What to work on now? (Bach)

[larapool]

Hello!  This is my first post here at pianostreet.  I've browsed the site for a long time, but have just now decided to post.

I am 20 years old and have been playing piano my whole life, though I've been self-taught.  I did not start taking formal piano lessons until January '10.  My professor said, when we first began working together, that I already had wonderful technique and a lot of piano knowledge, so since then, we've been able to work through material and exercises quite easily.

Long story short, my piano professor gave me Bach's Invention No. 1 in C Major way back in September to learn, and I had that learned in no time.  It's very simple.  He stepped things up a bit and just recently gave me Invention No. 15 in B Minor.  I am almost done learning it (currently working on crossing hands) and while it's much more advanced, I feel like I'm tackling it easily and can almost play it through with no problems.

I recently bought both books of the Well-Tempered Clavier because I figured as a pianist, they're essential books.  I recently got accepted into Illinois State University as a general music major (I want to be a composition major, but they were a bit hesitant, so they'll reevaluate me during the year and give me another chance).  I played Invention No. 1 by Bach, the second movement of the K545 sonata by Mozart, and Chopin's Prelude No. 7, and it went well!

I bought the WTC just in case, but I have a feeling that I should, of course, learn all of Bach's inventions before tackling that.  I would love a second opinion from all the wonderful musicians here.  Thank you very much in advance for any assistance!

[brogers70]

I love Bach, too, and went pretty quickly from a couple of the two part inventions to some of the easier prelude and fugue pairs in WTC I, C minor, d minor, and D major. It's doable, with patience. That was a few years ago. Lately I've gone back to the two part inventions and I think I'd have played the fugues better back then if I'd been more patient and learned most or all of the two part inventions first, so I've been going through them now. They really help you learn to play different articulations in the different voices, and that's key for the fugues.

I'm not sure you need to do the three part inventions, though. Many of those are harder than the easier fugues in WTC. You could also do a couple of the French suites, Eb and C minor are pretty approachable. Still, don't skimp on the two part inventions; they are great pieces.

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

As a student myself, I can't really give you much advice here, so I will just share my experience and hopefully you'll get something out of it.

I can't remember studying any inventions seriously (ie: spending a long time on them or playing them for exams). Maybe this is not a very normal approach, since everyone else I knows learned a lot of inventions   I think I probably played no. 1 and no 13 before, years ago, and not in depth. I can't even remember learning them, I just know I did. I'm hoping to take another look at the inventions sometime, I mean I really wish I studied them more, sometimes I'm worried there's a hole in my Bach-education- they are great pieces and I'm sure they would help me with playing the WTC, like brogers said. So I think it's definitely a good idea to learn them.

However, I learned quite a few little preludes and I really enjoyed those. A lot of them are quite invention/ fugue like according to my teacher (BWV 925 comes to mind, my teacher told me it was like a mini fugue-- I LOVE that one!).
Some of them are easier than the inventions and some of them are more difficult.
I'm not sure how "helpful" they are from a teacher's perspective though, but they were quite fun for me to learn as a student.
And I also like the French suites a lot. Made me fall in love with Bach's music. I think no 2 might be the easiest, because I learned that one

[fleetfingers]

I recently learned four of the Bach 2-part Inventions and had a desire to learn them all. I felt that it would be part of becoming a "complete" pianist and that I would acquire great technique. Well, after Nos. 4, 8, 10, and 13, I couldn't find another one that I loved enough to spend a few weeks learning, so I decided to move on to something else. I may go back to them later but, for now, I have grown tired of the style.

You may find interesting an excerpt from Piano Technique by Gieseking and Leimer:

"It is quite superfluous to play a number of inventions, as the desired results can be gained with more certainty and in a shorter period, if more time is spent on the study of only one or two inventions. All of my pupils showed the greatest interest and endeavored to obtain the greatest perfection in their renderings. One and all realized how quickly they had progressed in technique and felt that such advancement could not have been made by superficially studying a number of inventions."

This paragraph is included in the chapter on the "singing" touch through pressure of the keys and relaxation, as well as playing mordents with exactness, which would have to be assumed are taken into consideration when studying and perfecting one or two inventions.

I hope that gives you a little perspective. If you love all of the inventions, then learn them, but don't feel like you need to. At least not to advance and move on to the next thing, assuming you've learned to play Nos. 1 and 15 very well.

[mlbbaseball]

I love Bach, too, and went pretty quickly from a couple of the two part inventions to some of the easier prelude and fugue pairs in WTC I, C minor, d minor, and D major.

From Book I, I'll add No. 21 in B flat (the prelude is much easier than it sounds/looks and the fugue is rather straightforward), no. 10 in e minor (the prelude is much harder than the fugue, which is the only 2 voice fugue in the two volumes of the WTC), and no. 11 in F major. From Book II, I'll suggest no. 15 in G major.

For a piece that is just a little harder than the above, I'll suggest no. 9 in E major.

[scott13]

You don't need to learn all the inventions before WTC. In fact i would say since you have learnt the B minor invention, go straight to WTC book 1 and find the ones you like. My personal favourite is #16 in G minor - Beautiful and not often performed.