A Tutorial by
E mma Leiuman
The Art of Piano Technique Textbook for Professional Pianists Second Edition
Published by Emma Leiuman • Singapore, Singapore 2014 1
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 finding his own interpretation of musical pieces in order not to be a simple imitator of someone’s ideas, but possess all necessary knowledge and skills to independently create a played piece. The “PianoWell” system is the first 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, you’ll have a possibility to learn to play piano correctly. When nothing will prevent you from developing a fully fledged technique, when you’ll 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 you’ll confidently and freely play on stage, when you’ll be able to quickly and qualitatively analyze and learn pieces. Most importantly, you’ll have a clear system of studying — when you know what certain steps bring success and why not making these steps brings failure. You’ll be fully responsible for the results of your studies and no longer spend a mass of time at the instrument with minimal results. You’ll 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:
[email protected]
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Contents Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------
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Sound Timber ----------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Sound Movement ------------------------------------------------------------- 10 Performance ------------------------------------------------------------------
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Position Change --------------------------------------------------------------- 18 Intonation --------------------------------------------------------------------- 21 Weight ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Singing the Piece with Weight ----------------------------------------------- 25 Playing the Piece with Intonation and Weight ------------------------------ 26 Polyphony ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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Learning ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Timber and Sound Movement ----------------------------------------------- 29 Position Change --------------------------------------------------------------- 32 Intonation and Weight -------------------------------------------------------- 32 Polyphony --------------------------------------------------------------------- 35 Dynamics ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 36 Dynamics ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 37 Balance ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Sound Texture ----------------------------------------------------------------- 44 Sound Texture ----------------------------------------------------------------- 46 Musical Speech ---------------------------------------------------------------- 47 Musical Speech ---------------------------------------------------------------- 48 Musical Speech ---------------------------------------------------------------- 48 Articulations ------------------------------------------------------------------ 51 Meter --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 53 Learning the Piece ------------------------------------------------------------ 57 Timbre with Movement. Position Change. Polyphony --------------------
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Intonation and Weight. Articulations --------------------------------------
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Harmony ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Harmony ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Harmony+Dynamics and Balance ------------------------------------------
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Sound Texture+Harmony ---------------------------------------------------
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Sound Texture+Harmony+Dynamics and Balance ------------------------
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Musical Speech ---------------------------------------------------------------
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Phrasing. Motif ---------------------------------------------------------------
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Playing Motifs ----------------------------------------------------------------
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Phrase --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Playing Phrases ---------------------------------------------------------------
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Sentence -----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Playing Sentences ------------------------------------------------------------- 111 Phrasing in the Piece --------------------------------------------------------- 119 Emotional Image --------------------------------------------------------------- 122 Form --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 124 Playing Form+Emotional Image --------------------------------------------- 132 Artistry ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 140 Artistry+Emotional Image+Form -------------------------------------------
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Artistry+Emotional Image+Form+Meter ----------------------------------
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Learning MEMs and Movements -------------------------------------------
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Learning Difficult Fragments -----------------------------------------------
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Preventing Overplaying the Piece. Creativity -----------------------------
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Rehearsing for Stage Performance -----------------------------------------
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Conclusion --------------------------------------------------------------------
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Appendix ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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The Reminder-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Article-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Introduction Dear friend, You’re now a lucky owner of this textbook which will help you learn competent and conscious piano playing. Now it’s 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, you’ll acquire the skills of correct sound production, such as sound timbre, sound movement and intonation with weight. You’ll master all musical means of expression (MEMs), develop your internal ear, movement coordination, dexterity of fingers 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. You’ll master the most important stage of learning a piece — competent, accurate and complete piece learning at the finish before a recital. All of this will allow you to effectively analyze and learn new pieces. After mastering all MEMs you’ll 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 efficient 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 it’s so important to learn all musical means of expression to the fullest extent.
Sincerely, Emma Leiuman
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Lesson 1
Sound Timbre Each pianist should develop his internal musical ear in order to learn to imagine music with his internal ear first 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. There’re several aspects of internal ear — timbral, dynamical, harmonic, intonational, metrical and architectonic. In this lesson, we’ll begin with timbral ear development because it’s one of the basics of the correct sound production. The ability to imagine timbre of sounds activates fingertips. And thereby, one of the main components of the correct sound production is developed — tenacious, lively and sensitive fingertips. 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 singer’s 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 you’ll find 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 Oneline 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. Great octave
Small octave
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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
basses and cellos
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Fig. 1. Approximate timbres ranges used to arrange a piece
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 find the main range in which a melody sounds and keep those few notes which step beyond the main range in the same timbre. It’s not important what timbers you’ll decide to arrange a piece with (just use those timbers that you’ll find suitable), but it’s important that the 7
chosen timbres will sound in your internal ear. You’ll 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 finish listening, try to reproduce the sounding of this timbre with your internal ear. It’s not important what note you’re 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 define 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 you’re 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: don’t 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. Don’t 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 “flashes”. 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. It’s 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 finished 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. 8
3. Use your internal ear to reproduce cellos sounding on each note written in the bass clef. Don’t stop your progress after the first “flashes” and continue to develop your timbral ear until you feel that you can stay in the world of sounds long enough. soprano
an example of an extended range limit
cellos group 1.
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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 — flexibility, 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 flow to the right and then to the left. The sound doesn’t 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 flows 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. It’s 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. It’s 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 you’re 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 it’s necessary to imagine sound movement. For instance: sound movement in a half note has to last exactly two quarter 10
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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 first 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 difficult ones, therefore, allow more time and patience to complete them. It’s important to learn to imagine each note in the piece in timbre with movement. Don’t imagine notes on end, but separately imagine each note in timbre with movement. The skill of sound movement is necessary for intonation and weight.
