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Today I watched the first Beginners video on scale practice. Scale practice is essentially a distillation of all that there is to create melodic, harmonious music. It is the phrasing, the dynamics, the articulation, the rhythms, etc. But first and foremost it is the expression of oneself. Ones own character and integrity ultimately determines what flows through the body and into the scales. A teacher or teachers can never change this. For someone else to attempt to change this disrupts the natural harmony. One can only change oneself, which is what I do as I listen to my music.
"This above all, to thine own self be true." [Hamlet]
So far, I have been practicing all pieces at a slow or moderate tempo so that I am always very relaxed. I avoid anything that might create tension such as fast or complicated pieces. In every art or sport I have ever practiced, relaxation had always been a core, fundamental principle. Relaxation permits the whole body intelligence to develop the memory that is necessary to fly connect with the instrument in a very natural way. As this develops so does Ithaca skills such as speed. Here is a nice YouTube video of Illinca discussing the benefits of slow relaxed practice which supports my own experience.
I thought that I would include this two very nice video in my diary.
In the first one Illibca demonstrates the basic relaxed method for playing piano. It is one of my goto videos for reviewing. At the end of the video she emphasizes that imagery in one's creative mind leads the flow of expression through the body and how tension inhibits this flow.
The last couple of days I've been practicing phrasing which has become a focus in the Nikoleav Book 1B.
As Illinca explains it in her videos (which she behind explaining early in Book 1A), a phrase is a grouping of music with a destination. In it's simplest form, a major scale can be played as a single phrase. As with Salsa dancing, a phrase can be imagined as one complete movement that is linked to other phrases which are in turn their own complete movements, each imparting a feeling of a destination.
Phrasing is a great place to impart one's own creativity and individuality. I love listening to the phrasing of Harry Belefonte, Tony Bennett, Eva Cassidy and Al Jolson as they tell their stories. In time I hope to be able to develop my own unique phrasing in my piano music.
I've now watched Ilinca's practice video you posted, and found it extremely helpful. For me, the part about developing habits was especially useful. One thing that I'd never heard before, but now can serve as an additional motivator for me to create habits, is that things you have set as a habit take less effort to do than when you're trying to do them but haven't set it as a habit.
I'm planning to not start scale study until the place in the curriculum where Ilinca recommends it for beginners (because I want to have all the underlying foundational gestures in place), but I'll go ahead and watch the scales video you posted because I want to have a vision of what's possible.
I totally agree with you. What are someone's called habits, I call developing whole body memory intelligence. Once one has it, then indeed the practice becomes much easier, relaxing, and ultimately meditative. It provides an opportunity to go beyond the physical and into the spiritual.
I have studied exactly the same Tai Chi form for decades. It never gets boring. I simply go deeper and deeper into a state of meditation which provides me with deeper understanding.
Scales are another route. For me they are a path toward deeper understanding. But as you described, I am in no hurry. For me it is a lifetime journey and I am just taking a quiet stroll. 😃
Looking forward to hearing more about your own exploration and discoveries!
I spent my entire practice yesterday studying a single 16 bar piece called The Rain is Drizzling. At first I focused on dynamics, intonation, and phrasing carefully listening to the sounds In wish to produce and the sounds that I was producing.
The piece is very interesting in it's construct in that it fully engages both hands in a very fluid manner thus engaging the whole body in a very harmonious manner. Having already studied this piece for about two weeks, I found myself moving into a very mediative state with a deep connection with my piano only being disrupted now and then by some non-harmonious sound that I correct.
Today I will be practicing a very spritely piece called On Television. This little piece, composed by a Russian composer Ostrovsky, recalls my early childhood watching afternoon cartoons and movies in front of a small living room TV in NY. 😃
Today I was practicing some of the earlier studies in Nikoleav's Book 1B, that are covered in Lesson 33 of the course. This lesson begins a deeper exploration of polyphonics, which will be quite an interesting skill to develop. I am going to focus on learning to hear the polyphonic melody in my imagination and then translating them via appropriate holistic body gestures to the piano. This will take some time but so does everything else.
