Inner Music
The missing link between inner hearing and piano technique—an invitation to pianists, teachers and researchers.
What if piano technique begins before the hands move?
The Aim
Develop inner hearing and inner singing from notation, then connect them with movement, touch and sound.
A First Working Step
I am looking for one or two advanced pianists who feel that their physical playing is more developed than their ability to hear unfamiliar notation inwardly—and who would like to work through Volume I with my guidance.
This is not a research study, teacher training or a request for a testimonial. It is a serious period of study using the complete materials that already exist.
Before Deciding About Volume I
Four ways to explore the work
You do not need to decide about studying Volume I immediately. Each of these experiences answers a different question.
- 02Before and afterHear one relationship change in sixty seconds.Watch 60-second demos
- 04Virtuoso repertoireSee the process and results after 5–10 days of practice.View practice journeys
Try It Yourself
Guided tryout
Follow several exercises and notice what changes in your own hearing and movement.
Start the guided tryoutIf these experiences reveal a question you would like to pursue more deeply, Volume I offers the complete foundational sequence.
Explore Volume IOne-Minute Demonstrations
Hear what changes when inner hearing and movement begin working together
Each demonstration begins with a familiar difficulty, explores one relationship behind it, and lets you compare the playing before and after.
Legato
Connecting one note to the next
A familiar break between notes, the movement behind it, and the line heard before and after.
Wrist movement
Letting the wrist lead the motion
A stiff, effortful passage, the wrist relationship behind it, and the change once the motion leads.
Arm weight
Releasing arm weight into the key
A pressed, tiring sound, the release behind it, and the tone heard before and after.
A Guided Tryout
Try the work before deciding whether to study it
This video offers several guided experiences drawn from the work. You may follow the complete progression or begin with one section and return when you are ready.
Simply follow along and notice:
- what you can hear inwardly;
- what you experience physically;
- whether imagined sound affects movement or touch;
- and what remains difficult, unfamiliar or unclear.
What did you notice?
Perhaps something became immediately recognisable. Perhaps very little happened. Either response is useful.
If the experience raised a real question in your playing, you can begin Volume I from the beginning—or tell me privately what you noticed.
Where This Leads
See what daily practice looks like after the programme
The tryout guide offers a first experience of the work. These complete practice journeys show what happens after the three volumes have been studied and their skills begin to work together.
Follow individual pieces from score preparation and inner hearing through movement, phrasing, form, technical refinement, artistry and the resulting performance.
The First Exploration
One or two pianists. One complete sequence. A real period of study.
Before opening this into a wider community, I would like to begin properly—with one or two pianists, enough time, and close attention to what they genuinely experience while working through the complete material.
Volume I takes approximately two months. It connects relaxed hands, wrist and elbow motion, inner hearing, sound texture, inner singing, arm weight and posture before bringing them together in unfamiliar music.
The pianist would study through the existing written chapters and recorded demonstrations, with access to the PianoWell Studio and regular contact with me along the way.
What I would offer
The complete Volume I materials, free of charge.
Written explanations, exercises and recorded demonstrations.
Access to the PianoWell Studio.
A regular form of personal contact agreed before beginning.
Careful attention to questions, difficulties and observations that arise.
What I would ask
A sincere commitment to studying the complete sequence.
Approximately two months of sustained attention.
Following the material in its intended order.
Regular communication about what feels clear, unfamiliar or difficult.
Complete honesty, including when something does not help or does not make sense.
There would be no expectation of a favourable account, public testimonial or future involvement. Nothing from the experience would be shared publicly without explicit permission.
Who this first invitation is for
This first exploration is intended for an adult pianist with advanced or conservatoire-level training who can already work independently at the instrument.
The central difficulty may feel something like this: you can read and physically play unfamiliar music, but the notation does not yet become an equally clear inner experience of pitch, timbre, movement and individual voices.
The invitation may suit someone who:
- recognises a real difference between physical fluency and inner hearing;
- is willing to study a complete developmental sequence rather than collect isolated exercises;
- can give the work consistent attention;
- is comfortable describing uncertainty and difficulty honestly;
- is curious about the relationship between imagined sound, movement, touch and the resulting sound.
This particular invitation is not intended for beginning pianists. It concerns the retraining of capacities within an already developed instrumental practice.
Does this describe you?
Tell me what happens when you read music away from the piano.
Write briefly about your musical training, what you experience when looking at unfamiliar notation without playing it, and whether you could give Volume I sustained attention for approximately two months.