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Minuet
BWV Anh. 132
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Lesson 3
Performance Correct performance is necessary to efficiently express each imagined sound on the instrument. Each pianist should know: “what” (imagining a sound) doesn’t fully create “how” (correct movements to express the conceived). I.e. in order to perform comfortably, it’s not enough to just be able to imagine sounds, it’s necessary to correctly perform the conceived on the instrument. There’re 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 finger, the wrist shouldn’t rise. It should remain on the same level. The 1st finger plays with the edge of the fingertip. 4. Don’t 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, don’t curve. Then, while playing with intonation and weight, you’ll have a proper feeling of playing into the piano, not “into the floor”. 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. Don’t swing your torso. Swinging torso splashes out all energy that has to be passed to fingertips. Swinging torso becomes the means of passing your ideas to the instrument instead of arms and fingers, and you’ll have to spend much more energy to make your arms and fingers 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 floor. This position of feet is necessary to pass weight to the instrument. 8. Don’t lift your shoulders. It interferes with the natural passage of weight to the instrument through torso and arms. 9. Don’t 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. Don’t cave in fingers in the first phalanx. Otherwise, you won’t be able to control sound with fingertips. 11. Don’t stick your fingers to keys while playing. Lift those fingers that have finished playing. 13
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 fingers without making any additional hand twists. 13. Arms should remain free and without an unnecessary tension while playing. Only fingertips and weight of arms should be felt. The absence of unnecessary tension in arms will allow you to feel fingertips. There’re 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 isn’t 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 fingertip slightly exerts before playing a note, then feels how it touches the key and finally has time to free itself after playing it. The term “fingertip” is a sensation of an accurate and clear touch to a key that appears in your fingertip, as though there’s a small knob on it. As a rule, an unnecessary tension in arms prevents from feeling the fingertips. Therefore, don’t force tension in arms; your arms should be free while playing. This also prevents various arm illnesses. Don’t strain your arm if some of the played notes don’t sound at first when you play this way. Not sounding notes result from insufficiently developed fingertips and untrained arms. Don’t 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 don’t force strain in your arms, then you will first feel the fingertips on the stronger fingers (2nd and 3rd) while playing p. Then this sensation will appear on the weaker fingers 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 fingertips. 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 isn’t 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.
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Always remember: 1. Your wrist shouldn’t 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 inflexible.
Assignment 1
Now you’ll work out the most important and basic rule to imagine a note with your internal ear first 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 first) 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: it’s necessary to play the piece note by note with correct fingering in this assignment. Don’t 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 first 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 flows 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 1–2 measures first, and soon you’ll be able to imagine a sequence of sounds by large blocks of 1–2 lines. 2. Play only these imagined sounds with correct fingering. The rules of playing a sequence of sounds: sounds that go in the same direction are played with a single wrist movement. Don’t change your wrist position (raise or turn) while playing with your 1st finger. Don’t play notes automatically when completing this assignment. Don’t play sounds that you haven’t yet imagined. The assignment is considered finished if you’re 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 you’re about to play. 15
Assignment 3
1. Imagine one note in cellos timbre with movement (you can remind yourself by playing the note first) 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 fingering. Minuet is an easy piece, but you’ll work out some very important and necessary sound production skills on it. You’ll 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.
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Minuet BWV Anh. 132 1
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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 shouldn’t slow down your technique due to being awkward, constrained and stiff. While mastering position change on easy pieces, you probably won’t feel a big difference in your comfort. But your position change skills will be simply a must with more difficult pieces where you’ll encounter fast leaps and longer distances between positions. A position is a set of notes that you can play from your 1st finger to 5th finger without shifting your hand. Shifting the 1st finger 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. higher position
lower position
Fig. 8. Position change
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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. It’d be better to mark a position change on downbeat or on-beat. 2. It’d be better to mark a position change where elbow and wrist movements go in the same direction. 3. It’d be better to mark a position change on a longer note. 4. Position change is sometimes done on the first note of the new position. Additional rules to make a position change: 1. On the transitional notes, first make a full-fledged wrist movement and only then an elbow movement. When this new, unaccustomed movement is made a habit, you’ll be able to do it with flexibility, 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
Using Fig. 10, p. 20: 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 you’re about to play in timbre with movement.
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Minuet
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Lesson 5 Intonation Intonation is a technique that’s 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 fingers in the hand by developing hand muscles and master passing of weight to the instrument. It’s 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. It’s very important to feel it with the muscles and vocal cords in the throat. It’s important to remember this sensation and maintain it while playing. There’s an exact comparison — to stretch a huge spring between sounds. You can also imagine that the first sound is at point A, and there’s 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 (C–D, C–E) 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 difficult 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.
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C D E F G A B C
C D E F G A B C
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. It’s 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 — first imagine how these sounds are sung by a beautiful, three-dimensional timbre of a male or female singer. Then try to materialize what you’ve imagined by singing. 3. Don’t force sound while singing. Your sound has to vibrate freely, be beautiful, flow like water, but with resistance. While intonating, sound shouldn’t 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. It’s not necessary to sing intervals from C.
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Lesson 6 Weight Weight is a sensation of freedom throughout the body. It’s 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. Don’t confuse the feeling of freedom with a feeling of pressure, excess tension and artificial heaviness. Freedom is a state of complete relaxation — your muscles don’t 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 won’t be able to correctly pass weight while sitting on a soft armchair or sofa. Make sure to sit away from the keyboard so you don’t 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 floor. 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 you’ll 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 doesn’t stop in your pelvis, but flows through your torso, shoulders and arms to the instrument. The right foot should stay on the pedal; the left 23
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) flows 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 flows to the instrument. You don’t 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 first and only then sing intervals. 2) It’s not enough to just feel a sensation of weight before you sing. To be exact, it’s 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 won’t be able to pass weight to the instrument while playing. 2. Sing all ascending and descending intervals with correct intonation and weight (Fig. 11–12, p. 22). Singing with correct intonation and weight submerges you into a threedimensional space of free breathing. This also provides control of fingers while playing in fast tempos.
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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 first notes in the piece, gather weight, and sing sequentially all notes with correct intonation and weight. Don’t try to sing too many notes in a single breath. Sing as many notes as you can, but don’t rush. If it’s 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.
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Lesson 8
Playing the Piece with Intonation and Weight Assignment
Using Fig. 10, p. 20: 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 Adam’s apple begins moving noticeably. Attention: the feeling of resistance must remain in intonated intervals. Don’t overfly intervals, but sing them internally with hard work and resistance. Remember: the better resistance is in intonation, the better fingers exert before playing, and the better fingers are controlled.
