Learning Bach's Invention in C Major
This page is for Tonebase Players ( Levels 2,3,4,5) who are learning to play this beautiful piece by J S Bach. The discussion here is solely on this piece. If you are interested in discussing your strategies and practice methods please feel free to share as you deem fit. All ideas are welcome.
Higher level players -there are many many here on Tonebase - who are fluent in this piece are extremely welcome to provide advice.
I will start (my level - 2/3 maybe ? ). Heard the piece played by several renowned artists. Read the piece a few times after that on day 1 then proceeded to do the same for a few more days - what I call the really coarse method. Recorded the really coarse version as a checkpoint to see if the strategy is working - record again in 4 days and see if anything has changed. After deciding this piece is perhaps playable in a few weeks/months I have adopted a strategy and describe my process.
1. 1st line RH only ( actually split into 1 measure first then string the rest to a line) -use a metronome at 60 bpm to the quarter note. Play and memorize right away. Close the line and see if there is recall.
2. Same as 1 but for LH.
The final tempo is 120 bpm to the quarter note( it is really fast for my level - so dropped to half speed)
3. Proceed to line 2 in the score only after line 1 is reasonably accurate. Skip ornamentation in the begining.
4. Then play both hands together accurately - just the first line. This is quite tough in the beginning. For the first few hours nothing seemed to work. When I hear the recording I can tell right away that something is off.
So far in about a week of practicing this piece everday there is a bit of progress. Quite noticeably from the recording. Need to baseline it in the next couple of days.
If there is interest in this topic I am happy to share anything I read about or come across that may be useful to anyone else learning this piece. Feel free to post anything that you may think may be useful to others in their learning journey. If there is no interest in this topic I am happy to delete this page promptly. :-)
7 replies
-
Hi William -- I have learned this piece during the last year (I am fairly advanced, can play a few Chopin etudes, for example) and I found mental practice on it to be very helpful; can you, in your mind, visualize and know exactly what notes you are playing, perhaps first hand separately, and then together? Also, the climax of the piece on the top of the second page is a bit tricky. It will take extra work. My other advice:
Forget about a target metronome of 120. Bach did not indicate tempo, and the piece sounds good at various speeds.
I would learn the ornaments, which are simple, right away. That way you don't have to retrain muscle memory later.
Structurally, look at the sequences/motifs that Bach uses, and that can help you organize it in your mind. Sing each little musical phrase, then play/enjoy it.
It sounds like coordinating the two hands with counterpoint is still tricky for you -- hence this is a perfect learning piece. I would work on the coordination and record yourself only after you can manage the coordination (like, for me, I don't see the point of recording oneself trying to do something one obviously can't do yet).
Good luck and have fun!
-
Hi Peter -- thanks for your notes. I think your practice method sounds pretty good. In general I think it's good to play things that are relatively easy for us, things that are close to our limits, and to also explore/ see what's required to play music that is beyond our current capability. One can't get good at harder music without eventually trying it!
I think there might be value in posting a video, and I'd be happy to watch it.
Thanks,
Andrew