My apologies for not posting in... forever😖 I'm posting this as the first vid in a little series/challenge to encourage us to go through the Bach inventions and see what we can steal together🙂... This is also a challenge for me to post regularly ha! I plan a video in this series every 2 weeks to give us time to practice the invention, but please do tell me if you think you'd need more time! I may also try to post a general video in the middle week as well ;-) since I've been away for so long i'll have to give some peanuts to the YT algorithm haha, but most importantly I really want to get back into posting regular tips for the wonderful people interested in improvisation
This is exactly what I wanted! Thank you so much!! I'm also writing this comment to challenge myself to practice regularly following your instructions. Again, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!😀
You're more than welcome! It's also a challenge for me to keep regularly practicing & posting videos hehe ;-) Many thanks to *you* for watching, have a wonderful day :-)
Hahaha many thanks 😅! I wanted to experiment with thumbnails, and when I added two raccoons as a test I couldn't resist using the meme thumbnail haha ;-) ..I actually secretly hope that I won't get much more click percentage from that thumbnail since it would be a bit depressing but. eh.. we'll see haha! Ty again for the comment and for your remarkable videos
You are correct on solving any problem. Practice is repetition of success, control is the ability to acknowledge what might succeed and to attempt that ONCE. If you fail regress immediately otherwise a lifetime of playing Bach with no dynamic control.
The motif at 14mins. .. the sense of the motif is 'a 1 e and' . This is the sense of the music, as so often in Bach figures LAND on the beat and the music, even at speed with too much aggression, SINGS when the player has built a technique which respects this. If you try and tie the logic of a motif to the beat then the results are stilted. It is the same in all music. Folk fiddlers trained poorly play Diddly datda, Diddly Datda (capitalised to indicate beat) when it should be da Diddly da, da Diddly da. I hope you read and think about this, you have so much to offer and a little change in awareness might open doors for you in terms of calmness and savouring. A great way to get out of the habit of making Bach sound like he wrote it (beaming illustrating melodic contour) as opposed to a computer engraving ( where software applies the beaming completely arbitrarily and without respect for the sense of the music ) is to WORK FROM COLD WITH NO SCORE ON SIMPLE MELODIES COPIED FROM BEAUTIFUL PERFORMANCES. Oh, I improvise a little on my guitar, on my Channel 'Counterfeiting Vivaldi' is nothing like Vivaldi and absolutely inauthentic. Feel free to listen and criticise, especially the chromatic blues lick chain. All the best and all power to you.
Wow, I really quite enjoyed this first installment of this new series! It had a lot of super helpful insights that I’m 100% going to try applying next time I practice.
This is wonderful! I started learning piano over quarantine and got addicted to Bach. I learned quickly that even the 'easy' pieces (inventions, short preludes, etc) are very hard if you're trying to play with attention to detail and Baroque styling, but all the more rewarding to learn because of this. I found you on Reddit Live and thought your improvization was captivating and inspiring. You should know that if you had a Patreon I would certainly support you for all the effort you're planning to put into educational content. Thanks!
Many thanks for your very kind words! Indeed, even the 'easy' pieces can be *very* hard, but you are absolutely right in insisting in paying attention to details; It's much better to get some focus quality work in than going through more pieces with more approximative play. It's absolutely amazing that something as annoying as the quarantine can have positive impacts such as allowing you to start piano; You are well on your way to mastering those pieces with such an attitude. And indeed, I fully agree haha.. Bach is adddddicting ;-) Do *not* hesitate to ask any questions either concerning practice/improvisation or suggestions for pieces; I'm always super happy to reply to those, even if lately i've been horrible and let all social media pile up except the lives on reddit. I have toyed with the idea of doing a Patreon, and I'm humbled to hear that you'd support me. We'll see if I end up doing one, but in all cases many thanks for the very kind words; I wish you the most joyous practice moments with Bach and the piano! Ty again for the comment
Thank you. I do the same thing like you. I studied Bach's music all my piano career and I still study him. I also improvise Bach's music and think in the same way like you. Nice to find someone same thinking
Wow Boro, you’re a brilliant young man! I’ve been dying for someone to assist me in my desire to improvise inventions! I’m so great full for you making this niche content!
