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I thought it would be nice to start an open thread for anyone who is or has studied with Illinca Vartic and the Piano Career Academy online course to share their insights and experiences. I'll still be writing on my own diary but am looking forward to hearing what others would like to share.

Cheers!

This is Illinca's very first video on YouTube which emphasizes the benefits of slow, relaxed practice. It was this video that first caught my attention before I had decided upon which online video course to enroll in:


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This video alone totally changed how I viewed piano study. The key ideas of playing with relaxation, from imagination, in a way that reflects my character, are all presented in a vivid and unforgettable fashion.

It also brings into sharp focus the key elements that characterizes all of the arts and permits me to study dancing, singing, piano, drawing as one harmonious whole. I have never seen a video about any of the arts that better crystalizes the meaning of the arts and piano study specifically.

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This was the second beginning video that Illinca published on her YouTube channel. It addresses posture, flexibility, key attack, and leaving your entire body extremely relaxed so that it can channel the entire weight of the body and be poised for precise play. The comments in this video are interesting as are Illinca's answers.

[video:youtube]InqmH-o1cX0[/video]

hey Richrf,

I'm an absolute beginner who has recently posted a few threads on the forum asking about various topics regarding piano because of the lack of direction that often stemmed from learning without a teacher.

Someone mentioned Illinca and her pianocareeracademy program in one of my threads and I have since watched many youtube videos and checked out her site as well as the faqs and tutorial list. It seems like a wonderfully structured program that is not only easy to follow but at the same time packed with information and detailed guidance. Are the tutorials on her site as full of information as the youtube videos she has put out?

On the site it says that a member is able to access the entire library, which is wonderful, but are the materials downloadable though? I'm a student studying at University and beacuse of the rigorous school curriculum, I don't always have free time everyday because of various projects and exams, so I worry about signing up and wasting weeks of membership because I was unable to allocate time daily and have a set schedule for piano practice.

My other question is, are all the course materials provided? Would I have to hunt down the Russian Piano Books that the course is based on? Or is everything included?

Thanks in advance

Hi uptick,

The tutorials on each piece are saturated with information. Illinca has done an amazing job of anticipating questions as well as imparting her own deep knowledge. Even the very first, one note, one finger piece that begins the study warrants extensive explanation as Illinca underscores how relaxed key attack can impart so many different types of times. Expect about 10 minutes of instruction for each piece at the beginning stages growing to 20 minutes plus as pieces gain in complexity. Also, the forum, accompanying each lesson, is filled with questions from students which Illinca answers.

The videos are not downloadable as far as I can tell. You may direct this question to Natalia via the contact form for verification. For the most part what I do is watch the video lesson and then spend the rest of the time practicing revisiting the video when necessary. From what I gather from the PCA forum comments, each lesson is designed to be practiced for one week by complete beginners. Thus you can expect to spend 6 months on the first Book 1A. This is entirely dependent upon the individual and I've noticed on the forum that some students some progressing faster and slower. I had previous experience, so I completed Book 1A in a shorter time though I am constantly going back to review the entire book as part of my regular practice as I describe in my diary.

I had already acquired the book before starting the course. I know it is available from Amazon. As far as an electronic version is concerned, I never inquired and this question is best directed to Natalia, the adminstrator of the course. Depending upon your time zone it normally takes about 24 hours for a reply.

Hope this helps you a bit. Feel free to ask if you have any other questions. Good luck with your studies!

Rich

There is an electronic (PDF) version of the Nikolaev book available for members to download from the PianoCareerAcademy site.

Practicing even 20 minutes a day will help you progress.

If all the videos were available for download, people could game the system by downloading videos under 1 monthly membership fee, and then un-joining.

I find the course absolutely fantastic. I think being introduced to the nuances of a beautiful-sounding piano touch from the very beginning is a fantastic way for someone to be able to learn piano.

Like Richrf, I have previous piano experience. But I find the course is giving me fundamental technique that is making my playing much more expressive and comfortable, and I think it's worth getting this from the beginning.

Richrf

while looking at the list of tutorials:
http://www.pianocareer.com/holistic-piano-playing/piano-career-academy-tutorials/

when i clicked on lesson one it brought me to this page:
http://pianocareeracademy.com/forum/index.php/topic,316.msg2747.html#msg2747

Though i can't access the page because i haven't signed up yet, i noticed that on the top right corner it had a mention of a Sight Reading Course which I didn't see on the list-of-tutorials page. Is that a new course she's working on at the moment? any idea when the course would be finished?

I wouldn't mind waiting for that sight reading course to be finished and bite the bullet and just sign up for a 12 months program and try to learn as much as I can in a year

Thanks for these videos, Richrf.

In the first one, on slow practice, an especially new point that I picked up is that you practice slow in order to find the fully relaxed and comfortable place in your playing.

The idea of playing with imagination is one that feels difficult for me. All my instruments have been ones where you put your fingers in the correct place, and sound comes out (piano, flute, recorder). So pre-imagining the sound feels foreign to me: I'm used to playing the instrument in order to find out what something will sound like.

On the other hand, when putting in musical expressiveness, you sort of have to know in advance what you're aiming for in order to produce it. You can't start a note and then part way through decide "oh yeah, I want this note to be slightly louder (or softer) than the previous one", lol. It's an ongoing (and recent) work in progress for me to start thinking in longer units than simply note-by-note.