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Lesson 9 Polyphony
Polyphony is an ability to imagine several voices in timbre with movement simultaneously. This skill is necessary to fully control all fingers, especially in polyphonic (many-parted) or chord textures. It’s 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 doesn’t match. Keep using this technique to imagine simultaneous notes when you will start having chords in future pieces. You’ll 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 (D–A, D–E, F–D, G–B, C–A, A–A, F–D, E–A, D–D) (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 note’s 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 you’re 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 you’re about to play in timbre with movement.
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Lesson 10 Learning
A pianist can’t 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 they’re converted by 90% to muscular memory, i.e. to movements of arms and fingers. Repeating small parts of a piece many times is necessary for effective and quick learning. Your fingers will then begin to remember the piece better and quicker, therefore, it’ll 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 first 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 You’ll feel a positive result in a week only if you use this plan of learning. Attention: if you feel that you’re losing control and concentration while playing by both hands, then play additionally 10 times by each hand. Don’t play automatically. Make sure to imagine and perform each note correctly.
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Lesson 11
Timbre and Sound Movement Assignment
Using Fig. 13, p. 30: 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 can’t 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, you’ll gradually learn to imagine timbre and movement simultaneously without preliminary analyzing sound movement.
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The Squirrels violins
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Lesson 12
Position Change Assignment
Using Fig. 14, p. 33: 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 isn’t 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.
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The Squirrels
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Lesson 14 Polyphony Assignment 1
Using Fig. 13, p. 30: 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
Using Fig. 14, p. 33: 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, it’s necessary to play the piece in slow tempo in order to have time to imagine and perform everything correctly.
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Lesson 15 Dynamics
Dynamics is related to timbre. Dynamic ear means how bright and clear you’re 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 recording’s loudness with your internal ear. It doesn’t matter what notes you imagine the loudness on, however, it’s important to imagine timbre of the sounds you’ve just heard in a huge, three-dimensional sounding of ff. 2. Decrease the recording’s loudness to f and complete the same exercise. 3. Complete the exercise in all dynamic nuances: ff, f, mf, mp, p, pp. It’s 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 shouldn’t be flat and harsh; it has to be three-dimensional and huge. Then imagine timbre with movement on note A in all dynamic nuances. Precisely define 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, you’ll be able to express loud and quiet sounds on the instrument as 36
precisely as you’ve 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
Using Fig. 15, p. 38: 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 fingertips: when p is played as quietly as you’ve imagined it; when f is played as loudly as you’ve imagined it. This exercise takes more patience and time than it may seem.
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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 first plan. There’re 3 rules to find the leading voice. 1. In a “melody + accompaniment” texture, the leading role is given to the melody. It sounds on the first plan with the accompaniment on the background. melody closer
accompaniment farther
Fig. 16. Balance, rule 1
2. The bass sounds closer in the accompaniment.
Fig. 17. Balance, rule 2
3. The 5th fingers (extreme voices) sound closer in chords (Fig. 18A).
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Fig. 18. Balance, rule 3
In intervals and octaves, one of the voices also has to be leading — it’s either the upper voice (Fig. 18B) or the lower voice (Fig. 18C).
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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 first plan, closer to you; all other voices are imagined in the far background. Balance is a finer gradation of dynamics; therefore, being accurate in imagining and expressing balance is very important in this assignment.
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The Squirrels melody is on the 1st plan, leading voices in accompaniment are on the 2nd plan
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Fig. 19. Dynamics and balance
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Lesson 18
Sound Texture Sound texture is necessary to develop a feeling in fingers that Sergey Rachmaninov called “the growth of fingers through keys”. While playing with this feeling, all movements become even smaller and deeper. Sound texture also transfigures intonation making it deeper, freer, more threedimensional and less flat. Sound texture is necessary to control sound better. You step into the three-dimensional space and depth of sound (sound texture) from the flatness 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 filled with the mass of ocean water. The main thing is not to imagine that you’re already on the bottom looking up. On the contrary, pass the whole water depth from the top to the bottom. It’s important to understand that it’s 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 you’ll definitely feel the difference in singing: you’ll 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. Don’t 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 44
movement. In this course, timbre that’s 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 first, and then at once imagine it in texture with movement. You’ll 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).
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Lesson 19 Sound texture may also be imagined in necessary dynamics and balance. Don’t try to imagine just texture in dynamics — it’s impossible, as it’s impossible to imagine just depth in dynamics. Keep in mind that it’s first 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.
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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. There’re 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 fifth — contemplation and conciliation. An octave — open statement. A unison — confident 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 finer interpretation of intonation. You’ll 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! It’s not enough to just think and imagine what meaning to assign to each interval. It’s possible to feel musical speech only by the correct intonation of sounds. In other words, it’s necessary to intonate sounds with a feeling of emotional meaning of each interval. Now you don’t 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 won’t feel any difference in intonated intervals during your first days of work. But you’ll gradually feel the fine difference between them with practice.
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Lesson 21 Assignment
Using Fig. 20, p. 49: 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, you’ll 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
Using Fig. 20, p. 49: 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. Feel how you express the meaning of intervals through intonation. Imagine 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. Feel how you express the meaning of intervals through intonation. Imagine sound texture in dynamics and balance with movement before playing each note . While playing by both hands, you’ll be able to intonate musical speech in both voices at the same time. Attention! This stage is very important because you won’t be able to feel musical speech right away. Keep in mind that it’s not enough to just correctly do the exercise; it’s necessary to repeat the correct actions as many times as it takes you to develop intonation-melodic ear.
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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. There’re 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. It’s intonated maximally energetically and distinctly. 51
Fig. 25. Martele
All accelerations and increases of weight have to be started from the second half of the way. The first 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.
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Lesson 24 Meter
In a musical piece, meter is the steady pulse that unites and organizes sounds in time. It’s 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. Define the unit of pulse in the piece. You’ll 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 first 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 it’s more visible. Work on this exercise long enough because the sense of pulse (meter) isn’t developed quickly. 3. Tune in to the mood of the piece and feel its internal pulse in slow tempo first, 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 you’ll be able to complete everything with quality while having time to imagine all MEMs. Attention: if you don’t feel meter, the pulse of the piece, then you’ve poorly completed point 2 of the assignment. Keep in mind that tempo (meter) has to be strict without accelerations and decelerations. All agogical deviations 53
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.