Aww many thanks for the kind words, I'm more than glad to be making this niche content haha ;-) Ty again for the comment, and I hope that the subsequent videos in the series will give more substantial tips!
@@Borogrove I can’t wait! Started today in invention number one so I can get the most out of your teachings. I hope you really inspire me and I’d love to be able to create music like you!
Please post a Part 2! This is one of the best tutorials I’ve seen. I’m a jazz pianist, and my Bach is not very good, but counterpoint is an obsession of mine. Please do another video!
Merci super, j'espère que tu vas continuer et qu'on rentrera très vite dans le contrepoint, et les patterns mélodiques chez Bach. Bravo pour ce travail je te soutiens !
Thank you for this! You're such a skilled improviser and your thoughts/insights on improvising and practicing are incredibly helpful! I would love at some point for you to do a video or videos on your thoughts about improvising in different styles. Do you have a different approach to improvising in a baroque style vs jazz, or do you approach it the same way but just with a different harmonic language/vocabulary? I hope that makes sense!
Many thanks for the very kind words! That's actually a fantastic video idea! I'd have to give it some proper thoughts, but to give you an immediate draft of answer: I really think that all impro is connected, because at the end of the day, there isn't really that much "theory" or "method" that can whistand the test of requiring to provide you with a stream of notes in real time haha. In fact, no method can even tell you what melody to play... because all melodies are potentially interesting 🙂 Thus, the main skills in improvisation (and music/composition in general I guess!) are being able to create interesting melodies and rhythm.. This is both the most fundamental problem we all have, in all styles.. but also the most difficult! Of course I wouldn't maybe improvise the same melody for a jazzy impro vs a baroque one, but what makes an interesting melody is absolutely shared by both.. in fact there are quite some similarities between baroque and much more modern styles! Finally, I am also a big believer that *harmony* can be viewed as naturally emerging from counterpoint. (Of course not always, harmony can be very useful to consider alone too sometimes). And thinking about counterpoint is both a great skill for improvisation because it allows you to very dynamically add/remove melodies, and potentially melodies that can go somewhere new instead of being "forced" to stay in you harmonic schema. Thus, practicing impro and some elements of counterpoint in your head can immensely help and directly communicate across all styles of improvisation/composition of music ;-) If fact if you listen to some music by Prokoviev, or Bartok for instance, you'll see that there's awesome use of counterpoint. Similarly in Jazz, a lot of "complex chords" can actually be nicely reached by thinking in terms of stacking melodic lines rather than purely vertical harmony 🙂 So tldr, i'd definitely say that all improvisations are inherently the same language.. music :-)
@@Borogrove thank you so much for this reply! I come from a "typical" modern approach to classical piano lessons and as such improvisation has always seemed so foreign and unattainable since it was never a part of my musical training. I think it is a shame how uncommon improvisation has become for "classical" pianists/musicians, but I feel there is a revival of this art happening thanks to people like you, En Blanc et Noir, John Mortenson, the Learn Partimento podcast, etc... You are one of my biggest musical inspirations and I can't thank you enough for sharing your thoughts and knowledge!!
@@Borogrove You need to consider both melodic constraints and harmonic constraints at the same time. It's a lot like solving sudoku, you need to make sure your solution satisfies both the rows/columns as well as the boxes. That's why it's more akin to constraint programming (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constraint_programming), which is mostly in the NP space. If you focus on melodies mostly, you won't get interesting harmony, and if you focus on harmony too much, you may not think of interesting melodies. Harmonic constraints mostly deals with interesting harmonic progressions at certain regular intervals. For example from 1:28 to 1:36 of my Canzano partimento 19 prelude completion, the harmonic progression of the first down beat follows an oblique motion in the bass voice. If I didn't set the harmonic constraint there, I probably wouldn't have come up with such oblique harmonic motion if I only focused on the melody. Of course, if your melodies and their phrasing are all over the place, then it would mess up the cohesion of the entire piece. Generally speaking, the style is more constrained in melody than harmony, as various harmonic progressions can be found easily acceptable compared to the constraints that places on Baroque style melodies, so it's easier to focus on getting the melodies right in order to produce an acceptable piece than focusing on the harmony as you said usually the harmonies manifest themselves out of interesting melodies. Jazz generally focuses on chord progressions as there are many more acceptable jazz melodies compared to how many melodies can be considered acceptable in Baroque style.
