Question for those of you who can do continuo realisation on the fly:
How on earth did you learn to do it?
I can do it on paper just fine. Sort out the cadences, find all the suspensions and 7ths, make sure everything's prepared and resolved appropriately, then fill in the gaps (being careful to avoid consecutives and so on). No problem. :-)
As soon as I try to do it at the keyboard, even very slowly, it doesn't work like that.
Within a bar or two, I'm getting parallel 5ths and poor spacing and so on. :-(
I've got the usual books (Morris, Ledbetter), but they aren't helping much.
So, are there any special tricks to this that I'm somehow missing? Or other resources which might help?
Thanks,
T.
Full Version: Figured Bass Realisation
practice and more practice. that's how i learn.
Practice, practice, practice, and lots of listening! Work you way through Morris and Williams books, over and over again, lots of sight-reading etc.
I agree. What you need is a lot of practice.
When you become very fluent with written tonal harmony, try and see if you can become a teaching assistant to a music theory teacher. Marking harmony homework and teaching force you to understand the voice-leading thoroughly and to think very quickly.
In my opinion, the main difference between figured bass realisation and written theory is the speed of thinking.
When you become very fluent with written tonal harmony, try and see if you can become a teaching assistant to a music theory teacher. Marking harmony homework and teaching force you to understand the voice-leading thoroughly and to think very quickly.
In my opinion, the main difference between figured bass realisation and written theory is the speed of thinking.
QUOTE(organ_dummy @ May 18 2009, 08:32 PM) 
In my opinion, the main difference between figured bass realisation and written theory is the speed of thinking.
I think that sums it up perfectly.
And, as others have said, loads of practice!
From teigr:
So, are there any special tricks to this that I'm somehow missing? Or other resources which might help?
As others have said, there are no tricks ; but there is a heaven-sent resource which may work for you as it has for me - the 69 chorale melodies with figured bass at the back of the 'Riemenschneider 371 Harmonised Chorales. (JSB of course)
On a fairly regular basis, perhaps three or four times a year, I play these through a couple of times. Apart from it being an incredibly relaxing exercise, it seems to plant something in the 'mind/fingers interface', (I wonder if there is such a thing!) that endures and releases during improvisation , and whenever I need to make aimless wanderings around the keys sound as though they mean something.
Best of luck
Chris Baker - Durham UK
So, are there any special tricks to this that I'm somehow missing? Or other resources which might help?
As others have said, there are no tricks ; but there is a heaven-sent resource which may work for you as it has for me - the 69 chorale melodies with figured bass at the back of the 'Riemenschneider 371 Harmonised Chorales. (JSB of course)
On a fairly regular basis, perhaps three or four times a year, I play these through a couple of times. Apart from it being an incredibly relaxing exercise, it seems to plant something in the 'mind/fingers interface', (I wonder if there is such a thing!) that endures and releases during improvisation , and whenever I need to make aimless wanderings around the keys sound as though they mean something.
Best of luck
Chris Baker - Durham UK
QUOTE(stopperman @ May 19 2009, 10:04 AM)
From teigr:
So, are there any special tricks to this that I'm somehow missing? Or other resources which might help?
As others have said, there are no tricks ; but there is a heaven-sent resource which may work for you as it has for me - the 69 chorale melodies with figured bass at the back of the 'Riemenschneider 371 Harmonised Chorales. (JSB of course)
On a fairly regular basis, perhaps three or four times a year, I play these through a couple of times. Apart from it being an incredibly relaxing exercise, it seems to plant something in the 'mind/fingers interface', (I wonder if there is such a thing!) that endures and releases during improvisation , and whenever I need to make aimless wanderings around the keys sound as though they mean something.
This is a really useful book, and if you're feeling brave you can compare you extemporisations of some of the choral melodies with Bach's version in the main chorales section of the book.
We did have a school music teacher, who, sometimes, when playing the piano would forget it was a piano and would pedal the figured bass part on the carpet.
He had really figured out how to do it!
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