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The Squirrels Allegro
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1
1
poco rit.
a tempo 1
2
2
1 3 5
2
Fig. 26
56
4
2
2
2
2
4
2
1
2
1
1
4
2
3
4
2
5
1 2
5
4
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 fingertips on each played note with a maximally possible freedom in arms. Your finger 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, don’t 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 fingertips while your arms remain free even when playing f. You may repeat lines more than five times until you feel comfort in arms and fingertips. 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. It’s important to repeat every fragment of the piece as many times as it’s indicated in the plan. It’s 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 fingers 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 couldn’t imagine everything at once, then by the end of learning you’ll be able to tune in in a matter of a few seconds. 57
Such monotonous work exists in all fields of work: first goes creativity, and then — monotony. It’s the only way to bring all started matters to the end. It’s 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. It’s 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: 5 times in slow tempo; 5 times in moderate tempo; 5 times in lively tempo; 5 times in fast tempo. Day 3. Play the piece by 4 lines: 5 times in slow tempo; 5 times in moderate tempo; 5 times in lively tempo; 5 times in fast tempo. Day 4. Play the whole piece; 5 times in slow tempo; 5 times in moderate tempo; 5 times in lively tempo; 5 times in fast tempo. Day 5. Play difficult fragments in the piece several times (until you feel comfort in fingertips and freedom in arms) in slow tempo, moderate tempo, lively tempo and fast tempo. Mark new difficult fragments that you’ll learn the next day. You’ll be able to play “The Squirrels” easily in fast tempo only with such learning.
58
Lesson 26
Timbre with Movement. Position Change. Polyphony Assignment
Using Fig. 27, p. 60: 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 each note in timbre with movement. 5. Imagine both hands in timbre with movement. 6. Play the piece by both hands with correct technique while imagining each note in timbre with movement.
59
Ave Maria violas
→
←→
← cellos soprano 3
4
54
simile
5
4
1
3 5
4
3 4
2 4
3
3 5
2
4 5
54
60
4 5
2
1
1
2
5
4
3
2
2 1 5 2
2
→
3
2
3
2
3
2
1 1 2 2 2 5
3
4
3
2
1
→→ → 54
3
→
→
→
→
→ → → → → → ←
Preserve timbre movement in mordents: Fig. 27
61
→→←
Lesson 27
Intonation and Weight. Articulations Assignment
Using Fig. 28, p. 63: 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, don’t 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.
62
Ave Maria soft staccato or non legato
the scheme to intonate the accompaniment
3
4
54
simile
5
4
1
3 5
4
3 4
2 4
3
3 5
2
4 5
54
63
4 5
2
1
1
2
5
4
3
2
2 1 5 2
2
3
2
3
2
3
2
1 1 2 2 2 5
3
4
3
2
1
54
3
Fig. 28
64
Lesson 28 Harmony
Harmonies are consonances of notes. Harmonies in a score exist as chords or assembled consonances. In order to feel harmony, it’s necessary to play a chord or assemble it from notes. Harmony is necessary for a saturated, deep and fine sense of timbre, finer intonation and brighter idea of a piece’s emotional image. By singing a sound imagined in timbre and harmony, it’s possible to feel how vibrations in that sound change, how that sound begins to vibrate differently in your voice depending on harmony’s tint.
Assignment 1
Using Fig. 29 play a chord on the pedal and listen to its tint so that harmony’s sounding is reflected in your heart with a particular mood, experience. Play chords in various octaves — this will give additional emotional shadings of harmony. C major
E major
A major
C minor
E minor
A minor
C major
F major
A major
C minor
F minor
D major
F major
A minor
Fig. 29
65
B major
D minor
F minor
B minor
E major
G major
B major
E minor
G minor
B minor
By working on this assignment, you prepare your harmonic ear to feel emotional variance in more difficult harmonies of pieces. Pass this assignment 20 times and you’ll 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 (first 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.
66
Lesson 29 Assignment 1
Using Fig. 35, p. 68, listen to harmonies of the piece and find 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
Using Fig. 28, p. 63: 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 first, 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, you’ll be able to finely feel how, depending on the tint of harmony, your sensation of touching a key with your fingertip changes, and how intonation of sounds becomes finer and more flexible. 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.
67
Ave Maria 1.
2.
majestically, calmly
rich
5.
6.
4.
5.
spiritually, strictly, deeply, sternly, tightly calmly
majestically, calmly
8.
9.
10.
11.
saturated, allembracing
profoundly, strictly, sadly
strictly, rich
saturated, warmly
7.
saturated, strictly, earthly nobly harmony, more tense
3.
12.
13.
14.
majestically, calmly
tensely, tightly, dark
strictly, dark
15.
16.
tensely, dark, saturated tightly, dark, harmony with pain
17.
new, tight harmony, with pain
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
strictly, sadly
saturated, tensely
warm, light harmony
saturated, warmly
light, warmly, strictly
saturated, warmly
simply, light
68
25.
26.
27.
28.
warmly, saturated
majestically, warmly
saturated, warmly
profoundly, strictly, sadly
29.
30.
majestically, majestically, light light
35.
36.
saturated, earthly majestically, harmony, more calmly tense
31.
32.
strictly, sternly, majestically
dark, strictly
37.
38.
strictly, nobly
saturated, allembracing
33.
34.
profoundly, warmly, softly strictly, light
39.
40.
majestically, calmly
rich
41.
42.
43.
spiritually, deeply, calmly
strictly, sternly, tightly
majestically, calmly Fig. 30
Description of harmonies in this score is just a hint for your own definition of a harmony. Therefore, first attentively listen to a harmony and then look up its description. All descriptions should be felt as sound tint.
69
Lesson 30
Harmony +Dynamics and Balance In order to join harmony with dynamics and balance in your internal idea and performance, it’s 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
Using Fig. 31, p. 71: 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, dynamics and balance with movement.
70
Ave Maria melody on the 1st plan, lower voice in bass on the 2nd plan, higher voice in the accompaniment on the 3rd plan
3
4
54
5
4
1
3 5
4
3 4
2 4
3
3 5
2
4 5
54
71
4 5
2
1
1
2
5
4
3
2
2 1 5 2
2
3
2
3
2
3
2
1 1 2 2 2 5
3
4
3
2
1
54
3
Fig. 31
72
Lesson 31
Sound Texture+Harmony In order to join harmony with sound texture in your internal idea and performance, it’s 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. You’ll feel how space begins to be filled 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
Using Fig. 28, p. 63: 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.