Very interesting and important insight about preferring "logical" fingering to a "convenient" one. Curiously, this seems to also apply to the guitar. Ted Greene's guitar style is also famous for non-trivial finger techniques (two strings with one fingertip, cross-fret barres). And these start to make a lot of sense when you try to do counterpoint improvisation following Ted's lessons and transcriptions.
Aww well I'm super happy it can be of help! Normally I'd expect the other videos in the series to be more substantial since we'll actually analyze the inventions and improvise much more 🙂 Ty for the comment!
You are a great improviser and I really appreciate your efforts to provide a lot of valuable information for free. But please allow me to give some CC: I think what amateur improvisers really need is a breakdown of formulas and a simpler approach with more practical exercices. For example, a full analysis of the original invention would be a good start: showing Bach's different ways of varying the same motif (inversion, diminution augmentation, ornamentation etc.), explaining his techniques of modulation, sequences and cadences. And then discuss the form as a whole and how to plan the structure of a composition or an improvisation in this style. Probably each subject can take a video by itself as there is a lot to talk about and you can definitely demonstrate each concept with your great improvisational skills! Also, I think it will be better if you emphasize only one problem in a video rather than discuss many problems all at once (problem solving, practice techniques, fingering, rubato, articulation, improvisation etc.), this can make it more ambigious for amateur learners.
It exceeded even beyond expectations! You are a truly skilled educator and this video contains so SO much valuable information! You are truly the pioneer of a new generation of baroque improvisators! So hyped for this series!
Wohoo! I'm super happy you've found this useful! Hopefullly the subsequent videos in the series should contain more useful content Many thanks for watching Nooctius :)
Some takeaways from the video: 1. Break difficult parts into smaller sections. 2. Practice hands separately in general , but you can try the Richter method: repeat each measure (hands together) until they are played well. 3. Write your own fingering and stick to it. 4. Everything you do must be logical. Observe patterns and "chunk" the music that way. Similar strategy to fingering. 5. Focused practice is extremely important for baroque music. Always have goals on what you want to accomplish. 6. Have a constant flux. Ensure your tempo and articulation flow well. Do not emphasize random notes (poor technique). 7. Eat your bass instead of practicing it.
Amazing video as always!!! I really appreciate you creating content! personal opinion: I find the subtitels ok but that every word lights up makes me nervous hahaha cheers
Yes! I have indeed heard of Partimenti! This is not a technique I have practiced a lot of but I am aware of it and might need to take a proper deep dive in the future :)
Oh that's a great question! I actually really love all types of counterpoint, including postromantic or more modern too. I actually myself am starting to get into playing some Prokoviev pieces for the piano, and Prokoviev is a composer that I had played criminally little of until recently and wooooooooooww there is some GENIUS counterpoint in his pieces ;-) I need to checkout Szymanowsky much more as well! Many thanks for the great comment, but yes I absolutely think that all counterpoint is absolutely fantastic no matter the harmony.. if even harmony there is hehe, because I think that good counterpoint bases itself on *rhythm* as an even more fundamental notion. So what all types of counterpoint have in common is the rhythm :)
Awwwww, yes I know I disappeared without leaving traces, I am feeling better and much more ready to go now though ;-) Many thanks for the comment and for watching Matteo!
Amazing! :) When the "cantus firmus" is in the soprano, how do you think about improvising below it? Do you consciously think of the bass only and the middle voices are filled in through muscle memory and intuition, or is there more sophisticated contrapuntal problem solving involved?
