How To Teach Bach Invention No.13 in A Minor: Improve your Bach playing and teaching skills!

[@JannaWilliamson]

Do you have other pieces in the intermediate repertoire that you'd like me to cover in a future video? Leave a comment here!

[@MotifMusicStudios]

I should look through the new RCM syllabus for some ideas! There are so many gems in there!

[@JannaWilliamson]

@@MotifMusicStudios yes, particularly by women and composers of color!

[@MarcusVinicius116]

Prélude No. 6 Op. 28 of Chopin ? I find it really difficult to play without à mecchanical and jerky side.

[@bayfilly1]

Would love your analysis of Brahms 118.2 !! Thank you for this one. I had avoided these Bach pieces until I stumbled on your videos !! I find left hand more legato and right more detached is a nice combo....and then the other way around. And yes,,,,Gould goes so fast he misses the beauty,,,,,,like running through the Lourve !! All Inventions, I think, should be VERY 'cantabile'

[@Workingman-u7s]

Debussy Arabesque No. 1. Thank you.

[@MotifMusicStudios]

Love that you highlight two different performers with very different styles in this piece.

[@JannaWilliamson]

Another viewer commented about Glenn Gould on a previous video - it reminded me that his influence is strongly felt! Which is a little dangerous for our students, given his tempo choices. 😬

[@MotifMusicStudios]

@@JannaWilliamson Yes! It's amazing how those more well known performers can really impact a generation of players. I actually found that with lots of RCM recordings in the past that they were SO fast that it was hard to imagine things not at a break neck tempo! [I'm talking old Cassette Recordings and CD's - ya know, from the dark ages when I was a kid. ;) ]

[@henryyoutube4359]

I went to high school with Bach and he would always play at local parties. So cool to finally see him get some recognition.

[@sirmaxwellvonfleckenstein5376]

What next.... a joke about broken chords and how to fix them?

[@henryyoutube4359]

@@sirmaxwellvonfleckenstein5376 finish the joke

[@JannaWilliamson]

If it isn’t bar-oque, don’t fix it! 😂

[@mookiesdream1]

I always tell people I played in a band with that guy! GMTA!

[@archsys307]

shit am i in the baroque rn? needa get bach to the future

[@MotifMusicStudios]

I love this invention and always enjoy your way of explaining your approach to teaching specific pieces.

[@JannaWilliamson]

Thank you for watching!

[@DaveBowman345]

It's cool how this piece begins with that single A note... and I get chills at the 19th measure. It sounds like it's from another planet. 🛸👽

[@tonywhetton9015]

Nice nice piece this, Janna! Not done Bach for a long while so May look at this one. Thanks for your teaching tips Janna 👍

[@JannaWilliamson]

Thank you for watching!

[@markteague8889]

Thank you so much for sharing your perspective and experience on this wonderful Bach invention.

[@JannaWilliamson]

Thank you for watching!

[@karolpuma]

Thank you so much. I am back to this after 23 years.

[@peterknezevich9959]

Thank you! I am currently teaching this piece. I love your comment about syncopation. I hadn't really thought about the syncopation in this piece. But it's definitely one of the elements that makes it such a fun piece to play.

[@JannaWilliamson]

Yes I agree! Keep an eye out for syncopation in all Bach - he uses it a lot!

[@cariboux2]

Thank you. I'm just about to learn this piece and this is very helpful.

[@JannaWilliamson]

Thank you for watching!

[@MarcusVinicius116]

Another piece I like to play. Not so easy to learn by oneself but I see that I play approximately as you advise.

[@karlokulpa]

Very Nice👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@fredrasio]

This is a beautiful piano that fits your arts & crafts house so perfectly. Can you say what it is and where you got it from? I very rarely see light oak pianos and they seem to be always upright models. Thanks!

[@JannaWilliamson]

Of course! It's a 1999 Yamaha C2 that we bought in 2019 shortly after moving to this house. I show more of the studio and link to the place where we bought it in this video - kzbin.info/www/bejne/d2rNlIuIqKZkgdksi=eAVoQ_Igf39SaFpC

[@josesouza9820]

Great video! Could the opening subjects in Bach's inventions also be described as motifs?

[@JannaWilliamson]

Yes. A subject is usually a little longer than what I think of as a motif and a slightly more specific term used in Baroque music.

[@guitargod6997]

Just subscribed! Lovely lesson from an articulate and expressive teacher! Very excellent insights. Piano is my second instrument, as I am currently a jazz musician classically trained on guitar at age twelve. If I could hit "reset", I would have preferred to learn classical piano first.

[@JannaWilliamson]

Thank you for watching and subscribing! More info here: www.jannawilliamson.com/blog/how-to-teach-bach-invention-13

[@jakedooom]

Thank you for showing this. It’s helpful in so many ways, and so is inspiring even across the planet from Chicago, to The Scottish Borders.

[@JannaWilliamson]

Thanks for watching! We enjoyed Edinburgh and Durham a couple of years ago on a wonderful UK trip. I hope you're having a nice summer!

[@follettpianoteacher]

Hi Janna! Thanks for another great teaching video. What slow metronome tempo or number would you recommend for students to practice at?

[@JannaWilliamson]

This depends on your student's current maximum tempo. If your student can play it at quarter=80, then a good slow tempo might be around half of that, or maybe a little more than half. So something like eighth=96? Just something that feels REALLY SLOW. 😂

[@follettpianoteacher]

@@JannaWilliamson Thank you!

[@tomcalderaro7164]

check back half of bar 1 (video @ 4:15) 3rd 16th of beat 2.... B not A :)

[@JannaWilliamson]

Ah, yes, you are correct. I grabbed screenshots from a free edition online since my Henle urtext is under copyright. One more reason to always purchase a good quality edition!

[@hovefactually7505]

I find it really hard to play this without looking at my fingers (especially bars 3 and 4), so I have to keep looking from the score to the keyboard and back again or wait till I learn the piece off by heart (which is my usual solution, but which I'm trying to stop doing).

[@piotrrusk]

I'm searching everywhere: did anybody notice that in 24th bar the time signature really changes to 3/8 or 6/16? I had problems with analysing the melody logically, but if you group it by six sixteenths under one beam (three eighths in left hand), suddenly it becomes perfectly logical regarding to accents 🙂 Best regards from Poland!

[@bluemoon6579]

Why no discussion of fingering? There is a lot of difference of opinion about that, and it's very relevant to the phrasing

[@JannaWilliamson]

I can’t talk about everything in one video. 😂 Totally agree, it’s vitally important. But it’s also personal. I recommend teachers and students purchase a good edition, try the fingering in it, experiment with places they don’t like, decide, and then be consistent.

[@jeffreykaufmann2867]

invention 14 was much easier for me to learn then #13. I cant play #4 cause i cant do trills with my left hand even though im left-handed

[@polonoise]

Rotation Is the trick for trills

[@Workingman-u7s]

I can play this piece in 20 seconds. So easy after I have downloaded a piano application into my brain and now I am able to play any piano piece with zero practice. With this piano application downloaded into my brain, I am now a concert pianist with zero schooling and zero practice time. So easy. It's a walk in the park.

[@followyourpassion8378]

How much of your brain's computing power does this app take away? Will I still be able to perform other tasks at the same time, like reading a book on quantum mechanics or composing a fugue, while playing a concert?

[@Workingman-u7s]

@@followyourpassion8378 Of course. Your brain has unlimited unto infinity spiritual cloud storage capacity.