Self Evaluation- Ryan Nobles

The piece I chose was Menuet by Bach. My approach to this piece was to first look at the time signature and the key that the piece was in. After looking seeing that the piece was in ¾ and the key of G maj I then scanned the pieces for form and any additional markings, I saw that there were two repeated sections and mordents and I also looked for the dynamics and tempo. After looking through all of those things I played through each part starting with the right hand alone, followed by the left hand and after I was comfortable with the notes I practiced with both hands together. Quickly I found out that certain parts were more challenging than others. The mordents were one area that gave me trouble along with measure 21-28 on the second page. When I identified the problem areas I took them one at a time and drilled them at a slower tempo gradually speeding the tempo up when I was able to play the section consistently with both hands at the given tempo. There were places that I needed a better fingering than the one I initially read through the piece with so I would attempt to figure out a better one. Once I was more comfortable with the difficult sections I tried to put the piece together and work on the expression of the piece. Overall I think my method for looking at the piece was fine but there were certain aspects like the tempo that I should have paid more attention to since I took the piece at a faster tempo than was needed. I also needed to think more about the time period the piece was written in to understand more of what the composer intended. Over the process of learning this piece I did learn that it was harder than it looked and sounded, at least for me. I do still like the piece and I think that as my keyboard skills improve I will be able to revisit the piece again play it more successfully.