That's a great question, and would probably involve me blabbering for a long time if you let me hahah ;-) In short here's a few thoughts: Your conscious mind's attention is a bit like the "eye of sauron" haha, It's indeed something that can focus on parts individually and as they say: "Energy goes where the attention is". Ergo, the voice that you focus on, is probably the one that you want to make stand out. As such, it's indeed true that moooost of the time I focus on one or two voices (Soprano+Bass) consciously. In fact I can reasonably manage to keep two voices with my full attention.. .but I can't manage 3.. still working to that effect myself haha ;-) (I can do three voices, but not fully being aware of what all three are doing if they are moving, or by having three voices that don't always play at the same time) As you say, very often the middle parts are filled in with muscle memory/intuition generating a form of "automatic counterpoint". That's also why practicing pieces by Bach etc.. is good because it'll teach some of these patterns to your fingers that they can pull back from when you improvise. Interestingly it's something I'm actually trying to now *prevent* myself from doing as much, because while it's reaaaallly enticing to start adding layers of counterpoint, I really want to start working in expanding my ability to focus on more stuff.. and that will pass through the discomfort of trying to keep my attention on 3 full voices hehe ;-) However, it's also important to be able to train your attention to switch, like a lens, from one part to another. That way, let's say you introduce a voice in the middle, you can start becoming aware of what your middle voice is doing, and consciously attach yourself to it to make it do what you want (like adding a subject entry, in the case of a fugue like construction). Tldr; Yes, absolutely focusing on the top and bottom is great, but also train your attention to switch in the middle of counterpoint/chords. I even want to do a video purely based on exercises to train the ear/consciousness to do this "focusing" movement. For instance, take a complex chord and try to hear it by hearing all stacked parts instead of the "whole". Hope this helps, and ty for the comment!
Yes! It was my plan to release them regularly one after the other. I came back from a loong time off youtube and am reviving the channel; but yes, I definitely want to continue this series.
"Music should always strive to touch the heart and not to baffle the ear". C. P. E. Bach Über die wahre Art das Klavier zu spielen. In short, way to fast.
@@milanboutros J'aime tout ce qui est beau haha ;-) Mais evidemment Gould est une reference; Mais aussi Richter, ou peut etre mon pianiste actif prefere (mes excuses, je n'ai pas d'accents sur mon clavier haha ;-): Grigori Sokolov!
This guy knows some shit, and I'm not just talking about music.
Pay attention, everyone!
Awwww ty! Although I have to get getter at my editing game hahaha, I raaammmmmbllle like crazy ;p
Many thanks for the kind words ;)
My apologies for not posting in... forever😖
I'm posting this as the first vid in a little series/challenge to encourage us to go through the Bach inventions and see what we can steal together🙂... This is also a challenge for me to post regularly ha!
I plan a video in this series every 2 weeks to give us time to practice the invention, but please do tell me if you think you'd need more time!
I may also try to post a general video in the middle week as well ;-) since I've been away for so long i'll have to give some peanuts to the YT algorithm haha, but most importantly I really want to get back into posting regular tips for the wonderful people interested in improvisation
Thank you!
Can’t wait to refresh invention no. 1! I’ve been looking for an excuse to do them again!
This is exactly what I wanted! Thank you so much!! I'm also writing this comment to challenge myself to practice regularly following your instructions. Again, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!😀
You're more than welcome!
It's also a challenge for me to keep regularly practicing & posting videos hehe ;-)
Many thanks to *you* for watching, have a wonderful day :-)
@@Borogrove Yes, thank you... Also, where is the new video? hehehehe
:DDD this is hilarious! Boro you're such a legend!!!
Hahaha many thanks 😅!
I wanted to experiment with thumbnails, and when I added two raccoons as a test I couldn't resist using the meme thumbnail haha ;-)
..I actually secretly hope that I won't get much more click percentage from that thumbnail since it would be a bit depressing but. eh.. we'll see haha!
Ty again for the comment and for your remarkable videos
You are correct on solving any problem. Practice is repetition of success, control is the ability to acknowledge what might succeed and to attempt that ONCE. If you fail regress immediately otherwise a lifetime of playing Bach with no dynamic control.
