I learnt the entire Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach. Here are 6 discoveries I made along the way. 

Bro thinks "a few days" is a long time to learn a Fugue, meanwhile I've been sitting on the same Fugue for over a year. 💀

I agree. WTC 1 & 2 are my desert island scores!!!! It's endless, brilliant, epic, it's everything, it's the blueprint of western keyboard music. You can learn everything by just practicing WTC. And it's always beautiful, not moody like other composers, yes that includes Mozart and Beethoven. Bach, is free from human ego. It's just divine mathematic musical perfection. He is THE teacher.

I was very surprised to see only 300 subs on a video of this quality

Can you think of any example within the WTC of two pieces that seem like they were cut from the same cloth? I cannot; every one seems unique in character, means, form, texture, development, and so on. There is a kind of internal integrity to each prelude and each fugue that is not shared with any other. The fertility of imagination and orginality, as well as the depth of feeling and vitality, is what makes these two collections of Preludes and Fugues so endlessly rewarding. The many hours I have spent with them have helped me grow, and even gave me a desire to grow in ways I did not expect, helped me make sense of a lot of other music, improved my understanding of keyboard techniques and fingering, consoled my sorrows and brought me great joy. It was probably the most enjoyable and fruitful work I ever did. And I am not done.

JS Bach wrote music in every known form except opera. He invented no new forms and created no new style or idiom. But to the old forms and styles and idioms he brought an emotional expressiveness, a nobility of thinking, a majesty of concept, a spaciousness of design which were unique. So completely had he exhausted both the technical and aesthetic possibilities of polyphony that by necessity the composers who followed him had to set off in an altogether new direction. As for you, sir: congratulations and bravo on this remarkable achievement and for sharing your insights here for the rest of us... I have been listening to the WTC for almost 60 years and find something new in it every time I hear it. regards

Bach has his Big Four: 1) The Well-Tempered Clavier 2) Goldberg Variations 3) Musical Offering 4) The Art of the Fugue These Big Four are the Well of Everlasting Youth of musical creation!

This video was very encouraging, I recently completed recording the inventions and sinfonias. I intend to study the entire Well Tempered Clavier. Congratulations on all this work.

I stopped piano for a few years but it was Bach's first Goldberg variation that made me want to return to it. Ironic since I hated hated Bach as a kid.

In old piano italian conservatorio's official exams you were obliged to play 12 preludes and fugues from First and also 12 from the Second One at eight year's exams called "compimento medio" (middle period end exam).

The WTC is my musical comfort food. I'll bust it out and stumble my way through reading a prelude or two, or maybe just a couple of voices of a fugue. But it never fails to set my mind at ease. Loved your thoughts on it!

Bach is always worth it!

I am currently learning the B minor Praeldium and Fuga from the second volume and am finding it... lets say a fun challenge. When you say that you learnt both a prelude and fugue in a week, well, that just blows my mind. I've never actually done much research on the two volumes nor listened to the pieces save for the one im learning, so this video was really interesting to learn so much. Great video man!

“Many people remember that when in 1977 the Voyager spacecraft was launched, opinions were canvassed as to what artefacts would be most appropriate to leave in outer space as a signal of man's cultural achievements on earth. The American astronomer Carl Sagan proposed that 'if we are to convey something of what humans are about then music has to be a part of it.' To Sagan's request for suggestions, the eminent biologist Lewis Thomas answered, 'I would send the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach.' After a pause, he added, 'But that would be boasting.” ― John Eliot Gardiner, Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven

More people have climbed Mt.Everest than learned to play WTC off-by-heart*. A towering achievement, and ensuring that Bach will never, ever die. It's the equivalent of learning the Torah verbatim in the oldest oral traditions. * my guess.

one time i sat down with a new piano instructor and asked "how long would it take for you to learn Bach's tempered clavier?" Got a facepalm reaction from that one

Three years ago in Paris I attended Andras Schiff's performance, in two different sessions, of the two WTK books. I still wonder how it is possible to memorize the entire work, especially the fugues, without a single mistake or doubt. It is said that Bach composed this work away from the harpsichord, so this is the product of that prodigious mind in a moment of brilliant speculation. At my intermediate level of piano, I like to study here and there in the WTK the pieces that I can handle, many far from my current ability, and the only thing I can say is that the fact of carefully reading this music increases not only your understanding but it allows the performer to get closer to the mystery of the beauty of this endless music. I sincerely admire and envy your work!

