Tag Archives: bach

Free Piano Lessons – Tips for Playing Bach Minuet in G

Welcome to another part in a series of videos offering you tips for selected piano repertoire. Bach wrote many Minuets in beautiful Baroque style and this one in particular is a wonderful little piece for even elementary level players.

A minuet is a dance form in meter of three and because it’s a Baroque piece it has nice counterpoint. The goal of this piece is to showcase great clarity while retaining a bouncy and dance-like feel. The secret to achieving this is how you execute the phrasing – specifically, how you articulate the staccatos and how you negotiate the slurs.

Like in many other pieces, the technique is accomplished with the wrist. You will want to use certain wrist techniques to clarify the staccato notes contrasting with the slurred legato notes. This might sound simple but many times when first approaching this piece you may unwittingly use the arm in conjunction with the wrist producing a muddled sound.

For this piece, the first beat should have more emphasis than the second and third beats in keeping with the dance form. By coming down with the wrist for the first beat on the staccato notes, you can create a very dynamic sound. By using the arms you will produce a heavier tone that doesn’t sound nearly as bright and bouncy as it should.

The way I would recommend playing this is to bring your wrist down on the first note and then quickly lift it back up on the staccato notes. If you watch the video attached with this article you will see some great examples of this wrist movement. It’s very important to not rely upon the arm for the up and down motion; it must come from the wrist!

You should keep the same motion for each individual staccato note: down, up, down, up. And remember that it’s only the wrist being utilized in these notes; not the arm. If you have to, hold your arm still with your other hand at first and play the notes only using your wrist.

You will be greatly impressed by the results of employing a light staccato using the wrist; it will truly bring new life to this piece and many others. Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com

How to approach Bach’s Two Part Inventions – Part 3

Welcome back to our multi-part series on Bach’s two part Inventions. In Part 1 of our lesson we talked about how to understand these pieces as well as the importance of understanding counterpoint when approaching the inventions. In Part 2 of our lesson we discussed some techniques for Invention #8 – The F major invention.

Today we are going to discuss Invention #4 – the D minor invention. Again, we are going to discuss the importance of delineating the subject and countersubject in these pieces. I will take the subject and countersubject at the beginning of the piece to demonstrate how phrasing can help bring out the most in this work:

Here is the subject

And here is the countersubject

By delineating the phrasing in this section you will be able to make the structure of this piece clear. How do you achieve this? You will want to play the 16th note subject legato and the 8th note countersubject staccato. By doing this you will be able to hear every note clearly, yet they combine beautifully together.

As you continue to advance through the inventions you will be able to experiment with your own phrasing. The key to getting these pieces to make musical sense is to delineate the lines to create clear counterpoint. You will bring out the individual lines and allow them to bounce off one another creating a wonderful sound!

I recommend these pieces if you are starting out with playing Baroque music or want to expose yourself to brilliant counterpoint. After you learn these pieces and go on to learn more pieces of Bach or other Baroque composers, you will encounter four or even five voice fugues. Learning to delineate two voices will bring you a long way towards learning how to handle even more complex scores.

Thanks again for joining us at Living Pianos. If you have any questions about this subject or any other subjects please contact us directly: info@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

How to approach Bach’s Two Part Inventions – Part 2

Welcome back to our second part in our series on how to approach the Bach Two Part Inventions. In Part 1 of our lesson we talked about how to understand these pieces as well as the importance of understanding counterpoint when approaching the inventions.

Today we are going to explore Invention #8 – The F major invention. Again, this piece really relies on subject and countersubject for its structure so if you missed the last lesson or you aren’t familiar with the concept of Counterpoint you might want to catch up before you proceed with this lesson.

Let’s start with the first phrase in the piece and separate the subject from the countersubject.

Here is the subject:

And here is the countersubject:

Right away you will be able to spot a difference between the two. You will want to accentuate these differences with the phrasing. To accomplish this I recommend playing the subject staccato and the countersubject legato. This is a great way to delineate the subject from the countersubject and allow them to stand on their own so they don’t meld together.

You should always understand the context in which the piece you are playing was written. In this piece Bach was not writing for the piano. The keyboard instruments during his time didn’t contain sensitivities for dynamics. So, phrasing the parts differently from one-another was an essential component of the performance.

You should play this way through the entire piece and you will separate both the lines clearly and let them stand on their own. When performed correctly it’s truly amazing what type of sound this achieves and it’s even more amazing to think that Bach was developing this effect without the aid of the modern piano. If you were to play everything with the same phrasing the piece would sound fine but it would sound flat and lacking the life that Bach intended.

As you play further into the piece you can utilize dynamics (such as playing piano or forte in different sections). But the phrasing is what’s going to separate the two lines and bring life to the piece and highlight the brilliant counterpoint within.

What makes these pieces great is that you are free to develop phrasing and dynamics on your own and bring unique expression to these pieces. Bach didn’t write dynamic or phrasing markings and it’s not because he didn’t want them. It’s because it’s up to the performer to bring their own unique voice to these works. Have fun with these inventions and experiment; don’t be afraid to try something new!

