Piano progress: 2 months
After about six weeks with the Faber method I realize it'd take me forever to progress if I continued entirely on my own. Also, the arrangements all sound the same and it was starting to get under my skin.
I needed a teacher, without committing to a teacher. So I did the next best thing: joined Piano Career Academy (PCA), a pre-recorded beginner piano course by teacher Ilinca Vartic.
Ilinca is from Moldavia (former Soviet Union) and she teaches the Russian/Romantic school of piano. It is a very interesting method, focused on musicality and expressiveness, and suits me better than the traditional European/American teaching style, which is very focused on dexterity and finger control.
The PCA course follows the method book Nikolaev's Russian School of Piano Playing (very popular in Germany, under the name Die Russische Klavierschule), and there are detailed video lessons for every piece in the book. There is also a feedback program, where I can submit pieces I'm learning for a second teacher, Yuko Farman, to analyze.
I spent my second month working on exercises and études, improving my key attack, my reading skills, getting acquainted with sharps and flats (the black keys) and different key signatures.
This content was originally published in March 2021. I'm republishing this in April 2026 and backdating to keep my piano progress posts in chronological order.
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