Well done!! Anyone who is willing to put in that much time and effort towards Bach, just to challenge themselves, gets a standing ovation from me!! It’s such astonishingly great music. And to think Bach wrote them for primarily didactic purposes, not for the concert hall

Refreshing take on my beloved and dusty old JSB. I really enjoy your style of video, smart, unassuming, insightful. Was confounded by the small number of subs, but then again you are just starting. Do go on, i believe you really have something special here....

Not even Bach's own children, on their own admission, played all of the WTK. But for the present day pianists, including serious amateurs, it's a must. My suggestion is, do it from the end, the hardest preludes and fugues first, then all else will be easier.

Mixing both my interests of piano and languages - what an underrated channel!

Bowtie looks sharp, thanks for the video Edit: Having watched the full video now, I found section 4 (bach is full of surprises) extremely insightful as a songwriter. Thanks for this information, it’s quite valuable

Good morning Overlearner from Birmingham UK - firstly may I say your video is truly inspirational - I have just spent a year and a half teaching myself to play a slow moving version of Contrapunctus No 1 from the Art of Fugue - even as an intermediate level pianist the language of JSB fascinates endlessly - your video and level of pianism and love of music is a source of great encouragement - many thanks

Lovely video! Thanks for sharing your journey with us! ❤️ I completely relate to your description of the music getting more enigmatic as you get to know it! I almost can’t believe music like this actually exists.

Bravo for this video!😁

Very interesting story and insight.The description of your thoughts and difficulties are fascinating Thank you .

Great video !!! Thank you.

That's what I aim for as well. Well done!

Fantastic quality content, Sir! 👌 Bach improves literally everything and everyone!

P&F in c minor bkI always reminded me not of bees, but a steam locomotive, particularly, looking at the wheels/joining rods.

Thank you for a very interesting and thoughtful video. Sounds like a wonderful project, and judging by your recordings, you played these pieces to a very good standard. I play a lot of these pieces in a very imperfect way, but still have plenty I haven't even attempted to learn (eg A minor fugue, Bk 1) - lots to look forward to! Truly a life's work to get into all the nooks and crannies of these pieces, and even several lives may not be long enough. When I stop and think about that statement, and also remember all the other masterpieces that Bach produced (including a glorious weekly cantata in amongst all his other duties), I can hardly comprehend how all this came out of the mind of one person. I guess that's Bach infinite genius! Thanks again!

Bravo! Looking forward to your playing of Goldberg Variations, Art of Fugue and Musical Offering.

I’m a big fan of Bach’s music and I’m trying to learn all of preludes and fugues too. This video inspired me a lot!!!

Amazing video and achievement. Thanks so much for sharing. Really interesting insights and I particularly enjoyed the conclusion. If this music is the universe (or something similarly extraordinary) then it will indeed last well beyond all of us. Just a joy to hear your love and enthusiasm come through.

14:11 Great images! The bees, the lonely traveler, the pipe smoker, the wedding day, the battle. Fantastic! Please make more of these!

I really liked the video! I've seen lots of tutorials or analysis videos, but rarely I find videos about the joy of learning the music and about personal insights and opinions on the music at the same time that the music itself is shown. I would love to know more about the things you liked and find personally interesting about the well tempered clavier and Bach's works in general

This is a great video! Hope to see more

yeah, an excellent summary and analysis here. great stuff !

it’s crazy because i was looking for a video like this about learning the entire WTC two weeks ago…. you answered my wishes lol

A very interesting and useful overview

The WTC is my all time favourite piece of music. I never get bored with it and the more I listen and study it the more impressed I get - thanks for this interesting video.

I love your videos!

2 weeks for 1 prelude and fugue is wild!

