What and how to learn using invention nº 4

[gonzalo]

Hi,

I finished analysing the 2 part invention in D minor (nº4). I wrote down all the things I learnt, or all the things a student can learn from this beautiful piece:

1)After seeing C major the student is presented with the following key in the keyboard : "D". Therefore the student starts knowing the keyboard better.
The first question a beginner student asks when looking at the score is : " What is that b on the 3rd line of the stave?" . That is the moment when one should introduce the new scale D minor. Now one can go explaining what minor scales are, how they derive from modes , the forms in which they appear ( harmonic , melodic). etc.

2) Next we see a new time signature 3/8 in contrast to 4/4 in invention nº1. Explain what is 3/8.

3) The student when he starts playing is actually presented with a scale (D minor harmonic). So here we have an example of what was explained in point nº 1.

4) For the hanonists the scale is seen as a technical exercise ( again we find another hanon-like exercise in the motif). Which confirms what Bernhard once said:" If you play all the motifs of the inventions, you're almost playing all of Hanon's exercises"

5) The student faces a rhythmically determined composition, which again gives a lot to talk about. The best would be to listen to a Cd with the score in hand and see where the accents happen ,mark cadences,etc . This will also train the student's aural memory.

6)The difficulty of the piece is a boost in confidence to the student, and may help enthusiasm. It is also a very good show off piece. You almost never stop playing (almost like a moto perpetuo).

7)In bar 3 there is a chord inversion. Again a lot to teach and talk about. Though I think it's a little bit early to introduce chords and their inversions now. I would leave that for invention 8 and 10. ( which are the next ones in Bach's pedagogical order).

8)One learns to which keys one can modulate if the piece is in D minor. Those are F major, A minor melodic or harmonic, G minor. Again you could talk about relative keys between D minor and F major but I would leave that to invention nº13, which will suprise the student for having no accidentals in it's key signature. Then the student who has done his scale homework asks : " is that in C major?". and you answer : "No. It's in A minor. It has no accidentals because it's a relative key, bla bla...." . Or maybe in invention nº8 where we have the same key signature as in Dm.
Improvising using those keys ( dm, F,am, gm ) helps. Remember that Bach intended these inventions so that the student acquires a taste for composition.

9)We see for the first time TRILLS , which are considered difficult by most people.You can show them a proper way of playing trills.

10 )We also find in bars 18 onwards we need an unorthodox fingering for scales ( eat that Hanon! ). This demonstrates that although you work on the Dm scale as a technical exercise it will be useless. You should play the Dm scale to get you acquainted with the key of the piece.

11) In the final bars we have the motif inverted. So the student may recognise it or not but then after the explanation it will serve as a review of motif inversions in Invention nº 1. And after that he will keep an eye on them, thus never forgetting about motif.inversions .

12) You can also demonstrate what an ascending wave and descending wave motif is.

13) I found that the climax in this invention is given by the highest notes which are in bar 36. You can also talk about climaxes.

14)Let the student identify how many times the motif appears.

15) Bars 3-4 could be considered countermotifs, so the teacher can explain what they are.

This is just a list to give teachers an idea of what can be learnt using this magnificent works. There is much more to learn from them.

Take care,
Gonzalo.

[leucippus]

4) For the hanonists the scale is seen as a technical exercise ( again we find another hanon-like exercise in the motif). Which confirms what Bernhard once said:" If you play all the motifs of the inventions, you're almost playing all of Hanon's exercises"

To me this is backward thinking and actually supports the use of Hanon.  I believe the biggest problem with Hanon is not with the exercises themselves but with the way they are used by teachers.  I see Hanon as have great value extremely early on, starting from day one actually.  Yet so many teachers don't even introduce Hanon until much later.  The value of Hanon has already decreased by that time.  The second problem with Hanon is many people see them as exercises that should be mastered with hours of practice devoted solely for those exercises.  Again, I believe that is totally incorrect use of Hanon. 

