Pieces to prepare for the Bach Inventions

The Bach Inventions. One of the steps on the way to what many pianists call the Old Testament of piano repertoire - Bach's 48 Preludes and Fugues. Most music schools require auditioning students to prepare one of the 48, to help prepare for this all scholarship students at my teaching institution are required to learn the Bach Inventions. So, both the Inventions and the 48 are a big deal. And they should be. They are incredible pieces and should be in every pianists' repertoire. Which means that we as teachers need to be thinking about how we are going to help our students play them. Which means we need a plan for how to introduce these pieces so students learn to love them and play them musically and intelligently.

First of all, I want to discuss what is so wonderful about the inventions, which also happens to be what makes them need our effort in preparing for these pieces. What are the characteristics of the Inventions?

Counterpoint. Two moving lines independent of each other. Which means we will have a left hand line and a right hand line, each with equal importance and difficulty. Functional harmony can still be present, but will follow the rules of composition specific to counterpoint (not going to go into those rules here).

Baroque articulations. Depending on the invention, we can experiment with a few hundred ways to depress and release the keys.

Affect, yet not monochromatic. Each Baroque piece is supposed to portray one emotion or idea (affect), but within that framework Baroque music should be very colorful. I teach students to use a lot of dynamic contrast in their performances. We use the harmonic outlines to help decide on the location of the climax of the piece and moments of intensity and release.

I am sure we could have a much larger list of characteristics, but I am choosing to focus on these three. From these characteristics, I can create my list of what I need to teach my students to help them eventually achieve a readiness for the Inventions.

1. Have a finger agility in both hands to manipulate hand shifts and sophisticated fingerings
2. Be able to listen to two musical lines at the same time
3. Be able to sing one line while playing another (maybe this won't happen BEFORE encountering the inventions, but we will always work on it!)
4. Awareness of cadences
5. Ability to breathe at ends of phrases
6. Be able to use a variety of touches and hear the differences
7. Be able to play different dynamics in each hand (one hand quiet, the other louder, crescendo only in one hand, etc.)
8. Hear how different harmonies have a different "color"

Now I know what I need to teach, time to go find some music!!! THE best part!

I like to think about what I need from the very beginning. As in at the first lesson. I don't like to teach with the mindset that my student might not ever play the Inventions. Because they deserve the kind of teaching from the very beginning which will prepare them to play this repertoire. This means I need to choose a method book which will prepare them from the first day of piano study. I will get into more discussion of method books at another time, that is a HUGE topic. To summarize for now, I want a method which will train both hands equally and aid my student to hear and shape phrases beautifully. This means I will avoid methods which have pieces which have the melody dominantly in the right hand. I will make sure the method has pieces which gives attention to left hand work and does not relegate the left hand to only playing chords and chordal accompaniments. If by some chance I am stuck using a method which does that, I need to supplement the method a LOT to make sure the left hand trains to be an equal partner. I don't have an absolute favorite method. I think they all have strengths and weaknesses. But, I have a few I like better - Faber Piano Adventures, Music Tree, Hal Leonard, Marlais' Succeeding at the Piano. I can usually feel pretty comfortable with being able to manipulate those to get what I want for my students.

In addition to choosing a method which will work for both hands, I like to start scale work early with students. (Also going to be an upcoming post.) I like to start work on the five finger scales within about the first month of lessons. We gradually learn both the major and minor scale patterns and work our way into one octave scales by about the end of the first year of piano lessons (timing of this depends on the individual student's development). I delay doing hands together scales so we can work on independent hand agility which will better prepare us for sophisticated fingerings which are necessary in the Inventions.

Ok. My student has been now working in a method (plus getting supplemental work) which has created hands which are relatively similar in strength and agility and has some scale work. Now I need some pieces which work on getting hands to play together but not doing the same thing. There are some great pieces listed in the Royal Conservatory Music Development Program in the Inventions required for Levels 1 and 2. I often use this list as a guide, especially when it lists a whole collection. Except I just go buy the whole collection instead of sticking to their list. Here are some specific pieces I think work really well beyond the RCM list.

Please note, these pieces do not necessarily sound like Bach, that is not the intention. The intent is to prepare physically and mentally.  I put these pieces in what I think is the order of difficulty, feel free to disagree. The list is by no means exhaustive, I will add and amend the list as I discover more pieces. If nothing else, check out some of the pieces so you can get an idea of what kinds of pieces we should be looking for in preparation.

