Which bach invention is easiest

Bach apparently enjoyed the challenge of writing in all keys so much that, 20 years after writing the first book of pieces in the early s, he composed a second! The WTC is generally thought of as the combination of both books. In addition to being the first full set of keyboard works in all keys, the WTC is a brilliant example of keyboard and counterpoint composition, and is considered standard literature for all serious pianists.

A : Look at these chords in the small staff above the main score excerpt. Can you see that they can be broken up and expanded to build the shapes we see in the piece pink arrows? It is one of the easiest ways to make a basic harmonic idea e. Almost every measure of this piece is built in this way, and it is often easier to identify which chord makes up each measure and to think of playing chords instead of linear figures.

B : In practicing this piece, try to think of the bass notes in red like stones tossed in a pond, out of which the succeeding notes radiate upward. A great exercise you can do is to try and vary the figuration of the upper notes. Try playing exactly the same notes, but after first playing the bass note, alter the order of the notes that come after. This way of taking an element of a piece and altering or playing with it can be an excellent learning tool!

The different perspective will help deepen your knowledge of the piece, and reinforce the choices that were made in its composition. These particular brackets are telling you that both the bass note and the second note in the measure should be played with the left hand. This encourages smooth phrasing and ease of movement. Bach wrote a number of small preludes, many of them ostensibly meant for teaching. Even if students were not destined to become composers by profession, they were still required to pursue composition as part of their music studies, and to familiarize themselves with the compositional and improvisational practices of the day.

Short pieces, such as this one, were supposed to help students build themselves up to more challenging works, and to learn concise, creative compositional choices and techniques to bring to their own compositions. What you want to avoid is starting the piece at a speed that makes those 16th-notes far too challenging to tackle once you get to them.

Also, this piece is usually written with mordents trills on the 1st and 3rd beats of the alternating left hand octaves in bars ; feel free to skip these until the core notes are easy for you. Composers employed a variety of symbols to specify where they wanted ornamentation to take place. The sharp in the parentheses below it indicates the note neighboring our written note the one we will be trilling with should be sharped. Trills and mordents should be fluid, but should also happen in time.

An example of how you might play this mordent is provided in the small ossia staff below the main measure in red. B : There are two parts to making this 16th-note run easier.

First, we must approach it with good fingering so that we are in an optimal hand position top right, in magenta. Second, we must recognize that the line is really made up of two scales both of which are all white notes : one coming down from A to A blue margin , and one going up from G to G green margin.

We have one note in between them that serves as a pivot point. Notice how the fingerings for the scales mirror each other. Use a metronome, and go slowly!

A number of easier works can be found hiding in the generally more difficult English and French Dance Suites. This heartstring-puller of a sarabande a slow, stately dance piece in triple meter, typically featured in a Baroque dance suite features some particularly lovely harmony, and is a good exercise piece for creating smooth, slow, one-handed lines and legato parallel sixths and thirds.

As an aside, this particular sarabande was discovered complete with a written out ornamentation from Bach himself, a rarity given that most ornamentation at the time was simply assumed, or marked via trill marks and other such symbols. Feel free to omit all ornamentation until the core notes of the piece have been mastered.

The stacked fingerings refer to the highest and lowest notes in the staves directly above or below them, and some fingerings have been separated for ease of viewing. The numbers with dashes in between them are notes that are held while those around them move. If you can already do that, it is a great repertoire to transcend your interpretational and expressive detailed performance skills.

As pianists, we are the full orchestra and the conductor at the same time. Therefore, we must be able to take all those jobs and deliver the final work. As you can see, playing the piano is by far more about the brain than the fingers. And here the 2-part inventions play an essential role in preparing and keeping the mind ready to work. Would you like to learn more? Join me in the Piano Class on Bach 2-part Invention n. Fernanda Machado , classical pianist and Piano teacher since , specialized in learning and brainwave control applied to music.

Renowned as an energetic and creative teacher, she has guided pianists of all ages up to the professional level in and out of the University academic environment, and the amateur students to their full high-level artistic potential.

Why should I play J. Bach's 2-part inventions? Choose your first inventions Having so many beautiful options, it can be hard to choose the first one! More about my course. Chopin Nocturnes are level Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Asked 10 years, 6 months ago. Active 1 year, 2 months ago.

Viewed 6k times. Improve this question. Aaron James Tauber James Tauber 3, 1 1 gold badge 17 17 silver badges 25 25 bronze badges. Add a comment.

Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. UtopiaLtd UtopiaLtd 1 1 gold badge 4 4 silver badges 15 15 bronze badges.