Thanks again for joining us here at Living Pianos. info@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

How to Play Bach’s Two Part Inventions – Part 1

Welcome to the first part in our series on Bach’s Two Part Inventions. These are masterful works that are not very long but brilliantly conceived. If you’re looking for something short and challenging to practice these could be a great choice for you.

Let’s start by breaking down exactly what is meant by “two part invention”. This phrase simply means it is a type of 2-voice counterpoint (for more information on this subject please watch our video on What is Counterpoint?) To put this simply, there are two different lines of music and at no point are there more than two different notes playing at the same time in just about the whole piece. Even with these limitations this is an amazing composition that’s built with a subject and a countersubject. Being able to delineate these two phrases is what makes counterpoint so special.

A great way to separate the subject from the countersubject is to phrase them differently from one-another.

For example, in the first phrase you have this as your subject:

And this as your countersubject:

In this particular piece the subject and countersubject are incredibly similar. So how should you make each one stand out? Well you might notice that a few bars into the piece the countersubject has elongated eighth notes.

A great way to delineate these notes is to play them legato and in groups; with the last note being short. This is a great way to separate the countersubject from the subject.

The beauty of Bach is that there is really no right or wrong. A lot of his music is open for interpretation so if you wanted to play the phrasing completely differently it can work just as well. Why is this? Because Bach rarely wrote phrasing into his music. It is up to you come up with the phrasing.

Unlike later music that has melody and harmony and obvious distinctions between the two, these Bach Inventions have intertwining melodies instead. So for now have fun and experiment with these pieces. When we return we will have more videos for you on these inventions that show even more extreme examples of delineation between subject and countersubject.

Thanks so much for joining me here at Living Pianos. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us directly: info@livingpianos.com (949) 244-3729.

Piano Lessons: How to Play Bach’s French Suites – Part 3 (Sarabande)

Welcome back to our ongoing series on How to Play Bach’s Fifth French Suite. In our first part we covered the Allemande section, Last time we covered the Courante, Today we will be exploring the lyrical Sarabande Movement.

Even though this movement is very different from the first two that precede it, the same principles apply; which is to delineate the melodies from one-another with phrasing.

There are some differences between the first two movements that I would like to point out. In those movements, I employed a clipped staccato accentuating the detachment between notes. This achieves clear delineation of the musical lines. In this movement, you will want to approach the staccatos a bit differently.

It’s a common misconception that staccato means short. It actually means “detached” and there are different techniques you can employ depending on the piece. For more information on playing staccato please check out our previous video on the subject.

In fast movements, you will want to play staccato notes short, but in a more lyrical and slow movement, you can play them detached but with more length so the notes don’t have a clipped sound which can diminish the lyricism. By performing the eighth notes detached but not short you can produce a subtle delineation of voices without the harsh tone that short staccato notes produce.

There isn’t a right or wrong way to approach the phrasing of this movement. However, I like to give the eighth notes a clean and nuanced detachment rather than the sudden shortness that works so well in the faster first two movements. However, you will want to avoid having the musical lines blend with each other which would be more appropriate in late 19th-century Romantic period music. One of the defining aspects of the Baroque era of music is the delineation of counterpoint – hearing the distinctness of each musical line.

Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Piano Lessons: How to Play Bach’s French Suites – Part 2

Welcome to our ongoing series covering Bach’s French Suites. Last time we covered the Allemande section of the 5th French Suite in G major. Today we will be covering the 2nd movement, the Courante, which is a very difficult movement.

The biggest thing I recommend is playing the eighth notes staccato and the sixteenth notes legato. Not only does this add more energy to the piece but it actually allows you to play the notes a bit slower – when you play the staccato short it gives the impression of a faster tempo than what you are actually playing!

This is actually a trick I learned from listening to Vladimir Horowitz many years ago. He would play notes so cleanly and detached that it sounded faster than everyone else. If you put a metronome to his music though you would realize that this wasn’t always the case.

So why is this technique so effective. One of the reasons is because it brings out the difference between the lines. With the sixteenth notes being legato they are distinctly different from the staccato eighth notes.

The biggest thing to mastering this piece – like any other – is effective practice. When it comes to this piece in particular you will want to practice it very slowly. During your slow practice you will want to exaggerate the difference between legato and staccato; so when you speed up the piece the difference will still be there.

You should really go through the whole piece like this and have the patience to practice it with the metronome. You should gradually bring the piece up to speed but only after you can absolutely master it at a certain speed before increasing it. It’s important to play it cleanly and relaxed. Do not make the mistake of increasing the speed before you are ready.

When it comes to ornamentation I like to use it to enhance certain sections of the piece. In the fourth measure, there is an f sharp and I like to add a trill to it. You will notice if you listen that I always measure the trill; your trill must always be measured. While it might seem like free expression, you will always want it to fit properly within the music and the tempo and it must be measured.