"Imitation" from Alex Rowley's Happenings

Both hands are in G Major positions, each hand plays the motive ascending, then descending, then an ascending chord outline followed descending chord outline. I would suggest sometimes swapping the dynamics sometimes so both hands get to play forte as well as piano.

"Twin Sisters" from Stephen Chatman's Preludes for Piano Book 1.
This piece has left hand in a D Major position and right hand in A Major. The descending "motive" is only 4 notes in length, each hand plays it twice, then finishes with hands together in parallel motion. No hand shifts.

"Fill in the Blanks" from Stephen Chatman's Away
This piece is more difficult than the previous because it does include a lot of two note slurs. One thing I love is that students need to decide some of the notes. Chatman has marked an X in a number of places, students are instructed to "play or write a quarter-note pitch below of above each X". What a great way to eventually lead to ornamentation and improvisation! Both hands stay in a G position, sometimes with a c sharp. No hand shifts.

"Bicycle Ride" from Jon George's Kaleidoscope Solos Book 2
The left hand is not as dominant as the right in this piece, but it does require independent playing in each hand. No hand shifts, left hand is in G position, right hand in D. 6/8 meter.

"Langweilige Geschichte" from Jeno Takacs Fur Mich, op. 7 
This is starting to get to be more difficult simply because both hands are playing simultaneously through much more of the piece. At the mid point each hand shifts. First half of the piece both hands are an a G position and then switch to D. Uses Lydian mode (Major with raised fourth).

"Lighting the lamps" from Rory Boyle's In Times Past
This piece has some accidentals which could be tricky, but does stay in the same hand position. Left and right hands alternate playing a motive and then finish with contrary motion together.

"Mary Had a Little Lamb" from Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee Modern Miniatures
I would change the left hand fingerings so that the first E is played with a 3 finger rather than 2 finger. This would then have both hands starting in a C position and switching half way to an F position. I have this piece as more difficult than the previous simply because of the dotted quarter and eighth rhythm. The last measure requires a fun cluster in the right hand.

"Relay Race" from Jon George's Kaleidoscope Solos Book 2
This piece does not have much hands together playing, when hands are together for four measures it is more chordal than counterpoint. But, this is a great piece for my purposes because the melodic motive passes from one hand to the other while doing hand shifts. Another 6/8 meter piece.

"Mimicking" from Family Matters by Al Benner

This piece is mostly hand alternation, but the first and last section end with hands together in contrary motion. Beginning section is all in C Position. Second section shifts three times with each hand before returning back to C. Third section (m. 25) shifts back to C then four more shifts. I do really like how the composer calls for articulation changes, but for the most part is very symetrical - whatever the right hand does, the left hand does as well. Rhythmically very accessible since it mainly uses eighth notes.


Teresa Richert's Copycat Copycat
Some of these pieces are easier than previous pieces on the list. The composer has created these pieces with the intent of using these to help her students prepare for the inventions and they do that perfectly. All the pieces require hand shifts, some slightly more complicated. I really appreciate the variety of meters and the usage of both major and minor keys. Teresa lists "features of the pieces" at the end of the book. Many of the pieces introduce Baroque ornaments such as the mordent and turn.

Keith Snell's Prelude and Gigue
The Prelude of this set is reminiscent of Bach's B-flat Major Prelude from WTC 1 with a left hand line under right hand 6ths. The Gigue is really the piece which helps prepare for the Inventions, though. It is in ABA form. A section is in G Major with right hand stating the gigue motive, then the left followed by the hands playing in compound thirds or sixths. The B section is the same except in e minor.

"Penny-farthing" from Rory Boyle's In Times Past
This piece has some more sophisticated fingering - finger crossings and extension out of a five finger position.

 Pierre Gallant's Imitations and Inventions
This is another collection, but it covers a wider difficulty level than Copycat Copycat. A few of the pieces have no hand shifts, but more difficult pieces are much more sophisticated requiring finger crossover, shifts, hand extensions. I appreciate the variety of meters, key signatures and modes.