Besides practicing phrasing with earlier pieces in Book 1A, I am also practicing looking ahead at least several notes so that I can actually hear the notes in my imagination before playing them. I need to practice this technique on very well practiced pieces. This will help me develop my skills to play from imagination first and allow the gesture to follow, something that Illinca emphasizes throughout the course.
I use exactly the same idea whatever art I am studying though I have studied Tai Chi and dance for so long it is entirely on creative automatic at this point. Drawing, singing, and piano are in the very embryonic stages.
Today I changed up my practice a bit. I started out as usual with 30 minutes of Tai Chi practice, and then instead of studying piano, I spent some time singing in my natural range. Just humming some old Al Jolson tunes, making myself aware of any tension that I may have anywhere.
Then a stated up a YouTube Video on pen and ink sketching, and followed along an elderly teacher just drawing different lines for an hour in boxes, always being aware of any tension in my body while using the instructor as my model. He actually compared it to a slow walk.
After lunch I practiced some pieces from Nikoleav's Book 1A in exactly the same manner as I practiced Tai Chi and drawing. I brought my awareness to hearing the sounds and dynamics in my imagination before playing a note. In some cases I played very slowly and in some cases at a slightly faster tempo but in no case did I allow my fingers to outrun my ability to imagine the music in my head.
I finished up my day practicing polyphonics in Nikoleav's 2B. I reviewed the video with Valentina Lisitsa discussing mind and ear training and then reviewed an article that Illinca wrote about learning to hear dynamics first in my imagination and activating hearing to really hear the sounds that I am producing through the piano.
No doubt the training process will never end, but there is no better time to start than now. It is a fantastic skill to cultivate, like shading and values in drawing. I understand that beautiful dynamics begins in the imagination because I can't play what I cannot imagine. Piano practice is reaching a depth I never imagined and it has had a very positive effect on my other arts. My pen and ink never looked better. My life feels very fulfilling.
Today's lesson #33 was a long one, 30 minutes, covering three short studies and one short exercise. All three introduced dual note training with various polyphonics, articulations and dynamics. As with other lessons I practice very slowly with lots of repetitions adding new layers of music in as I progress. Usually phrasing is one of the last elements that I add to the piece. Basically, it takes time to hear the whole music of a piece in my mind when I first start practicing it so I gradually build up.
Today I did two simple things. I revised the Nikoleav piece "On TV", which by now I have a very good sense of the music and just played it very melodically and enjoyed it.
Then I turned my attention to a simplified arrangement of Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" which I remember week from my youth as well as the great movie "The Sting". I love Ragtime music, so I thought I would start my training in the unique aspects of this genre. Thoroughly enjoyed myself and looking forward to practicing it more tomorrow.
Right now I am continuing to review the whole of Book 1A of the Nikolaev Russian method book, and the first few studies in Book 1B. Each day I feel my body and arms getting more and more relaxed, allowing the energy to flow through unobstructed. The result is a beautiful melodic tone that I continue to enjoy more and more. My wife and neighbors have commented on the noticeable differences as the days pass.
I will be studying these pieces for some time, since they are fundamental and once I have a full feeling, I will be able to move on to play more complex music. I am taking a slow, step by step approach.
In parallel, I have begun to study Ragtime and Blues. I love these rhythms and they some of myfavorites to dance to. Studying these musical genres will also build a foundation for eventually studying Jazz.
Today was a very interesting day. I practiced for several hours with total ease. Pretty much as relaxed as I've ever been at the piano. The time was beautiful and I pretty much played the pieces as I felt them. With some I stumbled and with the newer ones in Lesson 33, which were designed for internal practice, I just started the process of feeling them. I never know how long it will take to feel totally at was with piece, but as long as it takes, it takes. At this point, it had become more of a matter of variety as opposed to any significant difference between one piece and the next. It's all very relaxing and mediative.
Which brings me to my Tai Chi which has moved to a deeper experience because of my piano practice. One feeds the other.
I found a Blues course on Coursera which I signed up for. I am thinking that too understand Ragtime and Jazz well, I should understand the roots of these genres which goes back to their African roots. In hope to build up a very solid foundation for understanding the core rhythms and ideas behind the music.
