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Wow - you are really motivated :) In general one can say that book 2 is more difficult than the first one. To find an exact order of difficulty would be highly subjective. I would suggest starting with the fugues with the least amount of concurrent voices first which makes life a lot easier. This way you won't be overhelmed by the complexity (it is the way ...

Two hints: Many editors have their own system and some large institutions have a grade system that can be an inspiration. One of the most respected is the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music or ABRSM. They publish and update frequently their requirements for instruments, singing and theory. If you look at the current Piano curiculum, you will ...

The average singer who goes from practicing or exercising many times per week down to once a week or less will see a marked decrease in their range. Humans have a natural vocal range, or tessitura. The average is about an octave, though many can sing a span of an octave and a half or even a two-octave span (three-octave range) even "cold". Outside that ...

I've had the same problem, but I managed to get mostly rid of it. My first step was to be able to accept my style, when you're playing you have to know that you're not going to play the music you listen to, and if you're not used to the idea it can lead you to think it's bad just because it doesn't sound like what you enjoy listening. My second step was to ...

In short, no or at least not permanently. Singing is more about learning how to relax the vocal chords and use all of your air. Basically, once you have that technique down it won't ever be taken from you (in my opinion). I believe it's like riding a bike; if you haven't ridden a bike for a while, you might suck at first. However, with seemingly minimal ...

It depends on the grading system used. I completed my grade 8 piano through the Royal Conservatory of Music, in Canada. I would consider my general musical aptitude to be about average for a "serious amateur" musician, so keep that in mind. I practiced approximately two hours every day for a year (more towards the end than at the beginning), or around 750 ...

The score for Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 at PianoStreet.com indicates that the level is "8+" It seems reasonable to assume that their "levels" correspond to the major music examination bodies' "grades".

I admire your devotion to working at your improvisational skills but think that your playing skills may not be your primary problem. Those of us who write (authors, not composers), can run into the same problem where if our first draft is not great, we abandon the story or idea. The best advice I have been given is to just get something written. It's ...

For actual composing, you might want to ditch the DAW in favor of a little notebook of staff-pages. When you improvise a nice riff or melodic fragment, write it down before you improvise on it too much. Most of my pages have just a few (2, 4, 8) measures of melody and rhythm. But the great part is when you need a melodic or rhythmic idea, you can borrow ...

Practicing Practicing is not listening to music. Yes, you must listen while you practice, but you do so expressly in order to detect mistakes and inconsistencies so that you can correct them. You cannot expect to be able to play for the pleasure of listening without first learning how to play! Method Improvisation is always good, especially if you are ...

What a great question! I am currently working my way through the second book, so I have more specific opinions about that. Of those I've learnt from the first book, I found the following to be less tricky: The C major prelude, of course. Curtis is right about the difficulty of the fugue, however. c minor prelude and fugue are a good first pair to learn c# ...

I think that you may be held back by your focus on improvisation: one of the wonderful things about composition is the ability to go back and revise already-written material. Consider trying traditional notation, or thinking of your recordings as rough drafts that you then edit slowly in a sequencer—it's unreasonable to expect a great work of music to spring ...

It is inadvisable to lump together pieces of music with other pieces merely because they are on an exam syllabus together. Music isn't grades. Some music is used to test one's progress in learning fingerings in small exams called grades. The piano solo part to Beethoven's piano concerto no 5 is not defined by its grade standard and cannot be played by ...

I don't know how old this topic is, but generally speaking, VERY generally, the preludes are easier than the fugues, the easier keys are the ones with the fewer sharps and flats, C,D,F,G. etc. The two voice fugues are easier than the three and four voiced fugues, and as far as tempo goes, though it may be tempting, and everybody does it, don't play at tempo ...

I've played the First Book and learned perhaps half of the Second but one thing for certain - the first fugue in C Major isn't easy at all. The fact that something is in C Major with no flats or sharps doesn't mean that it's easy to perform. Chopin's First Etude or Schumann's Toccata are in C Major and are notoriously difficult. To begin, I could suggest ...

I'm someone who is currently learning the piano. For Grade 8 AMEB, I slacked off quite a bit, I barely practiced in the beginning of the year (learnt songs around March), just the 1 hr a week in lessons, then did at most an hour a day for 4/5 days a week towards crunch time. Examinations were in November. Assuming I had 35 weeks to practice, I would've ...