Alec Rowley's Five Miniature Preludes and Fugues
Definitely getting to be more sophisticated, requiring thoughtful fingerings and systematic practicing from students. I appreciate the inclusion of fugue terminology (maybe not in other editions, I have one from Petrucci Music Press), but I would rather be able to work with the student to find the subject and answer instead of already having them marked in the score. Keys explored are C and F major, d and a minor. With many of the movements I could see references to Bach pieces. For example Prelude 1 is similar to Bach C Major Prelude, Prelude 2 is similar to the 2nd movement of the Italian Concerto. This can lead to some fun listening assignments for students. The length of these pieces is perfect for their purpose - about 20 measures each for the prelude and fugue.

This collection is out of print, but it can still be found floating around in online bookstores. I would suggest getting a copy. Stan Applebaum's Folk Music Bach Style: 21 Two-Part Inventions based on International Folk Melodies.
Difficulty level varies (Jane Magrath lists as Level 2-3) depending on type of hand shifts, keys and trickiness of the the rhythm. I appreciate the different folk tune sounds, since being based on folk tunes makes the invention motives really singable. Many times the accompanying hand outlines harmonies giving opportunities for harmonic analysis.

"Invencao" from Miniatures for Piano by Helio Bacelar Viana. I once picked up this collection at a music store clearance rack and I have no idea how to get a copy of it, my apologies. The publisher is Brazilian Music Enterprises. The collection has 16 short pieces with a mildly Brazilian flavor which could be really fun to add to a student's repertoire. This invention uses some syncopation requiring the student to be really rhythmically aware of the strength of the downbeat in order to get the dance-like feel of the piece. The first eight measures I feel are the most difficult, tapping out the rhythm will help tremendously in learning the piece. Rarely do hands actually play keys together, but the alternation requires students to really know hand shifts well to have a successful performance.

Bourree in G Major by Mona Rejino is a wonderful example of a Baroque dance as well as an introduction to counterpoint. Rejino uses written out trills at the ends of sections to help students learn the sounds of Baroque ornaments without yet needing to see the notation. I feel she could have maybe left out some of the dynamic markings to help students learn to create their own dynamic changes in sequential passages, but I understand the pedagogical intent was to help students hear how a sequential passage should be shaped. 

"The Mirror" from Kirke Mechem's Whims
Even though hands mostly alternate in this piece, because it is Presto the difficulty of this piece is probably about a Level 5. Requires much more agility in moving around on the keyboard and manipulation of articulations and dynamics.

"Canone" from Casella's Children's Pieces Op. 35
Only slightly less difficult than the easier Bach Inventions. The entire piece is only played on the black keys, so a fun sound exploration!

Teresa Richert's Canine Inventions
Again, only slightly lest difficult than the Bach Inventions, but definitely a fun set to explore. Teresa has carefully planned the pieces to introduce students to articulations, rhythmic patterns and cadential patterns which students will need to know about for their study of Bach.

Two-Part Inventions by Abram Kaplan

Slightly less difficult than the Bach, but definitely offer something different for exploring the challenges of inventions. Not all the inventions are "true" inventions with both voices using the same motivoc material (#1, #5 for example). #3 is a fun dance in 11/8 and 7/8 which needs attention to articulations. #7 is a great example of opportunity to find motivic material. #10 uses alternating hands which is excellent for working on listening to motivic material move from one hand to another seamlessly. #11 has lots of dynamic changes, many of them suddenly. #12 is in 4/4 but the entire piece uses hemiola creating a really exciting finish to the set.

Dave Brubeck's Two Part Adventures
One thing I love about this set of pieces is that it has not been over edited. There are no fingerings given, so teachers and students have to work out fingerings together just as they ideally should with the Bach Inventions. There are also not a tremendous number of dynamic markings leaving lots of room for performer exploration of harmonies to guide the shaping. Not all of the pieces are truly counterpoint pieces. Many have left hand patterns which are often used in jazz styles - such as a walking bass line or arpeggiated chords. But, I think it is really important for students to realize that counterpoint is a huge part of many different styles of music, not just Baroque style. There are 24 pieces in the set, I will highlight only three. In fact
"Two-Part Contention" is one of the more imitative pieces in the set. This will take a lot of thought to work out fingerings and will require students to really listen for dissonant and consonant intervals to make shaping decisions. There is a lot of opportunity to analyze sequences and patterns and will really require the analysis to make sense of the direction of the piece.
"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime" is based on the song my Jay Gorney with the same title. I like the idea of having an example of the practice of audiences giving tunes for the performer to then use to create an invention or fugue. This pieces for the most part uses alternation from one hand to the other and then hands together motion in compound thirds. Lots of fund syncopations in this piece.
"Chasin' Yourself" as the name suggests has lots of alternation of a motive from one hand to the other. In fact, the only two places in the piece which do not alternate motives are measures 24-35 and the last two measures. The harmonic changes at each motivic repetition really allows for lots of creativity in the performer for dynamics.

