About | PianoWell


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About the School | About Emma Lieuman | The “PianoWell” System | Testimonials

The “PIanoWell” school was opened in 2007 by Emma Lieuman and Ved Ivanov.

The Center offers master-classes and online distance learning for professional pianists, amateurs and teachers that would like to improve their playing and teaching skills and solve technical problems.

The learning is accomplished with Emma Lieuman, the author of the system. The learning is based on the series of three class-type textbooks that teach the “PIanoWell” system.

The main statement of the system is that all technical problems appear when movements of a pianist don’t express true musical ideas. If his movements don’t reflect musical ideas and aren’t filled with musical imagination, then they’re in disharmony with a played piece and deprived of air, soul and freedom. The goal of a pianist is to reveal and discover these ideas by learning to imagine all notes and all nuances in a score. And only then try to perform the conceived with correct movements, which will maximally accurately express the imagined piece.

The key difference of the system is that only this system teaches all 15 musical means of expression (MEMs), thanks to which a pianist develops all necessary aspects of his internal musical ear and correct sound production. As a result, a pianist eliminates all his technical problems, develops his own interpretation of a piece and completely expresses himself through playing. The system teaches to correctly imagine a piece and correctly perform the conceived. It teaches how to effectively analyze and learn a piece.

Performer, teacher, author of the “PianoWell” piano training system, prize-winner of international competitions
Date of birth: June 14, 1984

Bio
Born in Moscow, Russia.
In 1990–2000 studied at Moscow Central Music School (secondary education).
In 2001–2004 studied at Moscow State College of Music Performance of Frederic Chopin. Graduated with a red diploma (summa cum laude).
In 2004–2010 studied at Moscow State Conservatory. Graduated with a 5-year specialist university degree as solo piano performer, concertmaster and teacher.
In 2007 together with Ved Ivanov, co-authored and co-developed the PianoWell program, textbooks, video courses and opened the “PianoWell” School.

"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 weren't bringing me any pleasure, and only due to my musical ability I attracted attention of the audience and jury and won prizes.

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 to correctly analyze and learn pieces. 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. This is how my system started to appear.

Now the biggest joy for me is to see how my system helps people in a short time. 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 difference of my system is that I don’t tell you once again how a piece should sound, what movements to do, and how to feel a piece. I find the causes of a pianist’s problems and explain how to solve them — what abilities to develop, what and how to imagine in a piece, and how to correctly express the conceived using the correct methods of sound production.

All teachers describe the effect, the result of correct playing, sometimes to the smallest details — what height a finger should be lifted to; at what speed fingers should be lowered to keys; how much weight should be given to create sound of a certain quality; what hand movements should be done; how to position and feel your arms, wrists and fingers to play technically and freely; what technique should be used to play octaves, chords, arpeggios, passages and repetitions; how sounds should sound for the instrument to start “singing”. I’m sure that each professional pianist heard about these guidelines and tips many times.

All pianists already perfectly know how to play correctly and how to play incorrectly, what to do and what not to do. But unfortunately not all pianists begin playing correctly having this much knowledge. This happens because teachers only describe the result of correct playing, but no one tells how to correctly find and feel the goals that lead to correct playing. The goals that need to be originally created in your head to later use the necessary methods for their realization. This leads to the fact that a pianist, while completing what looks like well described movements and methods, still completes them incorrectly. That’s because there’s a mass of internal sensations that fill the external movements, and these internal sensations are impossible to simply explain and control from the outside. Thereby, a pianist can complete seemingly correct movements with hundreds of various internal sensations. And the fact is that only one of them will be truly correct according to the set goal. Only those movements will be correct, which will reflect and express internal ideas of sound, intonation, phrasing, etc. Only under this condition all external movements will begin to be filled with life and freedom because all internal sensations will begin to be dosed and as though adjusted to the internal idea of a piece. I’m convinced that all discomforts that a pianist experiences while playing, tension and quick fatigue of arms happen when arm movements don’t reflect the relief of music and stay in disharmony with it. Therefore, it’s necessary to correctly imagine music and then play it so that all movements reflect the musical idea.

