Bach 12 Little Preludes

[jwchopin]

I am completely new to Bach and I have decided to start with his 12 little preludes (pdf below). I am in Grade 6 RCM and was wondering what the difficulty level of these preludes are. Also, are these a good start to Bach?

[ianw]

There's a number of Bach's little preludes listed on www.pianosyllabus.com and they cover a range of gradings from 3 to 9.

[massimo73]

I made up a list of ratings using the suggested link:
Twelve Short Preludes
Prelude No. 1 bwv 924 C   PS 3
Prelude No. 2 bwv 939 C   PS 3         Famous
Prelude No. 3 bwv 999 Cm   PS 4   Famous, haunting Toccata, not easy at all at speed
Prelude No. 4 bwv 925 D   PS 6   Very polyphonic, AND HARD !!!
Prelude No. 5 bwv 926 Dm   PS 5        Famous and challenging
Prelude No. 6 bwv 940 Dm   PS 5        touching, going to study this one
Prelude No. 7 bwv 941 Em   PS 4
Prelude No. 8 bwv 927 F   PS 4   Bright and light, scherzo type, super articulated and fast
Prelude No. 9 bwv 928 F   PS 6        HARD
Prelude No. 10 bwv 929 Gm   GR 5|6    uhmmm
Prelude No. 11 bwv 930 Gm   PS 5   almost an invention, HARD
Prelude No. 12 bwv 942 Am   PS 5   

A lot of treasures in this list. My favorites are 2,3,4,5,6.
These grades seem to be in a scale 1-10. With Bach I feel the grades are consistently underestimated...

[pianobern69]

The preludes for his son W. Fr. Bach are a great start! Also, start with the two-part inventions as soon as possible.