15 Polyphonic Studies (15 Kleine tweestemmige polyphone oefeningen) by Gerard Hengeveld. As far as I know the volume is out of print (I found mine on Amazon) it was published by Broekmans and van Poppel in Amsterdam in 1964. A stamp on my book notes bit was distributed by CF Peters Corporation. Please do not give up on out of print pieces. Many companies are starting to do print on demand orders so it is a matter of contacting publishing companies to find out who has the rights to the pieces. Many of these can also be found in libraries. These are of equivalent difficulty to the Bach Inventions. They are worth looking at. Students can compare how different composers treated motivic material and used harmonies within a counterpoint style- this can help them compose their own inventions. In addition to simply theoretical value, I find many of these to be delightful to play, why not include them in our repertoire!

Radion Shchedrin's Polyphonic Notebook is more difficult than the Bach Inventions. But, it is definitely worth exploring because it is includes some really fun counterpoint studies.

Ideas: I am thinking of sometime doing an all invention recital or semester with my students. Yes, we would study other pieces as well, but I think with this list we could definitely find pieces for all levels of students to play. This could lead to students creating their own inventions. Even if the resulting pieces are not amazing, the exercise of composition really makes students think of how the parts work together and how much craftsmanship is involved in counterpoint composition.

Additional note: Many of the Inventions are dances. Which adds another layer of preparation. While preparing for hand independence and counterpoint we need to also be getting the feeling of Baroque dances into our students!! I guess that gives me another list of pieces to find - pieces to help explore Baroque dance. Follow my posts so that when I compile that list you can see it as soon as I hit the publish button!

