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Terrific ideas, all. I will bring it all up with my teacher. I know she's partial to the English Suites, mostly because I think she herself studied them extensively and I recall her saying that the second one was a staple for her to play.

As for a prelude/fugue idea, I do have a very nice edition of WTC Vol 1.

No partitas. But that can be rectified in one small trip to the music store. I rarely need too much encouragement to do that.

It was one of the Bach choral works that prompted me to ask my high school chorus/music teacher what that thing I was hearing often at the end of the minor ones that I just found so lovely and interesting.

Tierce de Picardie, he said. Loved the name; still love the device.

There's no reason not to teach children Bach this way

I don't think you need college-level counterpoint instruction to be able to produce a convincing rendition of Bach pieces. It would give you more insight (and it's awesome Polyphonist that you are willing to contribute that!) but don't feel you need to wait until that study is accomplished.

The English Suites and Well-Tempered Klavier are harder than the Inventions imho. The Preludes are the hardest part of the English Suites. French Suites are easier especially if you select only a couple movements. Partitas vary. Suzuki students get the Minuets and Gigue from Partita no. 1 before they get their first two-part Inventions.

It also wouldn't be a bad idea to go back to one of the Anna Magdalena pieces but do it in great detail: choose dynamics and articulation for every single note, make phrasing decisions, add ornaments on the repeats, etc. If you didn't do that the first time around with Anna Magdalena.

The best way to get familiar with Baroque style is to listen to a lot of it. Try to get a mix of historical performers (Tureck, Landowska) and people who are really good at playing Bach on the modern piano (Perahia, Schiff, Hewitt; Gould is fine as long as you know that his interpretations are often eccentric.) Baroque vocal and string music is terrific also for understanding phrasing esp. if you can find historically informed performances. Bach's choral music has helped me a lot.

What about some of the Little Preludes, if you want to get away from the inventions but not take on something huge right away?

TwoSnowflakes, one thing you haven't mentioned is how much you actually like Bach's music. I remember that when I was getting into the piano, I thought Bach simply wrote the deepest, most beautiful and profound music out there. (I still do.) You can learn a tremendous amount about structure, form, economy, voicing, harmonic progression and beauty (above all else) just by immersing yourself in his work.

My thought (and we all have different advice here) is that the Suites and Partitas are not great Bach starters for you. If you want to get away from the inventions, here's a suggestion: the E major prelude from Book I of the WTC. It's hard to imagine anything more simple or profound. Working through it can do wonders for your pianistic ears.

-Jason

You've really done well so far, but how on earth did you manage to avoid learning any Baroque music?

I know you will get a lot of suggestions for Bach. Since he is really not my guy, here are some others:

The collection of Scarlatti sonatas is a real treasure chest, both for technique and musical enjoyment. You can pick anything from fast and flashy to slow cantabile style. Rameau I would also recommend, most are not very difficult, but still great music and great practice for ornaments. And why not check out Telemann's fantasies as well. These three composers alone could keep me busy for the next 25 years...

I do like romantic music a lot, but I always have to have at least one Baroque piece that I can work on, otherwise I get withdrawal symptoms

Fantastic!
Playing any Rachmaninoff piece is impressive and it's great that you're enjoying yourself and achieving such great things! The way I see it, the piano is a gift straight from God.

TS, it was great that you remembered the day you came bak to piano. After reading this I was trying to nail down mine but could not. It's somewhere between 2009 and 2010. The forum birthday is not my re-start date. It must have been neat to remember and reflect on the progress made every year. Good for you. Congratulations!

Someone asked if I liked Bach.

Yes, greatly. For reasons quite different than the reasons I like Schumann or Chopin or Beethoven, but often just as profoundly.

When I'm needing Bach, nothing else will do. When it does what it does best, it gives me goosebumps.

I just don't trust myself to play it.

That, of course, ought to be fixed.