# Any practice tips on gaining a constant rhythmic precision in Bach? [Piano]



## Crism (Sep 19, 2018)

I am currently preparing the 6th Preludium & Fugue [Well tempered clavier book 2] as a part of my repertoire for an audition for academy next week.However since I first started learning the piece 4 months ago, i still can't achieve a 100% precision on it, there are parts that im lacking behind the rhythm. I am constantly practicing it with a Metronome, Slow/Fast but i still get no results. Does anyone know any practice tips that I can use to improve the rhythm to the max? :tiphat:


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Slow separate practice, so that each hand is consistent. Then speed up, slightly, each hand. Then slow down and put it together. Look for problem spots and practice them separately, then together again.Once you've got it consistent, nudge it up a fraction. Keep on with separate practice as well.

All the old chestnuts, I'm afraid.


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## Crism (Sep 19, 2018)

Thank you, i will note that down


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## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

Play the piece noting all areas where you are not in alignment with a metronome. Now slow the metronome down and play all notes in the difficult areas pizzicato. Playing pizzicato forces you to play on the beat. Once you get the hang of the rhythm you can go back to playing the piece with the proper expression.


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## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

what Taggart & Room mentioned. As you practice it slowly, notice the technique you are using. Does the passage necessitate rotating of the wrist clockwise or counterclockwise? Seesawing the wrist as if you were turning a door knob? wrist rising and falling? wrist stationary with fingers striking from above? Depending on piece, passage, tempo, etc often necessitates certain techniques to master.

Czerny's School of Velocity are great exercises for mastering a variety of techniques that will build steady and consistent rhythmic precision with any speed. Learning with a metronome is essential. Remember, whether it be playing an instrument, martial arts, sports/athletics, art, and almost everything else that has to do with physicality: *Slowness progresses speed*. Good luck.

V


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## derin684 (Feb 14, 2018)

Since you won't use the pedal much when learning the piece, I say count the tempo with your feet. It will be more efficent than a metronome at lower speeds.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

The prelude of this one can be played in a motoric way, but there’s not necessarily a good reason for that, especially on modern piano. I have less and less interest in a strict performance of BWV 875, in either prelude or fugue, especially on a piano. It seems to me one of the pieces least suited to piano in fact.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

You might try this method of practice advocated by one of the greatest pianists of the last century, Walter Gieseking, from his book _Piano Technique_, namely, "practice with your head, not fingers; develop your inner hearing; study your scores mentally, not at the piano; cultivate your imagination of the sound-picture; visualize the physical act of playing, complementing the mental picture with a full-blooded image of the sound." It might help.


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## BiscuityBoyle (Feb 5, 2018)

Larkenfield said:


> You might try this method of practice advocated by one of the greatest pianists of the last century, Walter Gieseking, from his book _Piano Technique_, namely, "practice with your head, not fingers; develop your inner hearing; study your scores mentally, not at the piano; cultivate your imagination of the sound-picture; visualize the physical act of playing, complementing the mental picture with a full-blooded image of the sound." It might help.


My piano teacher was in two minds about this book. On the one hand, practicing away from the piano, she said, is extremely important because you don't play with your fingers but with your brain. But some of the things he advocates in that book, she felt, seem suited to him alone, to his ridiculous gifts: "an elephant's manual on how to become an elephant"...


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## Dan Ante (May 4, 2016)

A slight deviation if I may, not many musicians have the ability to maintain a regular beat come what may, I had a fault of dragging "playing slightly behind the beat" which could slow down the ens but I did not know about this until it was brought to my attention it then became something that I had to constantly guard against, on the other side of the penny there is a well known anecdote concerning Ella Fitzgerald a top jazz singer, it was alleged she could walk out of a recording studio half way through a number take a stroll around the block and come back exactly on the beat, whether this is fact or folk law I don't know but some people have it and others don't.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

Crism said:


> I am currently preparing the 6th Preludium & Fugue [Well tempered clavier book 2] as a part of my repertoire for an audition for academy next week.However since I first started learning the piece 4 months ago, i still can't achieve a 100% precision on it, there are parts that im lacking behind the rhythm. I am constantly practicing it with a Metronome, Slow/Fast but i still get no results. Does anyone know any practice tips that I can use to improve the rhythm to the max? :tiphat:


Do you have a teacher?


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