Yearly planning for the Late Elementary and Intermediate student

Once the school year starts, I don't have much time for lesson planning. Yes, after teaching for about 15 years the planning does get easier, but it doesn't necessarily take less time. I just know what works better or worse because of trial and error. Lots of error. So, I have worked on developing a system that works for me in which I do a year's worth of planning for a student so I avoid that feeling of dread going into a lesson knowing that I will need to make up my lesson plans as I go.
First off, what do I mean by late elementary and intermediate student? You can't necessarily measure this by years of study because every student will have a different rate of learning. I like to think this is the student who I am weaning off the method books and beginning to use repertoire which I can separate into the different style periods (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th Century, Contemporary). Sometimes I start doing this at later level 2 of the method or into level 3 of the method. Please note, I go through method books fairly slowly because I supplement the method books a LOT. (Watch for future post on Supplementing the Method.) What I am looking for in a student is an understanding of note reading (absolute fluency not required), more comfortable technique at the instrument, knowledge of major and minor scales (a skill I begin really early, watch for a post on learning scales) and a readiness to work through a LOT or repertoire. Hopefully as you continue reading my posts this will become clearer to you. Kinda like how in the first few days of pedagogy classes all those definitions don't really mean much until you actually start to work with the students and see how everything works.
So, moving on. The student I am planning for might be doing some work in the method books still, but is ready to start thinking about music in the style periods. First off, when I am discussing music in the style periods, I don't always just look at the date the piece was composed. There are some incredible composers who compose in the style of Bach for the pedagogical purpose of preparing students to eventually play the Bach Inventions (post coming up about that in a couple weeks!). As I plan, I consider those pieces to be in the style of Baroque, not Contemporary style simply because the composer is still alive. Same way with some composers whose dates line up with the Romantic time period but composed pieces in a Classical style. This means that as teachers we need to be hyper sensitive and aware of what the attributes of each style period might be. We should be making sure our students learn how to play pieces from each style period and preparing them to be successful in future encounters. Ideally, the pieces we use as a student continues their study should prepare them for the advanced repertoire. For example, my goal is that a student will eventually play a Bach Prelude and Fugue. That might be five (or more) years in the future. So, I will choose pieces over the next five years to make sure that when I introduce that Prelude and Fugue to the student, the student has encountered enough pieces preparing him/her so analyzing, practicing and performing in the Baroque style is second nature. Yes, this style should already in their "toolbox" before they actually play a Prelude and Fugue because of my thoughtful repertoire plans.
A short little lecture on my soapbox. In order for a student to successfully be prepared to play advanced repertoire, the student needs to encounter MANY styles and composers as an intermediate student. I would rather have a student playing a LOT of music at a slightly easier difficulty level, but learning style attributes than a student learning one or two really difficult pieces. Our goal should be to create musicians for a lifetime. We are teaching them HOW to learn a piece and style, not just one piece of music. (Who was is that said "teach the music in the piece, not the piece of music"?)
Hopefully this gives you my thought process and philosophizing (is that a word?) on how I do my planning. Here is how I actually do it.
Step 1. Pull out my source for help and choose repertoire. My teaching bible is Jane Magrath's Pianist's Guide to Standard Teaching and Performance Literature. The levels 1-10 are similar to the levels used by the Music Development Program and the publications by ABRSM, but the book is much more extensive in the repertoire included. My book is getting a bit tattered and well marked up. I make markings in the book of which pieces I have discovered are out of print, which are only available from print on demand sources, which are in my library, which ones are in an academic library I use, etc.
For each of my students I have a planning outline of the pieces I want to do over the year. Here is what I want for each student (remember, in the style of, not necessarily an actually composed in the time period):
Baroque pieces
Counterpoint, Dance, French, Miscellaneous
Classical pieces
Sonatina, Theme and variation, Miscellaneous
Romantic/20th Century (I join together because the style starts to get more complicated and not necessarily as different as Baroque and Classical.)
American, French or French prep, Germanic, Ethnic or non-western, 20th Century idioms, Chopin or Chopin prep, Russian, Jazz/pop
Here is a link to what my planning sheet looks like Sample Planning Outline
I try to have a few pieces which are on the easier side for the student (2-3 weeks to learn), some pieces which are more difficult (maybe 8 weeks to learn). I choose one piece for each of the categories on my list (one or two might be left open because I think we won't be able to get to anymore repertoire). When I first began doing this, I would make sure to write down the level of each of the pieces so I could keep track if a piece ended up being too difficult. This helped give me a better idea of how to work through difficulty levels of pieces. (Again, please follow the blog so you will get updates when I do more detailed discussions on each of these styles and types of pieces with my findings of pieces in each of the categories. Some of the categories are more difficult to find at late elementary and early intermediate level - like French prep or counterpoint. I can't wait to share my discoveries!)
Here is an example of an outline I have finished for a student Finished outline
Step 2. Once I have the pieces chosen, I try to buy the music for the entire year. Yes, this is a financial commitment for me. But I have found that once the school year starts I can't keep up with music orders and I end up wasting weeks waiting for music to arrive. Local music stores rarely have what I want in stock. Planning ahead lets me have time to search for harder to find pieces. Ordering at one or two times also means that I usually get free shipping. I once tried having students go get the music and we would wait a few weeks for them to get around to getting the music or they would end up with the wrong piece of music or an edition which I didn't like. This way, I have what I need when I need it.
This year, I have started using imslp.org more for scores. Much of the music we use is in public domain, so I can use my Office Max discount card from MTNA and print out music for literally pennies. And even have all the pieces I picked bound together. I do always make sure that I have a purchased score in my library so that if we need to use the piece for a competition or an event we will have a purchased score for a judge's copy. Please do not make copies from books, the composers and editors have put many hours into their work and they deserve the small amount of money they get from their music sales. Let's be good examples of music colleagues for our students.
Step 3. Make a youtube playlist for each student. I try to find at least three recordings of each pieces we are working on. It doesn't always happen, sometimes I can't find any. But, then I know that maybe I need to make a recording myself for the student to use. Having the playlist ready to go helps me have the recordings ready to use in the lessons. I am really trying to make sure I teach students how to use recordings in their practicing. That means I can't just assign or tell them to use the recordings, I need to actually show them how to do it. So, in the lesson we tap out rhythms with the recording, we sing with the recording, we conduct with the recording, we compare different performers. Everything that I expect of myself when practicing, I need to actually SHOW the students how to do it.
Over the past couple years, this type of yearly planning has helped me feel MUCH better about how I am teaching. I feel much better about how I am making sure that the pieces are preparing students for the future as well as helping them be prepared for the year's performances.
Couple notes for teaching:
1. This list is not necessarily to be taught in the order on the list. It simply gives me the material I will use for the year.
2. Many times I don't get through the whole list for the year. If this happens, I keep track of what style we might not have encountered over the year and we make sure we get to it in the next year.
3. Many times I will need to modify my plans (what teacher doesn't) if I discover that we are struggling with a concept or technical challenge or have to learn something for a specific event.
I try to do all this planning over the summer so I have everything ready to go when school starts. Often step 1 is done and I have to finish steps 2 and 3 as the semester begins. At least those are the easier steps.
Over the course of the next few months, I plan to share some of my repertoire lists of teaching pieces. Sitting on the piano is a big stack of pieces I use to help prepare students for the Bach Inventions which I can't wait to put into writing!!!