This should be the main task for pianists training — teach them to correctly set goals. Correctly analyze a piece. Correctly imagine sounds, harmonies and dynamics. Correctly intonate sounds with weight obeying to the rules of phrasing and form.

And then explain to students in these frameworks how to correctly express these ideas, what movements to do with the wrist, elbow, etc. This is also necessary to explain because you can’t accurately express your ideas without correct movements. For example, imagining sound of a certain quality will create a necessary touch of a key with your fingertip. But it’s possible only if nothing will interfere (wrong arm and sitting position).

And another example, when teachers work with eliminating consequences, but not causes of a problem. For instance, a student doesn’t express necessary and accurate emotional image of a piece through playing. And teachers say that playing should express a certain state, and while colorfully explaining what kind of image music should create, teachers hope that it’ll change the student’s playing for better. They don’t explain what musical means of expression (MEMs) this image should be expressed through while playing. Teachers can perfectly, very convincingly show (tell, sing, play) how the piece should sound, but they don’t explain how to do it.

This happens because many teachers are in fact very good musicians and pianists. They play very well, very brightly express intonation, articulations, dynamics, and sometimes even musical speech, phrasing and emotional image of a piece. Unfortunately, they can’t understand and grasp what they possess in order to teach their students things they do very well themselves. Therefore, their advices are limited to describing the results of their own superb playing — what they feel while playing, how their arms and fingers move, etc. It’s impossible to teach anyone to play freely and technically with such methods, but only teach to perfectly imitate the ideas of others.

Yet another example, when teachers point out to their student that he doesn’t have a necessary sounding, that he incorrectly completes harmony, articulations, dynamics and phrasing, that he doesn’t express emotional image, etc. And no one takes the risk to begin working on these problems and elimination of their causes. But these mistakes aren’t simply errors in playing. This is an indicator of student’s problems. And these problems have to be solved. It’s not enough to simply ask a student to exert his finger-pad for a melody to sound correctly, or ask him to play that fragment more expressively, or tell him that articulations aren’t accurate and don’t express anything, or tell him that he doesn’t feel and understand harmonies, that pp was already played as mf, or that a piece is played by measures and doesn’t go anywhere. It’s necessary to see the causes of problems, give solutions to these problems and make sure that student accomplishes all instructions absolutely correctly while in the classroom in order not to make the same mistakes in the future.

But remember, you studied so many years with different teachers, and all teachers used to tell you in essence one and the same. I’m very sure about it. As there’re only 7 notes in music, and the rest is just a combination of the main notes, and so there’re only 15 MEMs in performance, and all problems and mistakes are only the absence of various combinations of these 15 MEMs:

1. timbre
2. sound movement
3. intonation
4. weight
5. articulations
6. harmony
7. dynamics
8. balance
9. sound texture
10. musical speech
11. phrasing
12. form
13. emotional image
14. meter
15. artistry
Plus correct sitting position, hand position and movement to make it possible accurately express the conceived on the instrument.

Mastering these MEMs saves from all technical and musical problems. It educates a pianist to correctly find the goals and the means of their expression. It develops all necessary aspects of internal ear and muscles in hands.

This is the key difference of my system from all other methods. Only my system maximally fully explains all 15 MEMs. Only my system educates a pianist to correctly analyze a piece by setting correct goals (what, why and how to imagine) and correctly perform the conceived using necessary means to achieve the goals (i.e. what movements to do to express the ideas). Only my system eliminates the causes of problems, not their results.

Let’s also point out that by mastering all MEMs, a pianist acquires virtuosic playing skills eliminating all technical problems and professional arm illnesses.

Tatiana, teacher, Novokuznetsk, Russia:
Discovering The Basic Course and other courses of Emma allowed me to make a step towards mastering a systemic thinking in the field of piano teaching. The whole link: see-hear-sense-know-do is now structured in interconnection and interaction. The most valuable information for me is what Emma gives about entering the realm of sensations “in between sounds”, which is not readily available in texts and practical communication. I used to waste my energy by going wrong directions, but now diagnostics and bridge-building have speeded up considerably. Students’ involvement and interest become personal: they start finding and expressing their own ideas on the instrument. It’s difficult to switch over though. Sincerely yours.

