This in-depth examination of Bach’s composition follows a Skype lesson. Most long-distance learning students need this reinforcement to make good use of their practice time during the week.
International Online Piano Teacher, blogger, recording artist, composer, piano finder, freelance writer, film maker, story teller: Grad of the NYC H.S. 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, California; Member, Music Teachers Assoc. of California, MTAC; Distance learning by Skype and Face Time with supplementary videos: SKYPE ID: shirley kirsten
Contact me at: shirley_kirsten@yahoo.com OR http://www.youtube.com/arioso7 or at FACEBOOK: Shirley Smith Kirsten, http://facebook.com /shirley.kirsten; https://www.facebook.com/skirs.7/ TWITTER: http://twitter.com/arioso7
Wordpress Blog: https://arioso7.wordpress.com
Private fundraising for non-profits as pianist--Public Speaking re: piano teaching and creative approaches
View all posts by arioso7: Shirley Kirsten
4 thoughts on “My complete analysis of Bach’s Little Prelude in D minor, BWV 926 (Video)”
Shirley, thanks again for a fruitful and very useful lesson. At 39yo and with a desk job during the day, this piece shows my biggest problem: my lack of inner tempo. It seems I can’t feel the inner beat, so when during the last bars the 1/8th becomes 1/16th, and I am supposed to play the 12 notes in the same exact bar, my tempo goes all over the places, in a very incoherent relationship with what I had played until then. So my teacher here in Italy makes me play very slow, so slow I cant hear the music anymore. But again, I have problem in listening the tempo of the piece, in understanding that if I played at this speed until this bar, then I should play at this other speed the next bar. I had the same trouble with another Bach piece, where I had 1/8th an the left hand and a trill at the right. The left hand started to get faster, as if following what fingers in the right hand were doing…
What can you suggest? is there a way to increase the perception of inner tempo?
I just found a moment to chime in. Your problem is all too familiar re: some of my adult students. They just need lots of ear training –or rhythmic rehab. In fact I am going to upload a video in the next few hours perhaps, dealing with this issue as it applied to a piano student playing a Beethoven sonatina. She kept changing her fundamental beat with each practice attempt of various measures that needed remediation. You might want to start with basic five finger positions as in Dozen a Day “Walking and Running, ” and play from quarters to 8ths to 16ths to 32nds and then go backwards from 32nds to 16ths, to 8ths to quarters.. I am not big on using a metronome.. but it can certainly be an alert to a student that he’s veered considerably from a starting pulse. More to think about.. but it’s nearly 10 p.m. on this Coast. Rhythmic consciousness takes lots of practice and patience. Hopefully, the video I will be posting might give you some insights into this particular universe.
Hi Lorenzo, Thanks for your note.. I have a parade of upcoming students this p.m. and late p.m. so I will check back in to reply quite a bit later into the evening. Shirley K
Shirley, thanks again for a fruitful and very useful lesson. At 39yo and with a desk job during the day, this piece shows my biggest problem: my lack of inner tempo. It seems I can’t feel the inner beat, so when during the last bars the 1/8th becomes 1/16th, and I am supposed to play the 12 notes in the same exact bar, my tempo goes all over the places, in a very incoherent relationship with what I had played until then. So my teacher here in Italy makes me play very slow, so slow I cant hear the music anymore. But again, I have problem in listening the tempo of the piece, in understanding that if I played at this speed until this bar, then I should play at this other speed the next bar. I had the same trouble with another Bach piece, where I had 1/8th an the left hand and a trill at the right. The left hand started to get faster, as if following what fingers in the right hand were doing…
What can you suggest? is there a way to increase the perception of inner tempo?
thank you a lot in advance
lorenzo
I just found a moment to chime in. Your problem is all too familiar re: some of my adult students. They just need lots of ear training –or rhythmic rehab. In fact I am going to upload a video in the next few hours perhaps, dealing with this issue as it applied to a piano student playing a Beethoven sonatina. She kept changing her fundamental beat with each practice attempt of various measures that needed remediation. You might want to start with basic five finger positions as in Dozen a Day “Walking and Running, ” and play from quarters to 8ths to 16ths to 32nds and then go backwards from 32nds to 16ths, to 8ths to quarters.. I am not big on using a metronome.. but it can certainly be an alert to a student that he’s veered considerably from a starting pulse. More to think about.. but it’s nearly 10 p.m. on this Coast. Rhythmic consciousness takes lots of practice and patience. Hopefully, the video I will be posting might give you some insights into this particular universe.
This video fleshes out the rhythmic rehab needed at times in the course of lessons.
Hi Lorenzo, Thanks for your note.. I have a parade of upcoming students this p.m. and late p.m. so I will check back in to reply quite a bit later into the evening. Shirley K