Prepping the Bach b minor French Suite

One of my biggest struggles as a pianist is to find balance between two aspects of being an artist - performing and teaching. Usually I overbalance toward the teaching side, often simply because I get paid better for teaching than performing. But, I find that if I neglect the my own performing, my teaching and playing get a bit static and uninspired. That means I need to find ways to keep myself practicing and performing. Don't misunderstand me, I love practicing, but it's difficult to fit into a busy schedule. So, I try to commit myself to learning at least one recital program a year, usually trying to find a collaborator to make sure that I keep my commitments. This year, I was asked to perform at an all Bach festival in Waupaca, Wisconsin. Here is a link to their website, not a lot of information Waupaca Bach Festival It's small, but I definitely don't mind and gives me a goal for my practicing. I like to be pretty systematic in my practicing, so I am outlining here my process I have used in learning the Bach French Suite in b minor.

Step 1: Aural familiarization. For the Bach dances, I have two goals in this part of the process - familiarize myself with the dances and familiarize myself with these specific dances. I use the Maurice Hinson video on Baroque performance practice a lot in my teaching. Hinson Baroque video
Specifically, I love the bonus lecture which shows all the dance steps. This doesn't necessarily mean  you will be able to eventually perform the steps with the suite movements since they are somewhat stylized versions of the dances. But, it is crucial to know the dance in order know the general tempo of the steps and where the steps will metrically be placed. As much as I love the DVD, it can sometimes be overwhelming to send it home with a student just beginning their first Minuet. So, I also have started using more youtube clips to help students learn the dances. Here is one of them for example: Minuet Then at least the student can see what the dance should look like.

Then for listening to the actual suite I use cds, youtube and amazon. This leads me to one of my pet peeves (I have a lot of them). I really think we have lost the art of actually listening closely to recordings. We are so in the habit of having music as a background noise, that we only half listen (if that much). In order to help overcome this tendency, I encourage my students (and make myself do it as well) to listen with the music score open in front of them. And do NOTHING else but listen. This is not a time to multi-task. Just listen and follow the score. I am aware that there are some people who do not want to use recordings because they feel it will inhibit their own creativity, but for me, it does exactly the opposite. When I REALLY listen I am able to discover the differences each of these recording artists have brought to their interpretations and it actually makes me fell less inhibited in my creating my own ideas. What is most important about using recordings, I feel, is the creation of an aural image which will guide our ears when we begin the process of practicing.

I just have to include an anecdote here. Back in undergrad, I had the opportunity to spend a summer on staff at Interlochen Fine Arts camp. It was an eye opening experience for me. One of my accompanying colleagues, Caleb Harris, was, and still is, an amazing pianist. I watched him pick up a score from the optional accompanying bin and sit down on a bench with it. Not a piano bench, just a bench. I think it was a piece by Liebermann. A while later he officially took the piece and agreed to collaborate with the student saying, "I got this". Not as in, I got the score, but as in, I got this piece, I worked it out in my head. Yes, he had to go and practice some of the technical aspects, but Caleb was excellent at creating his aural image of the piece before beginning his practicing. Seeing him and some of our other colleagues that summer (who up until that point in my career spent more time in the listening library than I did) began to teach me how valuable recordings are in learning pieces before we actually touch the piano. For my students, I want them to have an example in their head of what the piece should be musically with the goal to avoid EVER playing or practicing without a musical intent and shape. (After my summer at Interlochen, I still didn't use recordings to their potential, I probably still don't. Learning better how to use recordings came from my absolutely wonderful, phenomenal teacher Martha Fischer.)