73
Lesson 32
Sound Texture+Harmony +Dynamics and Balance In order to join harmony and dynamics with sound texture in your internal idea and performance, it’s 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
Using Fig. 31, p. 71: 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, dynamics and balance with movement. 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, dynamics and balance with movement. 5. Mark pedal in the score. 6. Gather weight and play the piece by both hands in texture, harmony, dynamics and balance with movement and pedal (Fig. 32, p. 75). Play the piece with pedal from this moment on.
74
Ave Maria
simile
3
4
54
(
5
4
1
3 5
(
4
3 4
)
3
3 5
)
(
2 4
)
2
4 5
54
4 5
(
75
)
2
1
1
2
5
4
3
2
(
2
3
2
)
2 1 5 2
(
3
2
3
2
1 1 2 2 2 5
)
(
3
4
3
2
)
1
54
(
3
Fig. 32
76
)
Lesson 33
Musical Speech Assignment
Using Fig. 32, p. 75: 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.
77
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 find 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 2–3 sentences. There will be no further discussion of it because the knowledge of it doesn’t have much effect on performance. 2. Sentences Sentence is a complete musical thought, it’s a large block inside a period. A sentence consists of 2 or sometimes 3 phrases. 3. Phrases Phrase is a relatively complete musical thought, it’s 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; it’s a small block inside a phrase. In order to understand how motifs and phrases work together in a sentence, let’s take a look at one sentence in Fig. 34, p. 79:
78
When spring comes, snowdrops bloom. Sentence Phrases Motifs
When
spring
comes
snowdrops
bloom
Fig. 34.
There’re two phrases in this sentence — “when spring comes” and “snowdrops bloom”. There’re three motifs in the first phrase — “when”, “spring”, “comes”. There’re two motifs in the second phrase — “snowdrops” and “bloom”. There’s 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. It’s 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 first 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. There’re two types of motifs: a) Short motifs usually last 2 measures; sometimes they last 1/2 or 1 measure”or 1 measure.
79
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
80
Fig. 35. Short motif
a.
b) Long motifs usually last 4 measures.
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 identification of phrases and sentences and correct distribution of weight while playing. This is why you need to learn to find 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. 81
а.
b.
c.
d.
Fig. 37. Stressed interval in short motif
Fig. 38. Stressed interval in long motif
82
Composers sometimes mark culminating intervals with an accent symbol. а.
b.
Fig. 39. Stress in motifs
An exception: if notes in a short upbeat motif have an equal value, then the first 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)
83
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 motif’s first syllable, like in “music”). Give more weight to the motif’s more important first 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 G–F (append., p. 156). Before imagining the first 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 motif’s second syllable, like in “perform”). Start gradually giving more weight from the motif’s less important first syllable distributing more weight on the culminating interval.
Fig. 42. Iambic motif
84
Sing with weight and then play a short iambic motif with the culminating interval F–G (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 finding limits and types of motifs independently, remember that there’re 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. It’s up to you to decide what’s more important in a motif — the downbeat, or the longest note, or the ascending interval. It’s 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. 45–47, p. 86: 85
Sonatina
5
10
15
20
86
Sweet Dream
87
88
Old French Song
6
13
20
26
Fig. 45-47
89
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 multipart 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. There’re 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.
90
c.
d.
e.
f.
Fig. 48. Short phrase
a.
b) A long phrase usually lasts 8 measures.
91
b.
c.
d.
Fig. 49. Long phrase
92
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.
93
e.
f.
Fig. 50. Stressed motif in phrase
94
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 first 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.
95
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.
96
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. 56–59, p. 98–101:
97
Lullaby
98
Sarabande
99
Happy Farmer
100
The Squirrels
101
Lesson 38 Sentence
Sentence is a complete musical thought. It’s 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, don’t be bored”. In an iambus, the accent is on the 2nd phrase — “Flowers bloomed — it’s 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 — “Don’t come tomorrow, come today before it’s 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. There’re two types of sentences: a) A short sentence usually lasts 8 measures. а.
102
b.
c.
d.
103
e.
f.
Fig. 60. Short sentence
a.
b) A long sentence usually lasts 16 measures.
104
b.
105
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. 62–64, p. 107).
106
The Lark
107
The Squirrels
108
New Doll 3 8 3 8
Fig. 62-64
109
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
110
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.
111
Sweet Dream
112
113
Italian Song
114
115
Sonatina
5
10
15
20
116
Old French Song
6
13
20
26
117
Happy Farmer
118
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. Don’t 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. 3. Separately play the melody and accompaniment while thinking about 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. 5. Separately play the melody and accompaniment while thinking about 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, it’s necessary to see the whole picture of phrasing — culminating phrases in sentences, culminating motifs in phrases, culminating intervals in motifs. Then you’ll correctly distribute weight in phrases and motifs. Always think about sentences first 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.
119
Ave Maria
simile
3
4
54
Further slurs point out culminating motifs in phrases
5
4
1
3 5
(
4
3 4
(
)
3
3 5
)
(
2 4
)
2
4 5
54
4 5
(
120
)
2
1
1
2
5
4
3
2
1 2 2 5
(
2
3
2
)
3
3
2
3 2
1 2 2 5
(
)
(
4
3
2
)
1
54
(
3
Fig. 71
121
)
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 finer 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 filling 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 speech filling it with an emotional-imaginative meaning. 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 speech filling 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 play the interval with musical speech filling it with an emotional-imaginative meaning. 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.
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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 feeling how you express emotional image through musical speech. c) Separately play the melody and accompaniment only in texture with movement while thinking about sentences and their culminating phrases and feeling how you express emotional image through musical speech. 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 express emotional image through musical speech. b) Play the piece by both hands only in texture with movement while thinking about phrases and their culminating motifs and feeling how you express emotional image through musical speech. c) Play the piece by both hands only in texture with movement while thinking about sentences and their culminating phrases and feeling how you express emotional image through musical speech. 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.
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Lesson 42 Form
Musical form is a compositional scheme, it’s 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. There’s a dramaturgic plot in a musical piece just like in a story: Beginning. The sky was clear early in the morning. Development. Soon the first clouds appeared in the sky. Intensification. 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 there’s no plot in a story and it only has a collection of loosely connected sentences, then no one will listen to it because it’ll 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. There’re various types of compositional schemes: 1. Beginning, development, rising to climax, climax (Fig. 72, p. 125). 2. Beginning, development, intensification, 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).
