PIANO PRACTICE, REIMAGINED

Hear your playing come alive and shine with the professional secrets of the Russian Piano School.

Myth No. 4: Sight-Reading is the Most Important Piano Skill!

Playing-to-perfection without mistakes is irrelevant if your performance doesn’t express anything.

Watch previous Myths again

Next Week's Myth

Stay tuned for Myth No. 5 – where we will solve once and for all the famous dilemma: can we look at the keys while playing?

Video highlights:

00:02. Myth No. 4: Sight-Reading is the Most Important Piano Skill!
00:31. Sight-reading and ‘finger technique’ – the main modern ‘piano goals’. The absurdity of this approach: a Star Wars illustration .

01:56. Reading and Sight-Reading: Is There a Difference?
02:26. How reading works – demonstration. Example – Schumann’s Traumerei op. 15 No. 7 (from the Kinderszenen Suite).
05:03. Sight-reading the same piece.

07:14. Myth Origin. The eternal hurry, ‘adaptable’ teachers… and misinformation.
07:55. Quick goes hand in hand with shallow. Forest exploration vs tree-obsession LOL.
08:17. On laziness and the desire to ‘skip’ the practice process.

08:59. Reality. Sight-reading is ‘cool’ – but it is not a replacement for correct practice!
09:25. Why advanced pianists can easily sight-read beginner/intermediate pieces. Neuroplasticity.
10:28. What happens when we try to ‘bypass’ our natural learning rhythm. Can we sight-read virtuosic pieces in a fluent manner?

11:15. Sight-reading vs Memorization. What happens when we analyze/understand/practice a piece correctly. How to stop relying on the sight-reading ‘crutch’.
12:18. The exceptions: when is ‘stellar’ sight-reading most needed?

12:41. When Should We Start Focusing on Sight-Reading?
13:47. Reading Music vs Reading a Book: Are They the Same?
15:44. Learning how to speak/read vs learning a musical instrument.
16:20. It’s normal (and ok) to be bad at sight-reading in the beginning!

17:05. Myth Dangers. A mechanical/shallow approach to music. Note typing.
17:24. Mission impossible: how beginners try to sight-read these days.
17:53. Two types of sight-reading: ‘eyes-fingers’ vs ‘eyes-mind-ears-fingers’. Example – Mozart’s Fantasia in D Minor, K 397.
19:55. The sight-reading myth affects the quality of our practice!
20:37. The complete ‘hamburger-powered’ circle formed by the myths.

20:54. Solutions. On patience and Jedi training .
22:18. What is possible with good sight-reading skills?
22:41. The importance of not judging things by their appearance. Let’s dig deeper!

Tutorial mentioned in this video:

If you want to develop your sight-reading skills in a serious and harmonious manner, I recommend following our Sight-Reading Course at PianoCareerAcademy.com. No, you will not become a fluent reader in 2 weeks , and there will be no fast-food involved – but you will learn many professional secrets that will help you to take this skill to a whole new level of mastery!

This is why we do what we do

‘PCA completely changed the course of my piano learning and even my life’

Although I spent many long hours of practicing as a piano performance major in college, I always felt my piano playing was bland and uninspiring. In the end, I injured my arms. After graduating, I continued to study under several accomplished teachers with the hope of becoming a better pianist as well as to be a better piano teacher but in vain. When I almost gave up hope, I discovered Ilinca’s piano coaching program that completely changed the course of my piano learning and even my life.

Ilinca’s piano teachings are based on the Russian Piano School, which was unfamiliar to me at the time. However, through Ilinca’s thorough explanations, I soon came to realize that the Russian school is the place where the true art of the piano is taught. Ilinca teaches that art is also a science in that you can analyze all aspects of piano playing, and that everything can be taught and mastered with commitment and practice; her presentation is logical, scientific, and ergonomically correct.

As a result of Ilinca’s dedication to teaching, the information and knowledge in her coaching program has grown substantially since I joined seven years ago. Her responses to member questions are thorough, detailed and precise; she never compromises in providing the best possible information with great conscience. Since all the teaching is done by video and/or written tutorial, everything is presented in great detail. The benefit of this on-line education is the ability to read or watch again and learn at one’s own pace.

Having suffered physical pain from incorrect playing, Ilinca’s teachings have become my passion and mission to pass down to my own piano students. She introduced me to Irina Gorin, a piano teacher who also studied in the Russian piano school and wrote a book called “Tales of a Musical Journey” for young beginners that assists in teaching the correct method of playing. I have translated this book into Japanese and have done many introductory seminars to Japanese teachers thanks to Ilinca’s coaching program. Now this teaching method is spreading through Japan.

This on-line coaching program is perfect not only for pianists who wish to further develop their piano playing technique and to further their personal knowledge to the art, but also perfect for anyone: beginners to teachers to professional pianists!

Yuko Agata Farman – Japan. Piano teacher and translator