Wilhelm Kempff memorized the Well Tempered Clavier at age 13 and could play each piece in any key asked!!!

Uff, I'm a pianist at age 45. I've been meaning to finally learn this work for 20 years. I might just have to do it now, before I find myself a senior citizen who doesn't know the WTK;)

This was a really interesting video to watch for me because you and I listen to the same music in completely different ways so it was a fascinating insite into a different perspective for me, particularly the A.I. generated art where i could see why you chose those pieces but they were all so completely different from how the music made me feel. The only quote i have a problem with is "Beethoven shows you what it's like to be Beethoven" it made me really sad to realise he is dismissed so readily by oeople who can't relate. In my opinion Beethoven is connecting with our rawest emotions, its like a hug that tells you that you're not alone. So its upsetting that those of you with easy, happy lives don't even look in our direction. You say 'oh its just Beethoven, nobody else feels those things, hes just a freak' and yeah, i guess that upset me enough to still have it echoing through my head. But yeah, i mean i shouldnt let it bother me cos whoever said it was wrong about Mozart aswell, Mozart doesnt say anything about being human, he just wants to make everything okay, its okay that youre poor you can still dance, its okay to be a whore, its okay to be dirty, everybody dance! Im an Athiest but even I can see that's the devils music. But yeah, thats all just me venting my opinion. Have Fun!

Fascinating video! I have been studying and practising the Well Tempered Clavier (mainly Book I, and more recently some of Book II) for the last 10 years or so. I really related to the insights and observations in this video, which are similar to my own in many respects. The WTC is truly a work of infinite depth, full of new discoveries to be made. I feel that I have made a lot of progress with some of the preludes and fugues, in terms of technique and interpretation, but learning the whole collection seems like a task that I will never be able to complete. I guess I just need to enjoy the journey!

Puisque que vous parlez si bien français, je me permets de vous écrire dans cette langue qui est ma langue maternelle. Je viens tout juste de découvrir votre chaîne et j’en suis enchanté. J’ai écouté votre merveilleux commentaire du Clavier bien tempéré, une œuvre qui m’est très chère. Tout ce que vous en dites est remarquablement juste, intéressant et recoupe ma propre expérience. Je n’ai pas eu, comme vous, la détermination de l’étudier entièrement mais ce que j’ai appris m’a mûri musicalement. Chose certaine, vous n’avez pas perdu votre temps. Si l’on me demandait de choisir une œuvre à emporter au paradis, si cela était possible, ce serait sûrement celle-là! J’aurais alors l’éternité pour l’apprendre et je suis sûr que je ne m’en lasserais jamais.

I want to do this too! Beethoven, Bulow, Shostakovich, Gould, Schiff, and you as well, have all done it, and I want in on it.

Interesting that YT alerted me to this. I have been translating the whole WTC into Express Stave Pianoforte Notation, and learning them from this, at my age of 75 and with lymphoma. Not memorising, unless it happens along the way. i compare sight reading in ES with traditional notation (TN). I find it takes much longer to learn most single P&F than one week, and I want to get the the stage where I can sight read any of them okay from notation. The jury is still out about my notation invention. The impetus at the start was my frustration with so many key signatures, accidentals, etc also legerlines, although in Bach the range is less, so legerlines are not such a problem. But i can now also see the usefulness of keysignatures in simplifying the look of melodic lines as long as you are very familiar with the particular scale. My students who havent yet learnt advanced keys can play Moonlight Sonata in ES for example and say its easier.

From the countless masterpieces of the WTC i think the most profound moment is the Prelude in A minor in the second book. This chromatic piece is so weird and enigmatic!

Thank you for the video and the explanations. It is not rare I listen to the complete volumes. As an adult amateur pianist, I am only keeping the D# minor Book II alive. It is beautifully structured and challenging enough for the memory and fingers. See the mirrors of the subject both hand at the very end … very neat conclusion.

I pray for my fellow ADHD pianists who find learning fugues very exhausting.

Trying to learn them as well . I am on prelude 11 Prelude In D Major really hurts!