I have my favorite Bach performers, but I do try to always listen to a few performers who are new to me, if I can find any. I really think it is important to make sure we know who the performers of the recordings we use. I don't know how many times I have asked a student who they listened to and in response I got, "um, I'm not sure what their name was..." I have my go-to performers for Bach, you can probably guess who some of them are:
Andreas Schiff - I love his Bach ever since I heard him in a recital in Kansas City when I was in high school. He played the G Major French Suite as an encore. I had recently finished learning the piece and I have loved him ever since.
Glenn Gould  Always have to listen to his versions.
Murray Perahia This one actually has ended up being my favorite. For now at least. His ornamentation is absolutely gorgeous, I wish I were able to perform repeats for this recital so I could use some of his ideas.
Angela Hewitt - not on youtube, but I was able to get the cd on Amazon. I am still old fashioned in loving having my cds. She has become one of my favorite Bach performers. Her intelligence just shines through her playing and I think her ability to show many different colors while staying in the Baroque style is amazing. Definitely worth the money for the cd.
Arthur Loesser This was a new find for me with this project, but a valuable one. See below for a link to his lecture on the French Suites.

Then, I also think it is extremely helpful to study a few recordings of period instruments. I usually get some ideas on ornamentation as well as feeling of tempi and phrase structure. Here are some of the performers I found and used.
Christopher Hogwood
Thurston Dart
Ralph Kirkpatrick

(Please note, I will be having future posts with more details with more exact descriptions on how I use recordings for my own practice and teaching)

Step 2: Practicing. Ok, hmm, how do I elaborate on how to practice Bach. This has taken years for me to develop, I don't think I can do it justice in my already getting too long blog post. Here are some of my top faves for Bach, but start following me and you will be able to see as I expound these ideas throughout the year.
Hands Separate practicing. Definitely a must to help work out fingerings. The Courante in the suite especially had some tricky left hand passagework.
Backwards. I like to practice in short sections starting at the end or the piece. For example, the last four measures to the end, then the last eight measures to the end, etc. This forces me to only think about those measures instead of moving forward through the piece.
Varying articulations. I like to practice a number of articulations before I make my choice for performance. Semi detached in some passagework is extremely helpful for reminding me to keep a loose hand gesture.
Motives/gestures. I like to just practice a gesture to really listen to make sure I am creating a forward motion. Only doing the 16th note gestures was really helpful in practicing the Allemande.
Slow practice. Definitely useful for getting the Courante hands together as well as the Gigue.
Recording myself. I like to record myself, listen to one of my favorite recordings, then listen to myself. It really helps me hear where I haven't shaped a phrase as well as I thought, had a clunky left hand line, etc. 

For this performance, I am not performing from memory so I was spared the type of practicing necessary for me to commit something to memory. I never actually considered doing memory work for this performance because I knew I would not have the time required to do the practicing and repetition I usually need to feel comfortable with a performance done from memory.


Step 3: Musicological background. This is actually sometimes my favorite part of the process and the part which I can go a little overboard. I like to find any lectures that pertain to the work I am learning, any dissertations, books, etc. Here is what I found for this project.
An Arthur Loesser lecture. It is basically an overview of the different suite movements and the characters of each.
A short Murray Perahia webisode. 
Article by Eric McKee entitled "Influences of the Early Eighteenth-Century Social Minuet on the Minuets from J.S. Bach's French Suites, BWV 812-17" in the journal Music Analysis, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Jul., 1999), pp. 235-260
I always like to go back to some articles discussing ornamentation whenever I study Bach works. This time I read through some articles by George A Kochevitsky which were helpful. They are published in the journal Bach in a number of volumes. All articles are entitled "Performing Bach's Keyboard Works - Embellishments" then with the different parts.
And the book by David Schulenberg The Keyboard Music of J.S. Bach is on my reading to-do list (Unfortunately, it's a really long list).

Step 4: Practice performances. This is when students and friends can be helpful. I am having a mixture of both come over tomorrow and I will have a list of specific things I want my audience to listen for. For example, my tone in left hand of the Gigue can sometimes be fuzzy, so that will be on the list for my audience. Or the muddy pedaling which happens in the Sarabande. My audience is going to listen while following the music score because I want them to pick out lots of errors for me. This is similar to the practice most music schools have of playing in a master class or studio class every week for classmates to give each other feedback.

Step 5: More refining based on feedback and recording myself. This is the step which I think now continues for a lifetime. I try to make sure I take notes from this step in my score so that I remember my thoughts if I do another performance in a few months or years from now.

Step 6: Perform

Step 7: Redo step 5 as many times as necessary!!