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Wild Horseman beginning development
1.
rising to climax
climax
125
2.
Little Piece beginning beginning
rising to climax
climax
126
The Squirrels beginning beginning
development development
intensification intensification
127
rising to climax
climax
Fig. 72-74
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, intensification, rising to climax, climax) (fig. 75, p. 129). There can be several templates in a piece (fig. 76, p. 131).
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Sweet Dream beginning beginning
development development
intensification
129
rising to climax
climax
130
Sonatina beginning beginning
5
climax
rising to climax
beginning beginning
10
rising to climax
15
20
climax
Fig. 75-76
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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 filling 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. 1. Sing all intervals: Tune in to the feeling of joy and a part of the composition scheme. Gather weight and sing all intervals with musical speech filling 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 filling 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. 77–81, p. 133.
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The Lark
133
Sarabande
134
Old French Song an example of distribution of parts of form by phrases, not by sentences
6
13
20
26
135
Happy Farmer
136
Italian Song
137
Fig. 77-81
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Assignment 4
Using Fig. 82, p. 146: 1. Analyze form in the piece. 2. Sing the melody in the piece: Tune in to the piece’s emotional image and a part of the composition scheme; imagine the first sounds only in texture with movement. Gather weight and sing the melody with musical speech filling each interval with an imaginative-dramaturgic meaning. 3. Separately play the melody and accompaniment in the piece: Tune in to the piece’s emotional image and a part of the composition scheme; imagine the first sounds only in texture 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. 4. Play the piece by both hands: Tune in to the piece’s emotional image and a part of the composition scheme; imagine the first sounds only in texture 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. 5. Play the piece by both hands: Tune in to the piece’s emotional image and a part of the composition scheme; imagine the first 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.
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Lesson 44 Artistry
Artistry is a MEM that is related to performing a piece on stage. There’s 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 you’ll 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 finer 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 audience’s 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 you’ve decided to risk and experience new feelings while playing before an audience, then you’ll 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 you’ve 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, don’t play as confidently as you could while playing to yourself and even begin losing yourself. This is a very unpleasant feeling and it’s caused by worry. Worry is a natural feeling that is caused by uncertainty about those important things that you do for the first time or haven’t done in a while. It’s a natural, normal feeling and you shouldn’t fight 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 you’ve learned when a feeling of failure and dissatisfaction remains after a performance. 2. A feeling of anticipated bright joy and confidence about your performance on stage when you control your playing, when you lead your 140
audience and together create such a piece that couldn’t 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 isn’t 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. There’re two exercises which will help you to transform the invisible dialogue during your performance into a confident 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 it’s 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 you’ve ever experienced. And before saying “listen to me”, you dive into the feeling you’ve chosen — a very deep, very personal feeling that you, perhaps, haven’t 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 you’re 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. 141
1. Play a recording of a musical piece at high volume and begin playing your piece at the same time. You’ll feel that you’re losing control and can’t 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 confident 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. There’s no trick here — the loudness of the recording hasn’t changed, it’s 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 you’ve never played before in solitude.
Assignment 2
1. Sing all intervals: 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. 6. 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 artistry through musical speech.
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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 won’t be able to fully open up and express yourself on stage — you’ll 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 you’ll 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 you’ll 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. 2. Play all intervals: Tune in to the feeling of joy and artistry and feel how you’ll express emotional image by the means of artistry. Gather weight and play 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 you’ll express emotional image by the means of artistry. Gather weight and play all intervals only in texture with movement feeling how you express emotional image by the means of artistry through musical speech. 3. Play the piece: Tune in to emotional image and artistry and feel how you’ll 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 artistry through musical speech. 143
Tune in to emotional image and artistry and feel how you’ll express emotional image by the means of artistry. Gather weight and play the piece by both hands only in texture with movement while accurately following phrasing and feeling how you express emotional image by the means of artistry through musical speech. Tune in to emotional image and artistry and feel how you’ll express emotional image 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 by the means of artistry through musical speech.
Assignment 2
Now it’s 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 won’t 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 you’ll 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 you’ll 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 you’ve sung it. 3. Tune in to the feeling of emotional image, form and artistry and feel how you’ll 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 you’ll 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. 144
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
Using Fig. 82, p. 146: 1. Tune in to the piece’s 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 piece’s emotional image, form, meter and artistry. Feel how you’ll 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 infinitely slow. Sing the piece in your head (without intonation) in emotional image with tempo that you’ll 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.
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Ave Maria Lento introduction 1
introduction 2
beginning beginning rising to climax
poco rit.
146
development climax
a tempo
introduction 2 conclusion
rit.
Fig. 82
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Lesson 47
Learning MEMs and Movements Learning is necessary, first 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: it’s important to repeat each part of the piece exactly 5 times. You move to a new level of performance only your 5th time: your fingers begin to feel keys much better; they begin to play imagined sounds finer 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 slow tempo; 5 times in moderate tempo. Day 2. Play the piece by 2 sentences: 5 times in slow tempo; 5 times in moderate tempo. Day 3. Play the piece by 4 sentences: 5 times in slow tempo; 5 times in moderate tempo. Day 4. Play the whole piece: 5 times in slow tempo; 5 times in moderate tempo.
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Assignment 2
On this stage you maximize precision of all movements and perfect your technique — make sure that you have time to control each finger and each leap while intonating each interval with musical speech. Day 1. Separately play the melody and accompaniment by sentences: 5 times in slow tempo; 5 times in moderate tempo. Now do the same by both hands. Day 2. Separately play the melody and accompaniment by 2 sentences: 3 times in slow tempo; 3 times in moderate tempo. Now do the same by both hands. Day 3. Separately play the melody and accompaniment by 4 sentences: 1 time in slow tempo; 2 times in moderate tempo. Now do the same by both hands. Day 4. Separately play the melody and accompaniment in the entire piece: 1 time in slow tempo; 2 times in moderate tempo. Now do the same by both hands. 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.