Congrats ! I've only done 6 deeply, some other I've analyzed and others I've sight read without studying them. It's like learning a language: at first you understand nothing, then you learn the vocabulary, the grammar, the syntax, the slang! Reading a fugue is not as traumatic as before for me! I'd like to do them all eventually, all my teachers have done so, but there are so many other things to learn, too. I think I would burn out by only doing Bach for 2 years. 3 P&F a year with other periods and composer in between sounds better for me

While listening to the G minor excerpts I was immediately repulsed by the fast versions. Gould invites reflection but is very idiosyncratic. To me, this prelude is wistful...searching, and a slower tempo is best. I do a crescendo and decrescendo in two of the trill sections and "notes inégales" in the melody. I have a harpsichord and find that the piano is better suited to some of the variations, this one in particular. The G minor from Book II on the other hand sounds better on the harpsichord. Bravo for having attempted this project. I stand in awe...

JS Bach is the Everest of music.

you will notice that bach is much harder if you known how this music should be played

Well done, congratulations on your achievement! And the video is very interesting and instructive! I'm following the same path for more or less the same reasons. At first, I thought of just playing WTC a little, and then quickly move on to romantic composers, but Bach enchanted me and I'm still here, now playing WTC book 2. I'm not a professional musician and I'm much slower than you and I will skip over many of preludes/fugues. On my chanel there are my recordings on digital piano. Also, I played some piano transcriptions of Bach's choral preludes.

23:12’ it is fugue of F# minor … beautifully deep subject … this is the 1st prelude & fugue I learnt 30 years ago.

Memorizing gets to the heart of knowledge. There's comes a point where sightreading becomes an involuntary action of the body. There are those who play professionally that can dream of anything BUT music while their fingers mind the store. It can be a curse. Memorizing is the only way to the heart.

I'd love to tune your piano for you for you to explore the WTC with a tuning which makes a lot of sense with regard to Schubart's documented affects expected from each key. I think that you'd find very great revelation.

Loved listening to the Prélude in D, hated having to learn it. Very difficult.

Chopin revered Bach and religiously warmed up with Bach inventions and WTC. If one of the greatest composers and pianists of all time considered WTC as great way to improve technique maybe we should pay attention. As you said, WTC is a great way of improving technique without grind scales and arpeggions

well deserving of a subscribe

Insert meme: "congrats. Im happy for you" haha Maybe one day I might achieve this too(but i doubt, unfortunately). Also, dont forget about the organ. Many pieces works amazingly at it. Think of the pedal point at the fugue 1 book 1 coda, for example. RU-vid has one or two video of WTC played at the organ. Very "ear opening" experience. My very best regards for you

I know you want to be accurate, but i actually Prefer them played slower 4:01 when i have a moment to fully appreciate the music. Just sayin

Well made video! I just sub to you.

You memorized them as well? When did you move on from each piece to another and why? This is an incredible project, I was once very enthusiastic and tried to learn all the three part sinfonias but then gave up after the no. 5. I still learned from them I think but to learn all is just too much when you have school, job, friends and also a lot of other pieces I'm eager to learn

Amazing video! I’m currently learning 2 preludes and fugues from Bach and 2 from Shostakovich amazing set. I wondered if you could make a video about how you approached learning a new prelude fugue over and over. Especially the fugue takes ages for me, because as you mentioned the fingering must be so incredibly intricate. For Bach I find 5 different editors like Busoni, Schiff, Czerny and so on to compare there fingerings and frasing, then I spend around 2-3 days (approximately 3 hours per day) on just writing fingerings and frasings, then I go on and use another 2-3 days first learning the fugue slowly with metronome and thereafter 1-2 days building up to near full tempo. And first thereafter I take it to a teacher and start going in depth with it. I wonder if you do the same or how you then do it. Thanks for the very interesting video!🎶

Glenn Gould used to have his piano specially adjusted to make it sound more like a harpsichord.

