Deconstructing BACH

[kaveh]

Hi,

I'm quite new to Bach, having only learnt 2-part invention I, and Sinfonia in C minor.

My teacher, on the other hand, is a Bach enthusiast, and is intimately familiar with much of his keyboard/choral work.

When learning a Bach piece, he advocates

1) Transcribing the score using music notation software
2) Separating the voices
3) Writing a modified score featuring only the theme
4) Analysing the score
5) Listening to different interpretations
6) Learning the theme hands separately
7) Learning each voice separately
Putting hands together, learning in segments
9) Using a 'choir' voice (on the clavinova) to hear and appreciate harmony and overtones
10) Playing at different speeds
11) Putting it all together

This method has worked like a charm with the above pieces, which came together fluidly and elegantly. 

Moreover, my teacher insists that it is the best way to really learn Bach, and adds that many of the celebrated Bach interpreters (e.g. Glen Gould, Angela Hewitt etc.) similarly deconstruct his music to learn it.

However, it seems very involved and long-winded.

Does anyone else do this?

If so, have you found it to be a more rewarding/efficient way of learning Bach?

On a final note, (assuming I come over to his way of thinking   ) can anyone recommend good music notation software?

Thanks,
Kaveh

[lostinidlewonder]

It is definitely a good creative lesson to write down Bach's music and add your own changes/additions or ornamentation to it. But to just simply copy down his music and separate the voices can in the end waste a lot of your time. I would ask why should you do this. If the reason is so you can memorize the piece it isn't a good enough argument. If the reason is to take out a magnifying glass to analyze a small part of Bach's music so that you appreciate every single detail of his composition and use that in some way for your benefit (perhaps you want to write your own variation of the piece), then this is a good reason. But I guess you have to be a real Bach enthusiast to go so far as to re-write the score and separate it into individual parts for the rest of your life. It might be good for a little while for experience and understanding of the music, but the effect of it eventually will wear off and you will tend towards a more efficient approach of performing the music. Unless of course your goal is in composition.

I find perhaps you will not become accustomed to seeing the voices all simultaneously in his score, appreciating it as a whole, knowing how to read it and play it right away. I guess it is like sounding out all the letters of a word when reading. Before reading a word do you separate it into its syllables before reading it? Same as with Bach's score, it should become so in built for you to observe all the voices and their movements simultaneously instead of going through a process which separates it all. Sure at first we must do this but we should strive to read and play music straight away without doing serperate hands or voices. Otherwise we are like grade 1 children trying to sound out words all the time.


I like Finale and Sibelius for music notation

[BoliverAllmon]

Bernhard advocates seperating the voices and doing many of the things you said.

[Floristan]

Kaveh,

My teacher, like yours, advocates deconstructing Bach in exactly the same way.  Since I have only one hour a day for practice and no extra "study" time, I do what I can.  I have the Finale Notepad software, which is free, but it's really rudimentary -- and all of it is a pain to use unless you have a keyboard hooked up to your computer for input.

Finale notepad lets you write up to four voices separately, and it gives a different color for each, so you can visually see the voices, which is useful.  Unfortunatly, it won't print out the score with colored notes, nor can you print out each voice separately.  Maybe these things are possible with a more advanced version of Finale (does anyone know?)  Both features would be nice.

I also spend some time recording the voices separately on my digital piano, then playing along with one of the other voices.  It really helps to begin to hear them separately and to hear them horizontally rather than vertically (and Bach is a very horizontal composer!)  Ultimately all this has helped me begin to articulate the voices.  Since the goal with Bach is clarity (IMO), learning to hear and play the voices separately is essential.  My teacher has conviced me of the wisdom of this approach.    I only wish I had more hours in the day to devote to it!