Bach - Goldberg Var. 5

[indigenous]

An amateur practices Goldberg Var. 5.  Comments and criticism welcome.  Thanks!

[tenk]

Slow waaaaay down and get the notes right. It must start there.

[indigenous]

Thank you for your reply.  Yes, I realize I missed a lot of notes and the piece is quite the unpolished gem but more importantly, is the underlying technique sound enough to tackle pieces of this difficulty or must I return to the “basics” as it were?  As a self-taught amateur, I have never undergone a formal technical evaluation of my playing and hence am quite ignorant of my relative skill level or lack thereof.  Any further insight would be appreciated.  Regards, M.G. 

[brogers70]

My teacher would like your practicing, in this sense. You scatter wrong notes left and right by the dozens, but you just keep going full tilt. Obviously, you need to slow, way, way down and pick them up off the floor and put them in their right places. But I think it will serve you well in the long run to be able to not get panicked by hitting wrong notes.

[dogperson]

Hi
It is a little difficult to answer if this is too difficult for you.  To clarify what has been said about the wrong notes: when you are taping or performing, it is great to be able to play without stopping.  When you are learning the music, however, you need to learn it incredibly slowly so that you don’t play incorrect notes.  You do not want to ingrain the errors as they then become difficult to remove. There will always be an occasional wrong note but you don’t want to have errors that you make every time you play it. Keep the fingering consistent.   Work on the phrasing, dynamics and which notes you emphasize. I would expect this to sound lighter with more subtlety. 

My guess is that this will take effort but should be within your grasp and ability. Develop the patience to work through the process slowly. And slowly means slower than you would guess.... like a snail😊

I hope you will post this again after you work on it

[tenk]

is the underlying technique sound enough to tackle pieces of this difficulty or must I return to the “basics” as it were?

Honestly no. The mistakes were not one-offs or finger slips. What does it mean for the underlying technique to be there, but for so many notes to be wrong?

Continuing to play it this way will only reinforce the thought that barreling through the piece like this is okay, and will lead to much headache and frustration later on when you do try to get it right.

I don't say these things to discourage you. If you're a fan of Bach (and if you're playing GV you must be), consider redirecting your efforts towards Little Preludes and Fugues, 2- and 3-part Inventions, and Well-Tempered Clavier. But please please please slow down, get the notes right and under your fingers, then increase tempo.