Week 4 - The Whole Piece: Time to Share!
Hey everyone! 🎹
Final week of the Bach C minor Challenge! Wherever you are in the piece (the Prelude, part of the Fugue, or the whole thing), you've put in four weeks of real work, and that's worth celebrating.
For those finishing the Fugue, this week's suggested focus is Sections 12–14:
- Section 12, Recapitulation & Coda (bars 20–31): hand redistribution, light thumbs, lift markings and ties, the drama in the bass line, and the coda.
- Section 13, Fugue Consolidation: a full Fugue playthrough.
- Section 14, The Full Piece: put the Prelude and Fugue together, and watch a performance video for inspiration.
Open the Track here: https://app.tonebase.co/piano/tracks/bach-prelude-and-fugue-in-c-minor-bwv-847
🎥 Time to share!
Share your recording as a reply in this thread by Sunday, Nov 1 to be featured in the Watch Party on Monday, Nov 2 at 11am PT.
It can be the Prelude, the Fugue, a single section, or the whole piece. Rough edges are welcome. This is about sharing where you got to, not perfection.
Live tomorrow: Tuesday, Oct 27, 11am PT, Deep Dive on the C minor Prelude and Fugue with me. Bring your last questions before you share!
Question for the week: if you could add one step to the Track, what would it be?
76 replies
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PS: I’m not allowed to put any weight on my right leg…so no pedal and no driving for at least 3-4 more weeks. Chopin and Rachmaninoff are going to sound very strange!
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Hi, everyone! Thank you, Dominic, for creating Tracks. I learned the Prelude a couple of years ago, as assigned by my teacher. I learned it in a rather brutal way, which caused neck and shoulder pain. Over these past four weeks, life happened, and I didn’t manage to change my fingering or practice the fugue. But I watched the lessons, and I feel optimistic about continuing learning more from the Track. Thank you again!
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Hi, everyone! I have thoroughly enjoyed this challenge based on the track system, and I've learned so much from it. I think it's an excellent initiative, as it provides such valuable guidance throughout the learning process of the piece, highlighting countless details that might otherwise go unnoticed. It also explains how to approach each of them, both technically and musically.
Thank you so much for it, Dominic!
PS: Yesterday, for several hours, I was unable to upload the video because the Tonebase page wouldn't load.
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Amazing playing by all of you! It is so great to see how the Tonebase community is working: motivating and supporting each other 🥰!
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Here's my Prelude. This is the "experimental" approach I had been talking about. I had committed to trying it this way before starting the Challenge. The Challenge and the Tracks gave me some food for thought, both on reasons why one might not want to take this approach (perhaps not the best correllation to an authentic style), but also how, if you were going to barge forward with it anyway, to make this approach better!
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And here's the Fugue. I'm going with a more ornamented version here than is usually heard, despite some wise admonishments in the Tracks not to overdo it! Still some glitches and inconsistencies to work out, but once again, the Tracks were enromously helpful in getting this far.
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I hope I remembered to include everyone above correctly!
Thank you for sharing all your work and wonderful playing today. It was great to listen to you and celebrate your efforts!