How To Teach Bach Little Prelude in C Minor, BWV 934

[@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!

[@quadricode]

Recommended piece to discuss possibly: Mendelssohn Op 67 No 2 in F# Minor. P.S. Great discussion of 934! I actually had a more difficult time with this piece compared to the Invention No 1.

[@JannaWilliamson]

@@quadricode I have never taught that Mendelssohn, so I don't foresee making a video any time soon. But I will have to take a look at it myself. :)

[@JannaWilliamson]

@@familysounds I will add this idea to my list! Thanks!

[@JannaWilliamson]

@@familysounds I wanted to make sure you know that I do have one other video featuring a Little Prelude - the C Major, BWV 939. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hoXLoWV8l9mHqqs

[@susandunlap3409]

ARIETTA BY GRIEG AND MOZART VIENESE SONATAS. LOVE YOUR VIDEOS. IM AN ADULT PIANO LEARNER

[@davidsmith9964]

As a. Senior adult struggling to play this piece, I found your comments wonderfully helpful and so beautifully expressed! Thank you so much Janna!

[@JannaWilliamson]

Thank you for watching! More info here: www.jannawilliamson.com/blog/how-to-teach-bach-little-prelude-nazh7

[@aminejebbor-thiery1388]

Great explanations for this beautiful piece, I'd hear you for hours! Thanks!

[@Hotsk]

Exceptionally well explained! I'm so glad I stumbled across this. As far as students playing the appogiaturas as grace notes: I've been doing that the whole time--until coincidentally yesterday when I perchance saw that the notes don't have a slash through the stem (I just assumed they did without looking; perhaps this is also what most students are doing, too). But since yesterday, and especially after having viewed this insightful teacher training video, I've begun playing them correctly as appogiaturas--and the whole thing sounds so much better, so much more J.S. Bach! Now I just have to work on playing the quarter notes as detached (my piano teacher did tell me some years ago that quarter notes in baroque music are always to be played detached, but I'd honestly forgotten that until you mentioned it in the video, so thank you for that, too).

[@JannaWilliamson]

Thank you for watching and for your comment! I have several other videos featuring pieces by Bach which you can access in this playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLyxlD3l1usT6fnTwrDYNcUvNIgr1QN82w

[@martinkendall260]

Thanks Janna for your clear introduction to sequences

[@JannaWilliamson]

You’re welcome!

[@oneirdaathnaram1376]

I admire your ability of explaining and presenting so neatly as if I myself were sitting there in front of you and were treated with really great appreciation from your part. I mean, you are talking to a camera, after all, but I perceive so much kind empathy and authenticity. (I am not a teacher, by the way, I am simply teaching myself piano without any lessons, having discovered J.S. Bach and worshipping his music, and just wanted to find some hint regarding the ornaments in this piece - and I have found very valuable answers! I will start with the ornaments in a simple way and then try the little trill as in the Urtext by the publishing company Henle which is my score. But if it does not sound good in the refined way, I will stick to the simplified interpretation with two 16th notes. For an essentially melancholic piece, not so flamboyant ornamentations fit very well, I think.) Thank you so very, very much for giving away so much technical and artistical advice on this piece! A. from southeastern Switzerland

[@JannaWilliamson]

You are welcome and I agree with you about the ornaments in this piece! Happy practicing!

[@elisabettaricci5688]

Thank you, very usefull explanation.

[@JannaWilliamson]

Thank you for watching! More info here: www.jannawilliamson.com/blog/how-to-teach-bach-little-prelude-nazh7

[@kurkineta]

Maravilloso! Gracias.

[@JannaWilliamson]

You're welcome!

[@timmiller7524]

Helpful. I've been working on this for 2 years and find it endlessly fascinating. You've added a host of further ideas and thank you very much. By the way what is that splendid unbranded piano?

[@JannaWilliamson]

It's a 1999 Yamaha C2. 😊

[@timmiller7524]

Thankyou. It sounds super when you play it, but I have a Bechstein upright Model 8 which is much brighter, and I think that works against expressive playing (though it is much more likely to be bad technique). Your comment about playing the Little Preludes like finger exercises unsettled me, because even when they are played mechanically, so to speak, the harmonic and spiritual riches are still there. I'm reminded of a comment Andras Schiff made in an interview, that he doesn't do finger exercise any more: he just practises Inventions and the 48. Still, for a lowly struggler there is so much to learn and your sessions are appreciated!

[@JannaWilliamson]

@@timmiller7524 Experienced technique can make a lot of pianos sound beautiful. So much of high level teaching is about sound quality.

[@quadricode]

Gould's 934 is a really interesting and beautiful interpretation. I won't spoil it, but he plays the repeat markedly different, in a way that surprised me, that grew on me over time. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqi0nIB7g9V-g9E

[@JannaWilliamson]

Ah - I never made it to the repeat because I find his tempo and staccato articulation (first time through) to be so pedantic. It's so interesting that he simply switches from detached to connected for the repeat...not sure it's my cup of tea....

[@neolinux4023]

​@@JannaWilliamson although I admire Goud a lot, I agree fully with you . He was brilliant, but his tempos and staccatos in some Bach's pieces made his interpretations to be also not my cup of tea. Although, perhaps thats the way he felt the music. This is a very "pedagogical" piece, but as you said , can be performed just as a fingering exercise, with deep emotions.. As I piano player, and now learning the harpsichord, I have to say: there is a lot to so to make this piece unique. Thanks a lot for your very informative video.

[@marklondon2008]

As a student of Bach, I like that GG switches between RH staccato LH Legato and vice-versa on the repeats. It's a beautifully simple piece for someone of Gould's ability but he still manages to bring something new and interesting to it.