I also watched a documentary of Tony Bennett. One had to admire the simplicity and humanity of his singing. Every word is articulated and every phrase it's designed to impart his spirit into the song.
I have about 10 days left in my 3 month subscription. At this point I am mostly reviewing Book 1A, since these pieces are the most relaxing and allow me to develop a closer connection with the piano.
The pieces in Book 1B are basically extending my dexterity over a larger range of the keyboard, and a greater range of tonalities, permitting me to create more voices emulating a greater number of orchestra instruments. Now, it had become a matter of honing my listening skills so that I can play what I hear. It is a gradual but rewarding process.
I am also looking forward to starting by Blues education in a couple of weeks and also beginning some studies of Ragtime, both of which have rhythms that are quite appealing. Ragtime in particular always brings a smile to people's faces.
The Guardian says this is an actual recording of Scott Joplin playing the Maple Leaf Rag.
What I've learned to most appreciate about this course is how it pivoted my whole thought process about studying music from reading and copying to hearing and feeling.
Today's lesson primarily focused on clearly articulating intervals with each hands separately and both hands together. I was sorry surprised at the the crispness of the sound when playing with both hands. I attribute this to the equality that the course treats both hands. Also, I felt equal weight (energy) on both sides of my body thus creating a clear sound.
Since I have begun studying swing and blues, I am spending more time on the non-classical forum. Nahum, who I have grown to highly respect, had a very interesting and thought provoking post on the Non-Classical forum, that presents a new path (for me) into improvisation:
I also viewed an interesting video on the his history of swing. At about 6:40 Reginald Thomas relates how hearing affects the manner in which we play, something that Illinca continually emphasizes in the course. A nice video and U Sam looking forward to viewing the next two parts.
I've pivoted slightly to learning Jazz. I paid for a discounted Willie Myette course on Udemy and will be concurrently taking a free Blues course in Coursera . So my plate is pretty full as I continue to review pieces for this course.
Nahum is providing lots of great advice on the non-classical forum here:
I have found that intonation and phrasing are locked together in their own dance. One creates the other and gives shape to musical expression.
I am using the beginning pieces of Nikolaev's Book 1B to practice phrasing and I am doing it without watching any of Illinca's videos at the moment so that I can learn to create phrasing by myself. In a few days I'm going to begin studying the Blues and Jazz courses I enrolled with an eye toward building a greater awareness of phrasing and articulations. This is most assuredly a lifetime's worth of study.
By chance, I met a woman in my neighborhood who had fabulous art, singing, and guitar skills who wishes to study Tai Chi with me. We'll be trading knowledge. This is going to be great!
All of my attention to patiently learning how to play from imagination with relaxed energy is reaping huge rewards. My hands (really my whole body) can easily glide over the keyboard creating the music that I desire.
Today's lesson was 30 minutes in length and covered jumping intervals on both hands as well as creating phrasing, advanced polyphonic techniques, and intonation that is beyond what the book suggests or offers.
Everything is different yet the same at the same time. Nothing really changes as I move from studying one piece to the next. First I hear the music and then I learn to create it through the instrument. What changes is tempo, rhythm, intonation, phrasing, etc. but the actual means of expression remains the same. It is exactly, precisely the same with Tai Chi and dancing. Learning how to express takes time and patience, so I take my time and learn to express what I hear step by step without any stress or tension. Total relaxation.
I decided to complete another video lesson today. This would be Lesson 38 which discusses creating harmonies with delayed pedaling and also pentonic scales. Both were very interesting and lasted about 40 minutes.
In the discussion about creating staccato articulations, Illinca frequently reminded her students that they should be completely relaxed when creating the intonations. There should be no feeling of stress or tension whatsoever. She said you shouldn't even feel the hand, it is so light. This is basically how I feel when I am playing. My hands naturally move over the keys, with no tension and zero chance of any kind of injury. I feel like the music is pouring out if me, and my gestures are creating the sounds that are in my mind. Sometimes, I feel some tension creeping in when playing a new piece. I stop, relax myself and start again until the tension is gone.
Here are some free videos of Illinca explaining pedaling. They are different from the course but quite ample in their own right.
