Dancing into Well-Rounded Pianism: Using Bach’s French Suite No. 6 as a Facilitator

Developing a piano student into a performer who is familiar with both their technique and the music they are studying is a sought after, yet challenging goal for piano teachers to accomplish. The path to bring a student to the world that exists beyond the rhythm and the notes can be difficult to find, but it exists with certainty. One tool that can facilitate this journey is Johann Sebastian Bach’s French Suite No. 6. This piece is a dance suite that an advanced student would be able to learn rather quickly, allowing them to focus on details. Bach’s French Suite No. 6 is not too challenging in terms of notation while still containing ground for teaching musical expression, for exploring Baroque era tastes, and understanding the context of 18th century music. The knowledge from a wide range of philosophical, scholarly, and pedagogical texts have been compiled and applied to an analysis of Bach’s French Suite No. 6 to show how this piece can take a piano student to the next level of their musical career.