My Baby Sister Plays Piano!

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My little sister Hannah now plays the piano.  We recently noticed that Hannah can play perfectly by ear.  Hannah doesn't know any of the notes but still can figure songs out.  We first realized it when I heard her playing the melody of one of my Sonata's that I am learning. Everybody in our family plays piano except my dad.  The two people who play the worst by ear are my mom and brother.

A few days ago, Hannah and I had a friendly competition.  The point of the competition is to see who can figure out how to play a song that my mom gives us.  By the time I got ready to play, Hannah had already managed to figure out the song. I needed a little bit more time to figure songs out.  Then Hannah and Sarah tried to see who can figure out a completely new set of songs, and my sister Sarah was faster. Sarah is also really good at playing songs by ear.

Here is a piece that my mom taught Hannah to play.  It is Minuet in G major by Bach.

Have you ever tried to play songs you like by ear? 

Johann Sebastian Bach

The Baroque period was during the 1600's -1750's.  The music of this time period has counterpoint.   Counterpoint is when there are two or more melodies combined together in a harmonious (pleasing sound) way but you can still hear the individual melodies. In the pieces that my sister and I play, the two unique melodies are played by the right and left hand.  

Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685 (same day as me!).  Bach is the youngest of eight children.  When Bach's parents died,  Bach became an orphan and went to live with his older brother who taught him to play the organ.   Bach married twice and all together he had 20 children but ten died as infants.

  
Bach spent most of his life working as an organist, teacher, and composer and composed 1,100 pieces and all of them were different. When Bach died, his works were soon forgotten.  Only a century later a composer played a piece by him and then people started getting interested in Bach's music. 

I will now play for you a piece by Bach called Badinerie.  This Bach piece is short and quick. My sister Sarah will play two pieces called Gavotte followed by English Suite I: Bourree II.

Did you hear counterpoint?

Which piece did you like best?