The motif at 14mins. .. the sense of the motif is 'a 1 e and' . This is the sense of the music, as so often in Bach figures LAND on the beat and the music, even at speed with too much aggression, SINGS when the player has built a technique which respects this. If you try and tie the logic of a motif to the beat then the results are stilted. It is the same in all music. Folk fiddlers trained poorly play Diddly datda, Diddly Datda (capitalised to indicate beat) when it should be da Diddly da, da Diddly da. I hope you read and think about this, you have so much to offer and a little change in awareness might open doors for you in terms of calmness and savouring. A great way to get out of the habit of making Bach sound like he wrote it (beaming illustrating melodic contour) as opposed to a computer engraving ( where software applies the beaming completely arbitrarily and without respect for the sense of the music ) is to WORK FROM COLD WITH NO SCORE ON SIMPLE MELODIES COPIED FROM BEAUTIFUL PERFORMANCES. Oh, I improvise a little on my guitar, on my Channel 'Counterfeiting Vivaldi' is nothing like Vivaldi and absolutely inauthentic. Feel free to listen and criticise, especially the chromatic blues lick chain. All the best and all power to you.
Wow, I really quite enjoyed this first installment of this new series! It had a lot of super helpful insights that I’m 100% going to try applying next time I practice.
I’m super glad that I could have been of some help!
Happy practice 😊!
Thank you for your energy. After watching you I get inspired and I sit down and play Bach and improvise him
This is wonderful! I started learning piano over quarantine and got addicted to Bach. I learned quickly that even the 'easy' pieces (inventions, short preludes, etc) are very hard if you're trying to play with attention to detail and Baroque styling, but all the more rewarding to learn because of this.
I found you on Reddit Live and thought your improvization was captivating and inspiring. You should know that if you had a Patreon I would certainly support you for all the effort you're planning to put into educational content.
Thanks!
Many thanks for your very kind words!
Indeed, even the 'easy' pieces can be *very* hard, but you are absolutely right in insisting in paying attention to details; It's much better to get some focus quality work in than going through more pieces with more approximative play.
It's absolutely amazing that something as annoying as the quarantine can have positive impacts such as allowing you to start piano; You are well on your way to mastering those pieces with such an attitude.
And indeed, I fully agree haha.. Bach is adddddicting ;-)
Do *not* hesitate to ask any questions either concerning practice/improvisation or suggestions for pieces; I'm always super happy to reply to those, even if lately i've been horrible and let all social media pile up except the lives on reddit.
I have toyed with the idea of doing a Patreon, and I'm humbled to hear that you'd support me. We'll see if I end up doing one, but in all cases many thanks for the very kind words; I wish you the most joyous practice moments with Bach and the piano!
Ty again for the comment
One other RUclipsr I HIGHLY to learn new patterns/schemata is Settecentista!
Thank you. I do the same thing like you. I studied Bach's music all my piano career and I still study him. I also improvise Bach's music and think in the same way like you. Nice to find someone same thinking
Looking forward to it. Thanks for the already precious tips.
You're very welcome Marco!
Ty for the comment :-)
Very good teaching again! Thnx👍
It's been a year already! Time flies...
jaj to see him improvise on this Invention!. just great!
Many thanks Francisco! It should be coming this Thursday normally!
Wow Boro, you’re a brilliant young man!
I’ve been dying for someone to assist me in my desire to improvise inventions!
I’m so great full for you making this niche content!
Aww many thanks for the kind words, I'm more than glad to be making this niche content haha ;-)
Ty again for the comment, and I hope that the subsequent videos in the series will give more substantial tips!
@@Borogrove I can’t wait!
Started today in invention number one so I can get the most out of your teachings. I hope you really inspire me and I’d love to be able to create music like you!
Amazing job. Thank you for this opportunity... 🍀🍀🍀🎶🎶🎶
Please post a Part 2! This is one of the best tutorials I’ve seen. I’m a jazz pianist, and my Bach is not very good, but counterpoint is an obsession of mine. Please do another video!
Merci super, j'espère que tu vas continuer et qu'on rentrera très vite dans le contrepoint, et les patterns mélodiques chez Bach. Bravo pour ce travail je te soutiens !
Merci beaucoup Kellian,
Et absolument, c'est tout a fait le plan hihi ;-)
Thank you. This is fantastic.
You're very welcome Jesse, glad to be of help!
Thank you for this! You're such a skilled improviser and your thoughts/insights on improvising and practicing are incredibly helpful!
