Bach in March WEEK 1: Practice Updates
Dear Pianists,
Welcome again to Bach in March! Bach is the composer closest to me and I can't wait to share this March with you in practicing Bach. This is the thread where we'll all be posting our biweekly updates for this month's community challenge.
For those who have been here before - you may post video or audio updates just as you did in Discovering Schubert Month! And for those who are new - uploading a video to youtube is often the best way to go! You can then post the youtube link to your video, or embed it directly in your reply.
The introduction and welcome to Bach in March will give you orientation for the community challenge activities, and provide you with a schedule of relevant livestreams, performance opportunities, and repertoire suggestions.
I'm always curious to hear about your practice experience and encourage you to write replies. If you can't think of where to start, here are some questions to jog your mind:
- What piece did you choose? How did you learn about it?
- What's a favorite passage of yours in the piece?
- What's one musical or technical decision you made while practicing your piece?
Feel free to make these updates as short or long as you wish!
Happy Bach Sounds!
Hilda
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Hi everyone,
I thought I would look at the ending of the Goldberg Variations, from No. 27 Canone alla Nona, No. 28 with the inner and outer trills, No.29 with the toccata style passages, No. 30 quodlibet with the combination of at least two folk songs and the finally the Aria from the beginning of the work which is so exquisite.
Plenty to keep the fingers occupied!
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I was happy to hear Hildaās suggestion to brush up an old piece and also challenge yourself to learn a new one. I have some ideas for both categories, so in the next day or two I will narrow it down to one of each.
Update: I have decided for the new piece to learn āSheep May Safely Grazeā Bach - Petri. For the previously learned selection, I am torn between bringing back something from the French Suite V which I learned about 12 years ago and havenāt played since, or finishing the Prelude from English Suite 3 which I started a decade ago and was only playing through slowly when I got pulled away to other pieces. -
Hi Hilda,
I really appreciate this corner of Tonebase now having been recently "introduced" to the Schubert Challenge of last month. That was so much fun. Thank you for doing Bach this month!
The piece I've chosen in Bach's Sinfonia no. 15 in b minor. I learned about this piece on another piano thread, this being the demarcation test piece for level 4... Got pumped to learn it as it sight-reading the piece perfectly was a challenge.
The one technical decision was to practice hands separate. https://youtu.be/uZKsDTuxug4
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Hi fellow tonebase pianists. I had to take a break for a few months due to a sprained finger but excited to participate in the new challenge this month with my favorite composer. I'm going to work on an earlier and rather unique Bach piece, the Capriccio BWV 992. Before my injury I was working on Goldbergs but there's a separate thread for that where I hope to post my progress as well since that's a long term project.
BWV 992 is interesting because it is a programmatic piece with a story and descriptive text associated with each movement. I hope to post the first movement within a day or two. Looking forward to seeing everyone's submissions.