Friday, December 6, 2013

Bach Pieces

Over the weekend, Hannah and I recorded 2 new piano pieces that we recently learned. We both played Bach. I played a piece called Invention in C major, and Hannah played Prelude in C minor. I worked very hard to learn all the right notes, playing parts loud and quiet, and learning the piece by memory. Many of Bach's pieces have two voices/melodies, the right hand has one melody, and the left hand has a different melody. When I play, I am supposed to show both melodies. Bach wrote these Inventions, as exercises for his students to play with no mistakes. He wrote one invention for each scale. The first one was for C major, then C minor, and so on  for all the scales. I played the first invention in C major. My sister Hannah's prelude was one of 6 short preludes that Bach wrote also for his students as exercises. They were never meant to be performed, but since they are beautiful we decided to record both of them.

My name is Hannah, and I am doing a guest post on Sarah's blog. This weekend, I learned a new piece. It was a lot of work to learn it by memory. I had to practice this piece many times.  The piece is two pages long. I played it so many times but I just could not remember this piece by memory. One day I practiced only the left hand and I realized that I almost had it by memory. When I tried to record it, I played it perfectly without notes. The piece is hard because the left hand has it's own melody and the right hand has its own melody.




What did you think about these pieces? 
Should they be played only as exercises or performed as concert pieces?

5 comments:

  1. Dear Sarah and Hannah,

    I know how you feel when you try to learn a piece, memorize it, and play it with one hand to be soft and the other to be loud on the piano. You both can play better than me! It's very amazing that you could do these Bach pieces. Excellent job! Keep up the piano and the violin!

    Love,
    Andrielle
    P.S. Remember to check out my blog! I check yours daily! adeleon28.edublogs.org

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Sarah and Hannah, you both play such difficult pieces that even an adult would ave a hard time to remember to play without the scores. We are very proud of you, you play Bach and it's your Grandpas favorite composer, when we come back from vacation you have to play for us.
    As for Hannah I am speechless, that little girl with little tiny fingers can play so well, it's unbelievable. Can't wait to kiss and hug you
    Love Grandma Tanya and Grandpa Eugene

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Grandma Tanya and Grandpa Eugene,

      Thank you so much for spending your time to leave me such a lovely comment, especially while on vacation. I'm very glad you enjoyed how we played. I miss you very much, and am looking forward to meeting you soon.

      Sincerely,
      Sarah

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  3. @ Hannah and Sarah,

    Wow! I know that they are exercises and certainly strengthen the mind and the fingers, but I think they are beautiful to listen to as well!

    Hannah, you are progressing so well! How many years have you been taking?

    Sarah, I used to play that Bach Invention! It brought back such good memories to hear it being played. I must confess that you play is much better than I ever did!

    Do any of you play any seasonal music this time of year? My mom has been over at my house quite a bit, and she always brings holiday music and we all sing along.

    Thanks for a grand performance!

    Your fan,
    Mrs. Y♥llis

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  4. Oh girls you brought me such joy! Wow. Firstly your smiles into the camera welcoming the viewer and then your lovely music! I had tears of joy. THANK YOU for sharing yourselves.

    Ms Trad
    ESL Teacher
    Sydney
    Australia.

    (VisualThemes on Twitter)

    ReplyDelete

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