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Lesson 48
Learning Difficult Fragments There’s a moment at a certain stage of learning a piece when only a few difficult fragments, which remain less comfortable for you to play, separate you from a fully completed and qualitative learning. Here it’s 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 difficult 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. Learn difficult fragments. Play the fragment by each hand: 5 times in slow tempo; 5 times in moderate tempo. Now do the same by both hands. 2. Learn difficult fragments in context (1 line before and 1 line after the fragment). Play the fragment in context by each hand: 5 times in slow tempo; 5 times in moderate tempo. Now do the same by both hands. 3. Play the whole piece to identify new difficult fragments. Play the piece by both hands noticing all difficult fragments. Mark new difficult fragments for further learning. Practice shows that it’s enough to learn difficult fragments for 1–2 days using this plan for a piece to be learned completely. If you don’t use this plan, but continue to sort of learn difficult fragments by repeating them just several times while playing the whole piece, then the process of learning may be delayed for months.
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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, it’s 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, finer 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.
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Creativity
Creativity is a stage for which you’ve 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 reflect 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. It’s similar to painting: you’ve 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 reflect your idea. And this is the meaning of creativity: finding 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 reflect your life to allow music to flow from your heart completely opening up your soul and creative potential. Add your feeling of inspiration to the piece’s emotional image. Tune in to emotional image as you’ve done earlier, and now enrich this image by your inspiration. Thereby, you’ll 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. It’s necessary to learn to arouse inspiration with the power of your soul and learn it by movements of hands and touches of fingertips 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 152
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 artistry through musical speech. 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 fingers that seemed impossible to achieve before.
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Lesson 50
Rehearsing for Stage Performance Begin rehearsing your piece to an audience as soon as it’s 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 doesn’t 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 doesn’t 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 confidently 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 finally, 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, you’ll gradually train your will to overcome malevolent and indifferent listeners, “untamed” instruments and “cold” concert halls. You’ll move to a higher and better level of performance after such performances: 1. Your will is going to get stronger — it’ll become easier to “hold” your audience and subdue your instrument. 2. It’ll become easier to perform a piece technically — sensations in your fingers and arms will be changing. Fingertips will better, stronger and more confidently 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 you’ve 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, fluent 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 efficient, 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 Efficient Learning It’s 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. Don’t 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. Don’t consider an assignment to be too easy, unimportant or too boring. Don’t skip assignments; don’t rush to play something right away. Be patient while completing easy assignments. 3. Don’t consider the pieces from this textbook too easy for you. They’re 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 first attempt to complete an assignment wasn’t successful, it doesn’t mean that the assignment is impossible to complete or can’t 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. There’s no “soup” in this course. All information is highly concentrated. Therefore, give your complete attention to each phrase, don’t 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. Don’t complete assignments by halves. You won’t be able to master new MEMs without mastering previous MEMs in full measure. Keep in mind, if you think you’re doing an assignment at your best, in reality you’re 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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Typical Problems of Pianists Related to Wrong Sound Production and Undeveloped Internal Musical Ear Timbre
1. Tenacious, lively and smart fingertips that play sounds are absent. Fingertips are sluggish and insensitive. Timbral ear development activates fingertips making them lively and tenacious because a clearly imagined sound is transferred to finger pads with a lively impulse. 2. The 1st finger (thumb) is dependent. The tenacious fingertip is absent. Correct hand position, wrist movement and clear timbre idea force the 1st finger to work independently. It plays a note not at the expense of hand, but reaches it independently. 3. A pianist can’t name sounding notes in a piano or simple orchestra piece. He can’t clearly sing a note without playing this note first. Developing internal timbral ear develops absolute pitch. 4. While listening to a piece, all sounding instruments seem to blend into one general sounding: it’s hard to distinguish separately sounding groups of instruments and hear those instruments that are almost unnoticeable at first. 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 finer. 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.
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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, flexible and elastic. 2. While listening to a piece, all sounding instruments seem to blend into one general sounding: it’s hard to distinguish separately sounding groups of instruments and hear those instruments that are almost unnoticeable at first. When concentrating on discerning sound movement, a pianist begins to feel timbres of instruments even finer, all music ceases to be static and begins to revive and move in space.
Polyphony
1. Some notes don’t sound in chords; intervals don’t 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. 3. While listening to a piece, all sounding instruments seem to blend into one general sounding: it’s hard to distinguish separately sounding groups of instruments and hear those instruments that are almost unnoticeable at first. 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 efficient 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 160
naturally create correct movements. Sitting position is in the system with MEMs and, therefore, it’s under constant control during a performance. 2. A wrong hand position: collapsing knuckles, collapsing finger phalanxes, 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 isn’t 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. Unnecessary finger movements: over lifting of fingers. Unnecessary arm movements: unnecessary hand, wrist and elbow movements. Unnecessary finger movements are caused by the absence of tenacious fingertips when it’s not enough to simply put a finger on a key to play a note, but it’s necessary to lift the finger. Unnecessary finger movements are caused by the absence of correct intonation of intervals. This leads to a wrong idea that the dexterity of fingers is located in fingers themselves while, in reality, the dexterity of fingers is located in the joints, tendons and muscles of hand. Unnecessary arm movements are caused by the absence of flexible 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 doesn’t help technically and creates additional unnecessary movements — obstacles for a dexterous and comfortable playing. Thanks to active fingertips, correct elbow movements and correct intonation, the pianist doesn’t spend time on unnecessary movements. His playing becomes flexible, dexterous, comfortable and fast.