I would love at some point for you to do a video or videos on your thoughts about improvising in different styles. Do you have a different approach to improvising in a baroque style vs jazz, or do you approach it the same way but just with a different harmonic language/vocabulary? I hope that makes sense!
Many thanks for the very kind words!
That's actually a fantastic video idea! I'd have to give it some proper thoughts, but to give you an immediate draft of answer:
I really think that all impro is connected, because at the end of the day, there isn't really that much "theory" or "method" that can whistand the test of requiring to provide you with a stream of notes in real time haha.
In fact, no method can even tell you what melody to play... because all melodies are potentially interesting 🙂
Thus, the main skills in improvisation (and music/composition in general I guess!) are being able to create interesting melodies and rhythm.. This is both the most fundamental problem we all have, in all styles.. but also the most difficult!
Of course I wouldn't maybe improvise the same melody for a jazzy impro vs a baroque one, but what makes an interesting melody is absolutely shared by both.. in fact there are quite some similarities between baroque and much more modern styles!
Finally, I am also a big believer that *harmony* can be viewed as naturally emerging from counterpoint. (Of course not always, harmony can be very useful to consider alone too sometimes). And thinking about counterpoint is both a great skill for improvisation because it allows you to very dynamically add/remove melodies, and potentially melodies that can go somewhere new instead of being "forced" to stay in you harmonic schema.
Thus, practicing impro and some elements of counterpoint in your head can immensely help and directly communicate across all styles of improvisation/composition of music ;-)
If fact if you listen to some music by Prokoviev, or Bartok for instance, you'll see that there's awesome use of counterpoint.
Similarly in Jazz, a lot of "complex chords" can actually be nicely reached by thinking in terms of stacking melodic lines rather than purely vertical harmony 🙂
So tldr, i'd definitely say that all improvisations are inherently the same language.. music :-)
@@Borogrove thank you so much for this reply! I come from a "typical" modern approach to classical piano lessons and as such improvisation has always seemed so foreign and unattainable since it was never a part of my musical training. I think it is a shame how uncommon improvisation has become for "classical" pianists/musicians, but I feel there is a revival of this art happening thanks to people like you, En Blanc et Noir, John Mortenson, the Learn Partimento podcast, etc... You are one of my biggest musical inspirations and I can't thank you enough for sharing your thoughts and knowledge!!
@@Borogrove You need to consider both melodic constraints and harmonic constraints at the same time. It's a lot like solving sudoku, you need to make sure your solution satisfies both the rows/columns as well as the boxes. That's why it's more akin to constraint programming (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constraint_programming), which is mostly in the NP space. If you focus on melodies mostly, you won't get interesting harmony, and if you focus on harmony too much, you may not think of interesting melodies.
Harmonic constraints mostly deals with interesting harmonic progressions at certain regular intervals. For example from 1:28 to 1:36 of my Canzano partimento 19 prelude completion, the harmonic progression of the first down beat follows an oblique motion in the bass voice. If I didn't set the harmonic constraint there, I probably wouldn't have come up with such oblique harmonic motion if I only focused on the melody. Of course, if your melodies and their phrasing are all over the place, then it would mess up the cohesion of the entire piece. Generally speaking, the style is more constrained in melody than harmony, as various harmonic progressions can be found easily acceptable compared to the constraints that places on Baroque style melodies, so it's easier to focus on getting the melodies right in order to produce an acceptable piece than focusing on the harmony as you said usually the harmonies manifest themselves out of interesting melodies. Jazz generally focuses on chord progressions as there are many more acceptable jazz melodies compared to how many melodies can be considered acceptable in Baroque style.
Very interesting and important insight about preferring "logical" fingering to a "convenient" one. Curiously, this seems to also apply to the guitar. Ted Greene's guitar style is also famous for non-trivial finger techniques (two strings with one fingertip, cross-fret barres). And these start to make a lot of sense when you try to do counterpoint improvisation following Ted's lessons and transcriptions.
3:20 "Something simple like this." Ah...
Joke aside, thanks again for these lessons, looking forward to the next one!
;-) Me too haha! We'll start having fun by stealing!.. umm.. taking inspiration I mean 😅
You are an incredible musician and intellect - amazing channel !
