Maybe it is just me, but when I was learning to play the piano, I often really struggled with learning to play anything from the Baroque Era (which was from about 1600 to 1750). For me, this meant quite a bit of Handel and J.S. Bach. For those of us that studied classical music, you couldn’t get away with not learning something written by Bach.
Don’t get me wrong, I think some J.S. Bach is important for any classical piano student and I have certainly taught quite a bit of it over the years, but learning to play anything written by Bach was an absolute struggle for me. I certainly don’t remember any of my peers having the same issues as I did. Maybe they struggled with it just as much as I did, but I was unaware. Anyhow, for me it was probably the hardest part until I finally got one piece of information that changed everything for me.
That piece of information was that Baroque music is often structured quite differently to subsequent time periods and genres. So often, music is often written with one melody that is filled out with various harmonies and rhythms. Now those rhythms and harmonies can range from simple to incredibly complex and have thoroughly delighted and entertained millions of people worldwide. Baroque music is not typically structured this way.
Baroque music is structured with many melodies and countermelodies that are interwoven together. To look on a piece of baroque music, it almost looks like the melodies are dancing and interweaving on the page. You might think that it would sound like a bit of a mess, but again, maybe that is just me, but the melodies and countermelodies are woven in such a way that it sounds pleasing to the ear. In some ways, I think it would be much harder to compose, rather than coming up with one melody and filling out the sound of that melody with wonderful harmonies.
By the way, the technical name for melodies and countermelodies to be interwoven with each other is known as polyphony, which literally means ‘many sounds’.
When I was finally informed about the interweaving of melodies and countermelodies, and actually shown on a piece of music that my teacher wanted me to learn, I gained a fresh perspective on the structure of the music and could finally tackle some music from the Baroque Era without too many difficulties.
So if you happen to be tackling some music from the Baroque Era, try looking and finding the melodies and see how they are interwoven with each other – it might just make a big difference in how quickly and efficiently you learn it. It certainly made a big difference for me.