Julia, a conservatory student from Petrozavodsk, Russia:
I feel great from my new playing — my wrists used to ache, and veins on arms were swollen. Not anymore! Many difficult spots are now much easier to play. It’s much easier to work now after learning many new things. I began studying much more effectively; I reach better results with less time. Our time is precious, and while studying, it’s important to know what you want to achieve and how. I like working with your system. Thanks a lot.

Valentina, teacher, Novocheboksarsk, Russia:
Dear Emma, I would like to thank you for your training system. I am a teacher with a great experience, but following you methods I improved my student’s playing, as well as my own.

Eduard, St. Peterburg:
I am very pleased with your course. My piano started to sound different. Thanks a lot.

Katerina, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia:
These are my results with Timbre and Sound movement. Of course, there is a huge difference in my practice now: as though I’ve heard the sounds for the first time. If before I played the keys and listened to what would come out, now I have a sensation that I myself communicate the keys the necessary sound. Overall, the difference between an imagined sound and unimagined sound is huge — when I play an imagined sound — it seems like as if smoky veil is lifted. When there is a full match of what’s imagined and what’s played — it feels like a clap or small explosion in the head. And I also understood that it takes a huge concentration of attention. I, frankly, was shocked by this fact. If my attention weakens, then I’m by myself and my piano is by itself. I only manage to pay attention for a small period of time for now and I do the following: I play 5-15 minutes and then rest, and then I play again and then rest again etc. It does help — it makes the sensations and experiences feel fresh. I see my biggest problem in keeping the concentration of attention: when I’m fully concentrated — everything comes out wonderful, no problems. When I weaken my attention — sound becomes flat, empty, my arm strains and fatigues. And on the contrary, my arm as though rests while playing with concentration: I don’t feel any tension or fatigue at all — it seems I can play forever like this. But it all disappears if I have a random thought in the middle of the piece. But I could fully feel that music is really born in my head, then passed to the body, then to the piano, and then it’s perceived with my whole being from it, bringing the incomparable unity of soul and mind! And if music is mainly something that happens in the head, is it necessary to begin solving problems with playing with the head? But how to make the head to imagine only melody without thinking about anything else? How to stop that turbulent flow of uncontrolled thinking, which always tries to slug that fragile melody? Is it trained with time? I know that yogis try to do that: stop the thinking and concentrate attention (But don’t think — I am not going to play in the lotus pose! :). To conclude: if I don’t concentrate — I have all the problems you describe in the textbook. If I do concentrate — I have all the joys that you describe there, and have no problems :)
Best Regards, Katherine.

Elizabeth, Moscow, Russia:
I yet better learn your system. Each assignment opens up in new light, deeper and more significant. A deeper meaning is revealed. My lessons became more interesting. And I am already on “Sweat Dreams”, one of my favorites pieces. It’s amazing that the well known pieces sound absolutely different, I hear what I didn’t notice before. I started treating each assignment more carefully and stopped rushing things. People around me notice my success and that inspires me even more. I now understand your Articles much better — after I tried it with my own hands! — they too help me. I am curious about the next course. And It seems I started to hear music better. I tell about your courses to my friends — one of them is learning. I’m writing you under the influence of my yesterday’s lessons — I just didn’t notice how the time flew by! (and I remember how I could barely stay for 2 hours at school. And there I didn’t really understand what and how to do.)

Alexander, Moscow, Russia:
Thanks again for The Basic Course and thanks to Emma for her detailed fashion of teaching the materials.

Natalia, teacher, Novosibirsk:
Dear Emma,
I am 48 and teach in a music school. I specialize in scientific approach to piano. I read and watched your Courses many times and I can say that it’s all new and not new at the same time. Everything is orderly, logical, and optimal for distance learning. I choose a program for my students and, literally, all levers work! I truly admire you for your generosity, your ability to give, because it’s the only way to get something bigger in return! I wish you creative growth and great happiness!!