That's a bit different than what Ilinca is talking about with the gesture for one note -- but even there, being carefully attuned to the kind of sound I want from that single note, and listening to see if I achieved it, is a level of focused and attentive listening that I don't really have right now, and would like to develop.

uptick, the Sight Reading Course is being developed currently. The first two lessons (out of fifteen planned) have been completed. Ilinca's recommendation is to wait to start it until one is at least at a late beginner or intermediate levels. For absolute beginners, Ilinca recommends finishing the Course For Beginners (that is, both books of the Nikolaev method) before starting the Sight Reading course. Ilinca says the lessons are based on the Russian method book Sight-Reading by T. Kamaeva and A. Kamaev.

Hi PS88,

As with you, all of these skills are a work in progress for myself. In regards to hearing the note first in my imagination, what I am doing is practicing reading ahead when playing well practiced pieces (early Book 1A) so that I hear the note before actually playing it, dynamics, articulation, and all. This is very much in the embryonic stages but it is one approach I am using to begin to develop this internal skill. I wrote a bit about this in my diary. Illinca talks about learning to read ahead. I believe this is one of the benefits.

Looking forward to sharing more ideas with you and other students.

I'm up to lesson 4. So far Ilinca has shown us how to play the piano keys using arm weight (and relaxed wrist, and forearm lift to come off the keys). Everything is being played with a semi-detached touch, one note at a time. We have progressed to playing with several fingers on the different notes, and alternating some notes with the RH and some notes with the LH.


Lesson 4 introduces tenuto, accent, and decrescendo and crescendo. Here is the first place I was disappointed; there was no explanation of how to produce decrescendo and crescendo.

Perhaps many people will figure out a good method just from listening to the sounds they produce. But for me, one of the things I really value about my RL teacher (and about Ilinca) is that it is in general completely counterintuitive to me how to touch the piano keys for different kinds of musical expressiveness. And I can't be the only student like me who is watching Ilinca's tutorials.


I really like the gradually paced way the pieces in the book go. Each is clearly introducing a small morsel of how to practice the piano gesture. First one finger at a time, then different fingers in a row, then alternating back and forth between two or three fingers to get those flowing movements in place, and all so far in semi-detached mode so we focus on the basic arm-weight gesture to get lots of practice with it.

Before I started, I thought I would fly through the lessons on some kind of fast timetable. I have found a much more wholesome way to follow them: watching a new lesson when I feel I have made enough progress on the previous lesson. And each lesson still retains within it the focus points of the previous lessons, plus of course one can still continue practicing material from previous lessons. (I still may be moving too fast: absolute beginners are suggested to spend a week on each lesson; I'm not an absolute beginner but that doesn't mean I can necessarily grow the new pathways for these new movements any faster than an absolute beginner. But for now, this pace feels good.)

Hi PS88,

You bring up a very interesting question regarding the approach to playing dynamics. One that may be posed directly to Illinca during the monthly Q&A or on the forum. I am sure she will answer it, if she hasn't already addressed the question in some prior video.

As for myself, you know me, I just go after the exploration in my own way. 😃 What I am doing is just practicing visualizing the dynamics in my mind and let the impulse be v directed through my body and into my hands without any willful intent. I am in the very embryonic stages of this thought process but it is something I'll continue to experiment with.

My fundamental ideas is to play via imagination and internal creative energy. I'll see where it leads me. Using the same ideas with drawing.

I too am constantly reviewing all of the beginning pieces as a creative laboratory for my investigations.

Cheers!

Hi PS88,

I found this video of an interview with Valentina Lisitsa and at about 3:00 she describes the idea that I am exploring.

[video:youtube]TVG7A0ID9vY[/video]

As a follow-up to the subject of dynamics, here is a video that Illinca made available on YouTube about 4 years ago. At the beginning she discusses how a student needs to first activate the sound in the student's imagination, so that the sound that will be expressed is clear. Then the student should practice awareness of the sound being produced.

She also discusses the many possibilities of the piano as well as it's limitations and how to work within these boundaries. The follow-up videos are only available to student of the course but in them she demonstrate​s how to vary weight, speed, and height to create different dynamics.

When I practice, I maintain a visual image of myself that attempts to approximate (in my own way) the image that Illinca presents during her demonstrations.

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What Valentina discusses is excellent; but what is missing from the video in how to play with expression and dynamic difference between the two hands is the background skills that are implied and needed to get to this point. She assumes in her video that the viewer has these skills and just needs refinement and creativity. Learning hand independence is a step that cannot be skipped to execute the creativity: Valentina had that skill training.

Hi PS88,

I found an article that Illinca wrote on how to express crescendo and dimuendos. It is in the form and is indexed in the list of tutorials. It is pretty much along the lines that I thought and she emphasises awareness. She writes:

'Activating your hearing and practicing mindfully is not enough for developing your skill of making convincing crescendos and diminuendos.

In piano playing, everything begins with a good understanding of your expressive purpose. In other words, how can you make a good crescendo if you cannot imagine it first, if you cannot hear it with your inner hearing before pressing the keys?

First, try to understand and visualize the gradual dynamic changes that you're about to make."

It's a lengthy article and I Incorporated the ideas in today's practice. Hope this helps.

First, you need to know HOW to play the notes with a different dynamic level. This alone is a gradual process, and someone completely new to piano will not have the skills to do this... even with visualizing first

Very nice closeup view of Valentina Lisitsa's arms and hands. Such lightness! After Illinca the artist I study most, always keeping the image in my mind as I gently flow over the keys. 😃

[video:youtube]LOfzPyNoFK4[/video]

I'm going to put this video in this thread because it is quite extraordinary in what it says and reflects so well the essence of this online course:

[video:youtube]oXOiLVT18W4[/video]