the performance doesnt
go anywhere.
The pianist doesnt correctly calculate the climax, doesnt reach it (makes an
energy slump where its necessary to continue gaining energy) and, therefore,
doesnt play the climax brightly and passionately enough.
By mastering the sense of form (the ability to correctly construct the
dramaturgic composition of a piece) and the ability to express form through
intonation of musical speech while playing, the pianist can always correctly
calculate energy to the climax and the climax itself is played brightly and really
culminating. The pianist can grasp the piece by large blocks and develops
large-scale breathing.
2. While listening to a piece, its hard for a pianist to draw its compositional
plan in his head: to see how many large blocks are in the piece, and how
the climaxes are arranged in them.
By listening to a piece while intonating it and feeling the size of sentences
in it, the pianist comprehends the entire piece or its major part because he
can plan the dramaturgic composition (introduction, beginning, development,
complication, rising to climax, climax, conclusion) by sentences. By such
attentive listening, the entire plan of the piece is gradually arranged in the
head. This plan is united by one bright culminating part. This feeling is similar
to the feeling of joined motifs, phrases or sentences. But its of a different scale
here.
Such intellectual attentive listening to a piece is an excellent training for
architectonic ear, i.e. the ability to imagine and retain form of a piece in the
mind.
Emotional Image
1. While performing, a pianist tries hard to express all his feelings and
beauty created by the music. But this emotional storm has a little effect on
his sound and performance. It only impedes the pianists playing giving
him new tensions and complicating his facial expression and pantomime
grimaces, loud breathing, torso swinging with a high rate and amplitude,
expressiveliftingofthearmsandhead,feetshuffing,etc.Thepianistcant
express everything he feels through his performance and, therefore, often
feels dissatisfaction from his playing.
After mastering the ability to express emotional image of a piece through
musical speech, the pianist himself becomes this image by becoming its energy
that leads him. Its a wonderful feeling the pianist disappears, only the pure
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energy of image remains that leads the music and controls intonation of
sounds and all movements. This is complete freedom and a deep meditation.
The pianist moves to a new level of performance during such moments.
2.Apianistsometimeshastroublewithaccuratelydefningemotional
image of a piece and understanding what the music is about. He cant
feel the music deeply enough and feel all emotional nuances in it.
Emotional image is created from harmonies by 90% and, therefore,
attentive listening to harmonies makes it maximally relief and understandable.
Artistry
During a stage performance, a pianist loses himself, slightly panics and
feels constraint while playing as though someone or something prevents
himfromcompletelyandfreelyopeninguptobeginplayingconfdently.
The pianist always plays less successfully on stage than he does at home.
He is left with a feeling of dissatisfaction after playing.
By developing the sense of artistry (imperiousness and confdence
of expression), the pianist tunes in for a successful performance. And by
mastering the ability to express artistry through musical speech, the pianist
includes this MEM to his system of performance. Thereby, the pianist masters
the main thing the ability to retain his artistry during a performance. He
always performs maximally confdently and brightly on stage and performs
all musical means of expression in full measure.
The pianist will love the stage and the next performance will give him
a feeling of anticipated bright happiness and confdence about his own
performance on stage, when the pianist controls his own performance, when
he leads the audience and together they create such a tremendously powerful
composition that just cant be done while playing without any audience.
172

The Art of
Piano Technique
Textbook for Professional Pianists
Second Edition
A Tutorial by
E Leiuman mma
2014
173
I started music training at 5 as the majority of professional pianists. In the beginning of my studies I
had an incorrect hand position and sound production. So when I started learning diffcult pieces, I couldnt
manage them. I felt that I couldnt completely open up in my performance. The energy was accumulating
and it grew to muscular and psychological tension. All of my pleasure from music disappeared and fear
appeared instead. Fear not to play beautifully, but with a harsh sound, fear to be less technical than my
classmates. My competitions and tours stopped bringing me any pleasure, joy and contentment.
At 14 I began to intuitively search for things that could give me a greater comfort while playing.
Some of my teachers were giving me ideas that inspired me to create my own method my own system
of correct sound production and piece analysis. Despite of high level of my teachers, none of them could
answer questions that accumulated within me. I found the answers only due to the fact that I developed
each remark of my teachers, found something new in it for myself and checked by the following lessons.
Then I wrote down things that I had found and comprised it into my system. This is how my knowledge
about the frst several musical means of expression started to appear.
Now the biggest joy for me is to see how my system helps other pianists who struggle with the same
problems. To see how a student opens up and gets pleasure and joy from playing. And that is what I
aspired for earlier in the course.
Thanks to the PianoWell system appearance, each pianist who has a desire to become a true
professional now has an opportunity to realize his dream. By mastering the skills of correct sound
production, developing all types of musical ear, mastering all musical means of expression in full measure
and mastering the correct piece analysis and learning, the pianist fnally advances to a long-awaited
and qualitatively new level of performance. He becomes a true musician, true professional, competent
performer and smart interpreter.

While learning the system, a pianist masters virtuosic technique, independent and effcient studying,
free and confdent playing on stage. The system also successfully solves all problems related to an incorrect
hand position and sound production that cause arm strain, harm, playing-related injuries and ailments.
This system is designed for those pianists who consider the Truth to be most important in playing, who can
work smart and accomplish each step with patience and love.

The website www.artofpianotechnique.com is a true educational resource for pianists and teachers.
Here youll fnd information on professional piano education, such as online video course and available
study materials.
Emma Leiuman, the author of the system, is a talented
pianist and teacher, Moscow State Conservatory graduate,
prize winner of international competitions.
2014
The system was under development
for 10+ years. Its based on the
authors performance experience,
studies with 20+ teachers and
professors and lessons with her
students.

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