Hanon should be used as exercises for smooth cadence and perfect synchrony, and as a gauge of how well a student is progressing.  They introduce various finger patterns and the concept of cadence to very early students at SLOW SPEEDS.  Yet they can also offer experienced pianists a challenge to play at faster speeds whilst still maintaining a smooth cadence and perfect synchrony.  Trying to get students to master Hanon at faster speeds is the folly of teachers.  That's total misuse of the exercise IMHO.  The aim should be for perfect cadence and perfect synchronization, not speed.

To dismiss Hanon as being redundant is absurd.  It's only the poor way that teachers use Hanon that is absurd.

But more to the point, your observation here is that students will eventually get Hanon-like exercises anyway via things like the Bach Inventions.  But, to me, that's missing the point.  The idea is that Hanon was supposed to be used to introduce the student to these types of exercises far before they were ever able to play anything as complicated as a Bach Invention.  So that when they get to the Bach inventions they won't need to learn them for the first time.

I mean, think about this, if you apply the idea that that "you'll eventually get Hanon-like exercises anyway in repertoire so why bother with Hanon in the first place?" to everything you teach.  Then why not just start the students off at level 10 and say, "Hey don't worry about it, you'll get all the previous lessons in the repertoire of level 10 eventually anyway so why bother practicing anything less than level 10?".

So your comment above actually supports the value of Hanon showing that Hanon exercises are indeed used in actual pieces that the student will eventually play at higher levels.  Of course, it would be a total waste to introduce Hanon at the same time. But that goes back to the idea of teachers introducing Hanon far too late.

So just to summarize my points of why many people don't like Hanon:

1. They simple don't understand how to properly use the exercises.
2. They introduce them far too late after their value has diminished.
3. They try to play them too fast early on instead of using them for proper cadence and synchronization.
4. They view them solely as exercises to be "mastered" rather than seeing them as gauges of improvement.

Obviously I'm a Hanon fan.  But that too is usually quite misunderstood.  When I say that I'm a fan of Hanon people imagine that all I do is play Hanon, or that I build my practicing schedule around it.  But, again, that's because they have a completely wrong idea of how to properly use Hanon.  It's there, I use it, I see it as being extremely valuable.   But it is not the core of my practice schedule.  It is a valuable side-dish on a larger menu.

So in other words, you can take the statement: "If you play all the motifs of the inventions, you're almost playing all of Hanon's exercises", and just turn it around to say: "If you play all the Hanon exercises, you're almost playing all of motifs of the inventions".   But the key is that most students can learn the Hanon exercises long before they are read to tackle the Bach inventions so when they get to the Bach inventions they will be much better prepared to play them.

And now that I have that off my chest you may return to your regularly scheduled Invention analyses. 

[robertp]

Gonzalo---

Very nice posting of what a student can get out of #4. Good points all, but perhaps next time you'll be careful about mentioning the H-word  .

[leucippus]

Gonzalo---

Very nice posting of what a student can get out of #4. Good points all, but perhaps next time you'll be careful about mentioning the H-word  .

 

[gonzalo]

So in other words, you can take the statement: "If you play all the motifs of the inventions, you're almost playing all of Hanon's exercises", and just turn it around to say: "If you play all the Hanon exercises, you're almost playing all of motifs of the inventions".   But the key is that most students can learn the Hanon exercises long before they are read to tackle the Bach inventions so when they get to the Bach inventions they will be much better prepared to play them.

Thing is, mr. leucippus , that it's useless to play Hanon before the inventions for the following reasons:

1) Playing Hanon only gives you the technique to play Hanon.
2) "The techniques are dissociated form the pieces where they originated, and therefore they have no musical purpose. The appropriateness of a technique is defined by its musical purpose. Are you going to play repeated notes with the same finger (one technique) or are you going to change fingers (several techniques depending on the fingers you are using). The repeated notes in Beethoven’s Fur Elise (at the end) have a very different musical meaning from the repeated notes on Scarlatti’s K 141. The technique to play them will be consequently different. Will Hanon exercise on repeated notes help you? Obviously not, since you do not know what musical purpose that exercise is possibly serving. And if you follow Hanon’s advice then you will make sure that whatever technique (and injury) you are developing will be useless for both Beethoven and Scarlatti.