Very inspiring. I would love to do this and of course own the 48 but I fear this old bad boy pianist may run out of time with the years it would take

Nobody set these crazy tempos - we’re not all Glenn Gould, furthermore playing too fast can make pieces difficult for the audience too, hamper any expressive interpretation in the music. There are huge differences in tempo for the same piece by different pianists.

Which edition did you use for the sheet music in the video?

30:41 From what I remember hearing, I believe that Bach did not write music merely for music’s sake or instruction but ultimately for the glorification of God and the soothing of men’s spirits.

Bravo on getting all NINETY-SIX movements in this masterpiece done! Did you notice the last fugue in Book One is a tone row? I've done all of that volume with a great deal of MIDI sequencing. Love the Richter recording because he pedals freely -- sheer heresy to purists (who shouldn't be using modern pianos).

23:36 missing an A# in the right hand voice but absolutely brilliant video over all. Great work!

You learned the entire WTC in only a year? Holy crap that's amazing. Yet why did it take you 11 years to make this video 😂 Also, where are these recordings you speak of? 🤔

Very interesting vid..... What's your view of use of pedal with Bach....like schiff says the well tempered is like the old testament of piano music ....and a lifetime experience...the way i play them now so different to past and future ....

My good Sir, i wonder if the difficulty is a linear progress, like gradually getting more difficult, when attempting the Well Tempered Klavier books, technique wise 🤔 Or does one have to jump from one number to a different one, like for example, the Chopin etudes ... just because #nr1 starts in a C major, doesnt have to mean it is the easiest piece to start with, and so on 🙂

Number of sharps or flats at key signature never was even a slight limitation for me. I am surprised why such an experienced musician even mentions it. Thank you for this video. Very interesting, motivating, contains lots of information, discovery. It's not something we've known all along.

What a lovely day on the intern- DJO-HANN???? Edit: I see you're a polyglot (and professional name reader!) so this must be engagement bait. Fair play.

According to Albert Schweitzer, Bach‘s trills are to be played slowly.

Holy cow, i'm not at that level and don't think i'll ever reach it as i've always found Bach's fugues to be quite complicated and technically demanding. Speaking about Bach, Oscar Peterson was a fan of his music, in particular The Art of The Fugue which he'd recommend to all serious pianists. Either way both books are way beyond my capabilities.

Whats the name or either the BWV from the piece thats played at 2:38 ? I got hooked from the first bar :)

Joe-Han

What's your best practice advice for piano? The best and fastest way to learn repertoire and develop a great technique?🙂

Good content. Thank you

Most underrated channel

The fugue in F minor is very nearly a tone row off the line. The only missing tones are picked as it proceeds. Aren't they?Well tempered indeed. Book ll the Bb minor was according Gould the most harmonically advanced and modern. Bach let the chromatic cat outa the bag. I think that cat lived in his study

I stopped playing the piano at age 18. I'm now 72. I'm about ready to re-start and am wondering if this would be a good project? I did about 10 yrs of lessons until my last teacher told me that if you could put sheet music into a robot (this was 1970) that it would sound like me, that I didn't put my soul into the music but was a masterful technical player. I think I should, but it's possible those comments from over half a century would distract me from at least being able to do it technically. And should I not listen to recordings of it if I do start, just play what's on the page? Comments from anyone welcomed.

The Well Tempered Clavier is “The Old Testament” (The New Testament is The Sonatas of Beethoven).

Which piece are you playing at 32 seconds?😊

Bach never provided tempo or expression marks so saying preludes are all played fast is a mistake. The D Major prelude sounds great as at 80 or 180 for example. Each player is allowed to choose her own tempo. That’s part of the genius of J S Bach.

I'm increasingly skeptical of Bach played on the modern heavy-actioned and heavily-strung equally-tempered grand piano.

16:52 sounds really cool, would be interested in listening to your soundcloud if you’re open to sharing, no worries either way

Wanda Landowska did the definitive recorded performances of Bach's Well Tempered Clavier Books 1 and 2.

Why would he write in C# Major instead of Db Major?

Bowtie, right ???

pedal to the metal on #1. yeehaa!

Joe-haen ? I know British people have pronunciation difficulties but this made me bounce 10s in