Intonation and Weight
1. A short (not singing) sound: sounds seem separate, they don’t flow one 161
into another. Mastering internal intonation with weight and correct arm movements allows singing played sounds legato — when sounds flow one into another as though being born one from another. 2. Sound is weak, empty and “clamorous”. Mastering weight and correct sitting position fills torso and arms with free energy that flows to the keyboard through hands filling 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, flexible and dexterous. 4. Arms get fatigued fast. Dexterity of fingers disappears in a fast tempo. 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 don’t 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 finger 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 can’t fix it (he wants to play a note softer and gentler, but the note doesn’t sound; he wants to play a note richer, louder and deeper, but it sounds harsh and clamorous). 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. Fingers are soft, weak and hollow, not strong and firm. 162
Constant playing with correct sound production (correct arm movements, intonation and free passing of weight to the instrument) gradually strengthens the muscles of fingers and hands. A pianist begins to “stand” on his fingers. 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; they’re played unevenly and “loosely”. Thanks to internal intonation, fingers exert before playing a note and control sound. Sounds are no longer “loose” and sound equally and evenly; all passages are played plastically and flexibly. 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 fingertips of the 1st and 5th fingers, 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 flexible and dexterous. 12. Wrists get tired in double notes, fingers don’t move synchronously. Hand muscles and tendons begin to develop thanks to the correct idea of timbre with movement, correct wrist movement, active fingertips and internal intonation of sounds with weight. They, in fact, control finger 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 fineness. 2. All crescendo and diminuendo are approximate. 163
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 isn’t connected with the ability to pass weight, but connected with even more constraint and discomfort. P is insufficiently quiet, even, transparent and delicate; sounds often disappear. While playing p, a pianist constrains even more being afraid that his sound will either “jump out” (sound too loud) or disappear. F is insufficiently rich and loud; it doesn’t sound in full scale or sounds harsh. 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 fingertip 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. It’s 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 fingers. And the skill of passing weight to the instrument allows to accurately distribute weight between fingers. 2. The melody isn’t clear, melodious and “floating”. 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 there’re too many sounds in a played piece, sounding isn’t balanced. The ability to imagine the whole polyphony (texture) in a piece on various levels of dynamics and balance develops a finer control of weight and simplifies playing a piece, even one with a very thick texture. 4. While listening to a piece, a pianist hardly notices changes in dynamics and doesn’t 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 finer feel the whole dynamic picture of the piece, he begins to hear dynamics multilayer. With such listening, the pianist develops a wider 164
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. It’s impossible to successfully play articulations without the skills of intonation and weight. 2. Articulations don’t express anything in intonation of musical speech. It all comes down to a short, long or sharper key touch. It’s 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 doesn’t pay attention to how articulations are performed; they don’t express anything for him in music. By intonating the melody together with the performer, the pianist feels how differently it’s 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
The feeling of “a finger that grows through a key” is absent. A deep and sonorous sound is absent. Development of a three-dimensional and deep sound idea allows the muscles of fingers 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 165
sound. Such imagining of deep sound influences the quality of singing sounds and makes intonation even more spacious.
Musical Speech
1. A pianist doesn’t feel any emotional meaning in intervallic steps. He doesn’t feel any difference between them and between ascending and descending intervals. For example, the pianist doesn’t know what a third or a second speaks about. Mastering musical speech on the basis of intonation develops intonationalmelodic ear that allows to emotionally feel the difference between various intervals. 2. The absence of live musical speech while playing a piece — everything sounds flat, non relief and boring. Music doesn’t express anything, there’s no breathing, free motion and beauty in it. Thanks to a fine feeling of meaning in intervallic steps, intonation finds the main thing — emotional texture. All melodic patterns are finely and flexibly 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 finest 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 finer. And that’s what influences the hardly noticeable tempo deviations in intonated melodies. 4. A pianist confuses a fourth with a fifth or a fifth with a sixth by ear and can’t always clearly sing these intervals. While singing a familiar melody, the pianist doesn’t feel intervals, but simply sings familiar sounds. By internally intonating musical speech and developing intonationalmelodic ear, the pianist notices that all music is filled 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 can’t always identify whether the melody goes up or down, can’t clearly hear on what interval the melody 166
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 it’s trained to decode a mass of musical patterns typical for musical speech.
Meter
1. A pianist can’t always choose a necessary tempo in which he is going to play a piece: it’s 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 reflect emotional image of a piece. Therefore, the pianist always chooses the right tempo. 2. It’s 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 are played with a small deceleration of tempo (all of which is wrong). It’s 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 pianist’s performance because they are connected with his breath. 4. A pianist experiences difficulty feeling meter emotionally while listening 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 piece’s 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 doesn’t emotionally feel changes of harmonies; he doesn’t 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 will do it artificially in the form of rubato or dynamic nuances, but won’t feel harmony with his own internal vibrations and won’t be able to express harmony coloring through sound and performance. This “show off” harmony won’t 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 finer, prettier, deeper and more diverse and fills 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. It’s boring and tiresome to listen to this performance; the listener’s ear has nothing to catch on and nowhere to rest. There’s a feeling that the music expresses the same mood all the time and that sounds have the same color. A pianist who’s 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 can’t hear its harmonic coloring with his internal ear. The pianist isn’t able to clearly differentiate harmonies while listening to a piece; he confuses the dominant with other chords and often can’t even differentiate the tonic. The pianist can’t clearly differentiate major from minor. He can’t 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 pianist’s 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 it’s expressed in his performance only through artificial rubato and dynamic
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nuances that simply imitate natural phrasing. The pianist doesn’t feel the breath of motifs, phrases and sentences and doesn’t 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: there’s 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 pianist’s musical speech obtains flexibility 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 (it’s also dosed within performed phrasing). 2. A pianist doesn’t 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 finding 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. It’s 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 169
level. There’s no plot development, it seems like the performance doesn’t go anywhere. The pianist doesn’t correctly calculate the climax, doesn’t reach it (makes an energy slump where it’s necessary to continue gaining energy) and, therefore, doesn’t 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, it’s 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 it’s 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 pianist’s playing giving him new tensions and complicating his facial expression and pantomime — grimaces, loud breathing, torso swinging with a high rate and amplitude, expressive lifting of the arms and head, feet shuffling, etc. The pianist can’t 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. It’s 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. A pianist sometimes has trouble with accurately defining emotional image of a piece and understanding what the music is about. He can’t 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 him from completely and freely opening up to begin playing confidently. 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 confidence 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 confidently 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 confidence 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 can’t be done while playing without any audience.
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A Tutorial by
E mma Leiuman
The Art of Piano Technique Textbook for Professional Pianists Second Edition
Published by Emma Leiuman • Singapore, Singapore 2014 172
Emma Leiuman, the author of the system, is a talented pianist and teacher, Moscow State Conservatory graduate, prize winner of international competitions.
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 difficult pieces, I couldn’t manage them. I felt that I couldn’t 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 first 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.
The system was under development for 10+ years. It’s based on the author’s performance experience, studies with 20+ teachers and professors and lessons with her students. 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 finally 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 efficient studying, free and confident 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 you’ll find information on professional piano education, such as online video course and available study materials.
Published by Emma Leiuman • Singapore, Singapore 2014
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