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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Introducing my fingers to the E-minor Partita… Any suggestions for intelligent fingering for the left hand in bars 11 & 12 will be highly appreciated
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Andrea Buckland Sounds lovely, coming along nicely. Here are the fingerings from the edition I have if you find it useful. Similar to the 2nd option Hilda suggested.
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- Brett Gilbert thanks, Brett! Will try this out as well.
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Hi All, decided to learn Bach's Italian concerto 3rd Mvnt. I am focusing on articulations, dynamics, attention to light pedaling and a much less than Presto Tempo. Page 1 is going well, so I just did fingering for p 2. I have listened to a couple of recordings and feel they are just Forte and Presto. I'd like to know what other people on Tonebase who are also playing the Italian Concerto are focusing on.
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Carole Kincaid Hi Carole!! sounds fabulous :)
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I chose Goldberg variation because I always wanted to play it just never had the courage. I think I first heard it at 18 yo and it was Glenn Gould later recording, and since then I listened to it many times.
This 1st variation is probably one of the simpler ones yet I find it hard to play well, like the evenness when crossing at the arpeggios. But it is very fun to play. I enjoy playing Bach's happy music, it is more useful than therapy!
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Qingzhi very well played! For me this is one of the hardest variation of them all. You make it sound really fun and playful. Bravo!
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Qingzhi Very good. It is happy music for sure.
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Qingzhi Love this! Played so freely and happily but with so much control.
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Qingzhi Bravo!!!
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Qingzhi Sounds great!
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Qingzhi you played it so well. Though I never make myself to hear this piece prior this. I wish I could played it as good as you. Do post more for us to listen.
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Qingzhi Very impressive. I've been working on this recently and the trickiest part for me is the "jumps" in measures 13 & 14. The fingerings can be tricky for this one, what edition are you using?
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Brett Gilbert thank you! For me, m 13 is trickiest because, beside the jumps, the left hand thumb tends to cause unwanted accents.
I use Barenreiter urtext without fingering, and when I put fingering, I reference Henle and C.F. Peters No. 209. What about you?
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Qingzhi I have Bareneiter and Henle (both with fingerings) but prefer the Henle layout and fingerings. I have seen some performances where the jump is avoided but haven't figured out how to do that correctly yet. For example, this video shows clearly playing without jumps. Not sure if this is "cheating"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfdNBBf3CO0
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I have chosen the first prelude and fugue in C major from the WTC book. Both new pieces for me. The fugue is a challenge of course and I don't know if I will be able to get it up to a high standard in three weeks, but I shall try.
I am leaving out the semi demi quavers while I learn the piece. I intend to put them back in once it is fluent.
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This is a video I made in January for my teacher (he said "just hands," so that's what I did) of the Prelude and Fugue in E major from WTC Book I. I started working on this last fall and have kept at it while moving on to other things. (My teacher's comment on this was that my wrist motion was too exaggerated so phrases were getting chopped off a bit.) Video recorded on my iPhone (I think with my external mics).
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Harriet Kaplan Sounds great Harriet!
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Vidhya Bashyam thank you!
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Harriet Kaplan Hey Harriet that's beautiful. nice job.
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Peter Golemme thank you!
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Harriet Kaplan That’s lovely. Makes me want to try that one!
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Hazel thank you. The prelude is a little gem, and not difficult. Fugue is another matter …
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Harriet Kaplan Beautiful playing Harriet :)
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Brother Will Green thank you!
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Harriet Kaplan You make the fugue sound easy! Beautifully done.
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