WEEK 3: Heavenly Harmonies of J.S.Bach! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the third week of the J.S.Bach Challenge! This is the place to post submissions of the third week!
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream for help with the first section!
If you want to describe your process (optional), feel free to use the following template.
- Things you found easy:
- Things you found difficult:
- (Optional): a video of you performing it!
- (Optional:) questions
↓ Reply below with your submissions and questions! ↓
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Sarabande BWV 997 in C minor (Mar 22)
I thought I'd try this one in the original key with a capo, as David Russell (and others) do. I don't have perfect pitch, but the key change definitely gives the music a different feel.
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Eric Phillips wow another beautiful piece.... and your effortless playing, beautiful!!!
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Eric Phillips and your ornament are so good!
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Emma Thank you, Emma. This piece has lots of room for interesting variations. I'd love to be able to improvise that kind of thing, but this was all planned out.
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Andante BWV 1003 Mar 22
Here is an update of the Andante from the second Violin Sonata. I think there is a slight improvement to the cadential trills. I'm doing both with cross-string trills here. I cannot yet do the super-fast version of these in the style of David Russell, but these are what I can do for now. I feel like I would need a four-week (maybe four-month? four-year?) crash course in trills to get something that is truly effective.
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Eric Phillips It just keeps getting better. I do think there was improvement in the trills.
I practice cross string trills as part of my daily exercise. I do a 3 finger trill (no 'P'). My routine is trill b > b flat (2nd and 3rd strings). I start w/ 2 notes/ beat, then 3/beats, 4/beats, 6/beats. I now have added 8/beat but not sustained - only spurts. I have also just added starting on 'c' (3rd string) so that my pattern reverses. I then repeat all of this on 1st and 2nd strings. It only takes 3-5 min. if that. I feel my trills have gotten better though still not consistently available.
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Jack Stewart Thank you, Jack. I confess I can't really follow what you're describing that you work on, but I sense that if I ever want to play trills correctly, I need to work on them in a more dedicated way. Looking up videos on cross-string trills (here on TB and on YT) seems to yield so many different ways of executing them, and I'm really not sure what route I should go. Obviously, the fancy four-finger ones sound the best, but they seem so difficult, like it would be a year or more before I could execute them well. But if that's what I have to do, I guess I should. It reminds me a lot of tremolo - sure, I'd love to be able to do it, but to put in all that work!? I lack the patience and discipline.
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Eric Phillips BTW, I reread my comments to you on trills and I had trouble figuring out what I was saying.
I think my point should have been that I have added exercises for cross string trills to my daily practice.
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Jack Stewart It definitely shows. You play them quite well.
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Bach's harmonies may be heavenly but I can't say the same about my playing, although I have managed to find a bit of time to record the bouree from BWV996. A couple of glitches but I'll keep working on this together with the Allemande and Sarabande.
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Derek Good job, Derek! Always great to hear this one. We guitarists like it for a reason.
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Derek way to go Derek! I am working on this one as well. It's no joke!
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Eric Phillips thanks Eric. It's a piece I have played before but not for a while
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Steve Pederson thanks Steve. I find the second section in particular a bit tricky in places
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Derek a very good choice Derek - this piece is very popular - maybe the best known Bach piece after "Toccata and Fuga" - what do you mean ?
Best Regards
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Derek beautiful fugue! well done Eric!
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Derek Very good Derek. I look forward to hearing your progress.
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Derek nicely played Derek! This is one of my daily warm ups. It find the contrary motion for the fingers to be a great workout.
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Derek bravo Derek!!!! dancing with the bourrée. I did not a new recording....with the ornamentation that also Jack has provided me...
. Not time.... I am working on the Prelude 998....may be I can do a record for this last week...of the first bars...let's see...I'm so slow ....!!!
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Prelude BWV 997 measures 1-32 Mar 23
I'm still plugging away on these thirty-two measures. I decided to add the metronome to my practice, so that I can be more disciplined about getting very accurate with this at a slow tempo. I am starting very slowly at quarter-note = 45. My hope is to keep improving my accuracy at this slow speed, and only then, slowly increasing things. Like I said, I don't know if I'll finish this prelude by the end of the challenge, but as long as I'm progressing, I can be happy.
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Eric Phillips that sounds good Eric. It's a difficult piece. I had a quick look at it and quickly put it to one side. Looking forward to your progress.
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Eric Phillips this is such a wonderful piece - it is on my "to do" list for the Bach-Challenge 2023
. You play it really great already and I really love your sound- as every big piece, maybe time is the key
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Olli Thanks, Olli.
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Eric Phillips slow is the way Eric. This piece is so beautiful that it must be addictive, I want to play it! Beautiful!
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Emma Go for it. I still feel like I'm muscling my way through it. I'd like the feel to be lighter and more elegant.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