You do not need to persuade me or arrive with the right vocabulary. A clear description of your experience is enough.
The Wider Hope
Looking for others who share this question
This first invitation is deliberately small. The longer hope is to meet pianists, teachers, students and emerging researchers who recognise something of their own experience in these questions.
For almost thirty years, I have been exploring how inner hearing can be progressively developed—and how imagined pitch, timbre, sound movement, inner singing and polyphonic hearing become connected with movement, touch and the resulting sound at the piano.
I have now reached a point where I no longer want to explore these questions entirely alone.
There is no predetermined role and no expectation that you should already know where this might lead. We can begin by encountering one part of the work together—through an exercise, a teaching question, a research idea or a conversation with an existing group.
The missing connection in piano teaching
Piano teaching often tells students what sound to produce and what movement to make. What is rarely taught is the internal process connecting them: how to hear unfamiliar music inwardly before playing, and how to let that imagined sound organize movement and touch.
This matters because piano technique does not develop separately from hearing. When the score remains silent inwardly, the body may learn a difficult passage mainly as a sequence of physical actions. This can make the music slower to learn, harder to remember and more dependent on repetition and correction.
A clear inner musical representation gives movement a destination before the key is touched.
The journey I am offering begins precisely there. It moves step by step from notation to internally heard pitch; from pitch to timbre, sound texture and inner singing; from a single line to polyphonic hearing; and from imagined sound to movement, touch and the resulting sound.
The proposal is simple: if inner hearing can be progressively developed and connected with the body, pianists may be able to learn technically demanding music more directly, move with greater freedom and create the intended sound with less trial and error.
This is the practical and scientific question I would now like to explore with others.
What Volume I begins to connect
The exercises explore relationships such as these:
- 01From notationinternally heard pitch
- 02From pitchsound imagined in a familiar instrumental timbre
- 03From isolated soundsound movement and inner singing
- 04From a single lineindividual voices within simple polyphony
- 05From imagined soundcorresponding movement and touch
- 06From the integration of inner hearing and physical organisationthe resulting sound
These relationships develop through interconnected exercises. They include imagining three-dimensional sound texture in connection with 3D wrist motion. Physical experience also helps refine what can be imagined and heard internally.
This is a brief introduction to the foundational work. Later parts of the curriculum explore harmony, dynamics, voicing, phrasing and musical form.
Explore The Inner Musical Ear →
The chapter includes written exercises and video demonstrations. You do not need to study the whole programme before getting in touch.
How We Could Begin
- 01
Experience the work
If you are a pianist, you might begin with one part of the teaching material and tell me what you notice: what feels immediately recognisable, what is difficult to experience, and what raises a new question in your playing.
- 02
Explore its teaching
If you are a teacher, we might examine how one of these relationships could be communicated, observed or misunderstood—and what would be required for another pianist to discover it through practice rather than explanation alone.
- 03
Bring the question to an existing group
If you teach or coordinate a piano studio, pedagogy class, research group or community of musicians, we could arrange a live online demonstration and discussion. This would offer the group a direct encounter with the work without requiring any commitment to a larger project.
- 04
Develop a research question
If you are a student or researcher, we might examine one bounded part of the progression, consider the relevant literature and ask what could be investigated responsibly within an academic setting.
The first step does not need to be large. It may be one exercise, one observation, one demonstration or one carefully considered question.
If several people recognise the same question, I would eventually like to bring them together. For now, I am interested in discovering where that recognition already exists.
A possible research collaboration
I am developing a proposal to investigate how inner hearing from notation relates to movement, touch and the resulting sound at the piano.
The proposed initial study concerns Volume I, Foundation: Mind & Body. It would examine the feasibility of delivering its exercises through supported self-study, using recorded demonstrations, written instructions and scheduled feedback.
The broader research would consider three connected areas:
- 1Inner hearing from notation.
- 2Physical movement and touch.
- 3The resulting sound quality.
The teaching materials already exist. The research design and assessments are still being refined. An initial feasibility study would need a manageable set of measures, with particular attention to whether participants can understand and complete the work and whether the assessments are suitable.
I would welcome conversations with researchers, potential supervisors and students interested in developing this proposal within an appropriate academic setting.
The exercises emerged through my own practice and teaching. Their effects have not yet been established through an independent controlled study.
Would you like to explore this work?
If you would like to study Volume I, discuss the ideas, or introduce me to a pianist or group who may be interested, I would be glad to hear from you.
Write to Emma