Practicing the Bach Prelude in C from the Well-Tempered Clavier, by a process of chord blocking (Video)

Blocking out the lush harmonic progressions of Bach’s C Major Prelude is an important first step in learning it. A melodic line that sings through these sonorities, albeit, in waves of broken chords, is the composer’s stroke of genius. The chord inversions are perfectly in place to flesh out a divinely “voiced” melody in the treble.

In the attached video, I focus on the value of listening from chord to chord; being sensitive to relationships between them as Dominant to Tonic, or to a Deceptive harmonic event, among others— “feeling” resolutions, modulations, suspensions, sequences, etc. that are part of the “Harmonic Rhythm.”

Shaping lines, in part, according to rhythmic flow enriches a player’s understanding of the composition, giving insights about its phrasing and interpretation.

RELATED:

http://arioso7.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/a-different-view-of-bach-and-the-piano-prelude-in-c-video/

http://arioso7.wordpress.com/2010/12/26/everyone-plays-the-bach-prelude-no-1-in-c-you-tube-video-embedded/

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About arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

Private piano teacher, recording artist, composer, piano finder, freelance writer, film maker, story teller: Grad of the NYC HS of Performing Arts, Oberlin Conservatory, NYU (Master of Arts) Studies with Lillian Freundlich and Ena Bronstein; Master classes with Murray Perahia and Oxana Yablonskaya. Studios in BERKELEY and EL CERRITO, California; Member, Music Teachers Assoc. of California, MTAC; Distance learning at POWHOW: http://www.powhow.com/classes/shirley-kirsten and Skyped instruction available plus exchange videos: SKYPE ID, shirleypiano1 Contact me at: shirley_kirsten@yahoo.com OR http://www.youtube.com/arioso7 or at FACEBOOK: Shirley Smith Kirsten, http://facebook.com /shirley.kirsten TWITTER: http://twitter.com/arioso7 Private fund-raising for non-profits as pianist--Public Speaking re: piano teaching and creative approaches
This entry was posted in J.S. Bach, J.S. Bach Prelude in C from the Well Tempered Clavier, JS Bach, piano instruction, piano instructor, piano lesson, piano teaching, Pianostreet.com, pianoworld, pianoworld.com, playing chords at the piano, playing piano, Shirley Kirsten, Shirley Kirsten blog, Shirley Smith Kirsten, studying piano, Teach Street, Uncategorized, video performances, video uploading, videotaped replay, Well Tempered Clavier, word press, wordpress.com, you tube, you tube video and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Practicing the Bach Prelude in C from the Well-Tempered Clavier, by a process of chord blocking (Video)

  1. Bob F says:

    I love this music and am really interested in your analysis, but you don’t have the mic close enough so that I can hear you :(

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