Just started watching and this is the video I have been waiting for so thanks very much Borogrove
Aww well I'm super happy it can be of help! Normally I'd expect the other videos in the series to be more substantial since we'll actually analyze the inventions and improvise much more 🙂
Ty for the comment!
You are a genius:)
Oh I'm an idiot but making mistakes is a great way to learn so it all works out :-)
You are a great improviser and I really appreciate your efforts to provide a lot of valuable information for free. But please allow me to give some CC: I think what amateur improvisers really need is a breakdown of formulas and a simpler approach with more practical exercices. For example, a full analysis of the original invention would be a good start: showing Bach's different ways of varying the same motif (inversion, diminution augmentation, ornamentation etc.), explaining his techniques of modulation, sequences and cadences. And then discuss the form as a whole and how to plan the structure of a composition or an improvisation in this style. Probably each subject can take a video by itself as there is a lot to talk about and you can definitely demonstrate each concept with your great improvisational skills!
Also, I think it will be better if you emphasize only one problem in a video rather than discuss many problems all at once (problem solving, practice techniques, fingering, rubato, articulation, improvisation etc.), this can make it more ambigious for amateur learners.
Tremendous, amazing.
wow just learned this invention recently super fun! looking forward to your next video
That's awesome! Yes, I hope next video will be quite interesting too! We'll get to improvise ;p
Bach means "creek" in German. Beethoven said that Bach should've been called "Meer", which means ocean in German.
Oh that's a wonderful quote from Beethoven! I wasn't aware of it... but I definitely agree haha ;-)
Many thanks for the comment Vextrove!
I prefer the English word Brook (meaning the same as creek) as they start with the same letter!
Great video. Thanks.
Many thanks Alex!
I am so incredibly excited to watch this! Thank you in advance, you're a legend!
It exceeded even beyond expectations! You are a truly skilled educator and this video contains so SO much valuable information! You are truly the pioneer of a new generation of baroque improvisators! So hyped for this series!
Wohoo! I'm super happy you've found this useful!
Hopefullly the subsequent videos in the series should contain more useful content
Many thanks for watching Nooctius :)
Nice lesson thanks for it!
You are very welcome!
Some takeaways from the video:
1. Break difficult parts into smaller sections.
2. Practice hands separately in general , but you can try the Richter method: repeat each measure (hands together) until they are played well.
3. Write your own fingering and stick to it.
4. Everything you do must be logical. Observe patterns and "chunk" the music that way. Similar strategy to fingering.
5. Focused practice is extremely important for baroque music. Always have goals on what you want to accomplish.
6. Have a constant flux. Ensure your tempo and articulation flow well. Do not emphasize random notes (poor technique).
7. Eat your bass instead of practicing it.
Exactly! Especially the Bass!
Amazing video as always!!! I really appreciate you creating content!
personal opinion: I find the subtitels ok but that every word lights up makes me nervous hahaha
cheers
Have your heard of Partimento? The way you express improvisation sounds straight from those techniques!
Yes! I have indeed heard of Partimenti! This is not a technique I have practiced a lot of but I am aware of it and might need to take a proper deep dive in the future :)
YES!
Please continue this series
@@dylanfernandez3910 I absolutely play to Dylan! It's definitely also a challenge for me to keep posting regularly hehe
A living legend.
Not Johann Sebastian, he is dead.
Hahaha well I certainly can't claim that status, but I'm more than happy already improvising where I am ;-)
Many thanks for the comment!
Its true, you are!!!
what do u think about postromantic conuterpoint composers such as Brahms, Reger, Busoni, Szymanowsky (fugue 2nd piano sonata)?
Oh that's a great question! I actually really love all types of counterpoint, including postromantic or more modern too.
I actually myself am starting to get into playing some Prokoviev pieces for the piano, and Prokoviev is a composer that I had played criminally little of until recently and wooooooooooww there is some GENIUS counterpoint in his pieces ;-)
I need to checkout Szymanowsky much more as well!