So you see, the fantasy that you can disregard Hanon’s instructions (since they are obviously crap) and still salvage the exercises by modifying them according to new theories of technique falls falt the moment you realise that the criterion for such a modification is musical meaning, and Hanon has no musical meaning.

So we come full circle to the simple and attractive and correct idea of: “Why bother with Hanon? Do repertory instead”.

My point was that , for the Hanon lovers like you, the fact that there are scales and HANONLIKE exercises might make you happy.That was all. I don't want to engage in long discussion about Hanon, since I don't have so much time to waste and anyway:"Do you want to spend 3 hours a day doing Hanon? Sure why not. It is your life, what do I care? "

Take care,
Gonzalo.

P.S : Bernhard, I quoted a lot from what you already wrote about Hanon.

[leucippus]

"Do you want to spend 3 hours a day doing Hanon? Sure why not. It is your life, what do I care?"

Practice Hanon 3 hours a day?  Whew!  Where'd you ever get that idea? 

[gonzalo]

Practice Hanon 3 hours a day?  Whew!  Where'd you ever get that idea? 

Oops, sorry , that was quoted. Anyway, you should know that there are people capable of doing that. My previous teacher is an example.

Take care,
Gonzalo

[robertp]

Just a little off-topic. I commend the Shostakovich 2nd concerto to all in connexion with the, er, H-word.

 

[jazzyprof]

What a shame…another perfectly fine thread by gonzalo with insightful analysis of a two-part invention, completely ruined by the mere mention of the “H” word.  Let this be a warning to all.

And now back to the matter at “Hand”.  I think it is also a good idea to emphasize to the student the notion of polyphony.  One good way is to have the student sing one voice while the teacher sings the other.  There is a reason why they are called “voices”.  This helps the student to hear polyphonically.  At some point in their development they should be able to sing one voice while playing the other (not easy to do).

[leucippus]

What a shame…another perfectly fine thread by gonzalo with insightful analysis of a two-part invention, completely ruined by the mere mention of the “H” word.  Let this be a warning to all.

A single constructive and insightful post concerning the usefulness of Hanon piano exercises can hardly be considered "completely ruining a thread" by anyone other than the most avid Hanon despisers. 

Ok, if you feel that way about it, here's is my contribution to the topic at hand:

BBC Radio Archives - Bach Inventions

[jazzyprof]

A single constructive and insightful post concerning the usefulness of Hanon piano exercises can hardly be considered "completely ruining a thread" by anyone other than the most avid Hanon despisers. 

I refuse to take the bait, tHANk you. 

[leucippus]

I refuse to take the bait, tHANk you. 

No problem.  I don't get any commision for Hanon sales anyway. 

Besides I have a feeling that you are far beyond Hanon.  If you actually read my post I recommend it for raw beginners.  If you can already play the Bach Inventions you are beyond Hanon already.  I'm not there yet.  But I can play Hanon so I find it useful on my path.

[gonzalo]

What a shame…another perfectly fine thread by gonzalo with insightful analysis of a two-part invention, completely ruined by the mere mention of the “H” word.  Let this be a warning to all.

And now back to the matter at “Hand”.  I think it is also a good idea to emphasize to the student the notion of polyphony.  One good way is to have the student sing one voice while the teacher sings the other.  There is a reason why they are called “voices”.  This helps the student to hear polyphonically.  At some point in their development they should be able to sing one voice while playing the other (not easy to do).

The list above is just the tip of the iceberg . They can also play one voice and hear in their mind the other voice .

Take care,
Gonzalo.

[jazzyprof]

Ok, if you feel that way about it, here's is my contribution to the topic at hand:

BBC Radio Archives - Bach Inventions

Hey leucippus, thanks for posting that BBC program on the Inventions.  Most informative and a joy to listen to.