Today is March 31, Johann Sebastian Bach's 336th birthday.
Wow, what a musical legacy!
In honour of his great music, I'm sharing a practice video I made of me playing my favourite movement from his Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin. I quickly turned on my smartphone one evening in December 2020 in my Toronto living room before I was going to teach my workshop on Musicality (How To Be A Musical Ninja).
This Grave movement from Bach's Sonata No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003 for solo violin conveys such depth, angst, sorrow, and beauty... all things I dig deeper to find inside of myself whenever I play this movement.
In fact, I love using this movement to teach the importance of harmony in improving musicality and deepening musical expression. I use my piano/keyboard to go through the bass line and show how the bass line in Bach always drives the phrasing and musical nuance.
Feel free to sign up for my next workshop, How To Be A Musical Ninja, hosted by the Amateur Musician Network on April 24th, 2021 at 5:00-6:00pm EST. In it, I'll be discussing how harmony and theory can help shape intelligent and expressive musical interpretations.
In the meantime, I'm also posting my 2013 version of this same Bach Sonata No. 2, Grave movement as well. I enjoy seeing how my interpretation matures as I age.
Do you notice a difference between 2013 and 2020?
Which version do you like better?
Feel free to learn a few of my musicality strategies in my 24-page Musicality Guide.
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