Many thanks for the great comment, but yes I absolutely think that all counterpoint is absolutely fantastic no matter the harmony.. if even harmony there is hehe, because I think that good counterpoint bases itself on *rhythm* as an even more fundamental notion. So what all types of counterpoint have in common is the rhythm :)
I was kind of worried why you weren’t posting 😂
Awwwww, yes I know I disappeared without leaving traces,
I am feeling better and much more ready to go now though ;-)
Many thanks for the comment and for watching Matteo!
@@Borogrove Glad to hear! :))
La pièce romantique que tu joue pour flex avec la main gauche c’est quoi son nom déjà stp ? :))
On attend la suite avec impatience merci !
C'est le moment musical 4 de Rachmaninoff ;-)
Merci beaucoup!
Amazing! :)
When the "cantus firmus" is in the soprano, how do you think about improvising below it?
Do you consciously think of the bass only and the middle voices are filled in through muscle memory and intuition, or is there more sophisticated contrapuntal problem solving involved?
That's a great question, and would probably involve me blabbering for a long time if you let me hahah ;-)
In short here's a few thoughts:
Your conscious mind's attention is a bit like the "eye of sauron" haha, It's indeed something that can focus on parts individually and as they say: "Energy goes where the attention is".
Ergo, the voice that you focus on, is probably the one that you want to make stand out.
As such, it's indeed true that moooost of the time I focus on one or two voices (Soprano+Bass) consciously. In fact I can reasonably manage to keep two voices with my full attention.. .but I can't manage 3.. still working to that effect myself haha ;-)
(I can do three voices, but not fully being aware of what all three are doing if they are moving, or by having three voices that don't always play at the same time)
As you say, very often the middle parts are filled in with muscle memory/intuition generating a form of "automatic counterpoint". That's also why practicing pieces by Bach etc.. is good because it'll teach some of these patterns to your fingers that they can pull back from when you improvise.
Interestingly it's something I'm actually trying to now *prevent* myself from doing as much, because while it's reaaaallly enticing to start adding layers of counterpoint, I really want to start working in expanding my ability to focus on more stuff.. and that will pass through the discomfort of trying to keep my attention on 3 full voices hehe ;-)
However, it's also important to be able to train your attention to switch, like a lens, from one part to another. That way, let's say you introduce a voice in the middle, you can start becoming aware of what your middle voice is doing, and consciously attach yourself to it to make it do what you want (like adding a subject entry, in the case of a fugue like construction).
Tldr; Yes, absolutely focusing on the top and bottom is great, but also train your attention to switch in the middle of counterpoint/chords.
I even want to do a video purely based on exercises to train the ear/consciousness to do this "focusing" movement. For instance, take a complex chord and try to hear it by hearing all stacked parts instead of the "whole".
Hope this helps, and ty for the comment!
@@Borogrove thanks so much for replying :)
"something simple like this" haha you funny dude:)
Not stealing, but taking inspiration;) Apart from recursion, greedy algorithm is favourable - take the lowest hanging fruit
Hahaha indeeed! I haven't thought about the matroid yet, but greedy is definitely also a very good thing to keep in mind ;)
Which piece did you play on 20:20
It's just the start of Rachmaninoff's musical moment #4 :-) It's a super fun piece to play hehe
I'm sorry to ask, but has episode 1 ever been released?
Tu parles *deutsch*?
will there be a part 2?
Yes! It was my plan to release them regularly one after the other.
I came back from a loong time off youtube and am reviving the channel; but yes, I definitely want to continue this series.
@@Borogrove yhank you
"Music should always strive to touch the heart and not to baffle the ear". C. P. E. Bach Über die wahre Art das Klavier zu spielen. In short, way to fast.
Vous êtes français ?!
Hahahaha oui en effet! Mon accent me trahit ;)
@@Borogrove En effet :) Avez-vous un pianiste préféré pour les oeuvres de Bach et baroques en général ?
@@milanboutros J'aime tout ce qui est beau haha ;-)
Mais evidemment Gould est une reference; Mais aussi Richter, ou peut etre mon pianiste actif prefere (mes excuses, je n'ai pas d'accents sur mon clavier haha ;-): Grigori Sokolov!
@@Borogrove Nous avons les même références ! Cet amour de la fugue nous unie tous finalement ;)
Why do you play "prestissimo"? It's not necessary and makes it sound trite.