I am trying to learn Bach's Prelude in C (from the WTC). I was upset because my practice has been less than I wanted over the last few weeks, because of a new baby and a more hectic work schedule. I thought the lesson would be really bad and almost cancelled.

But I am glad I didn't. I played the few bars that I felt I had down pat. Then we spent the rest of the lesson identifying the different chords (inverted, 7th, diminished, etc) and their progression (C-D-G-C-Am, etc) and how Bach chose to move from one chord to another and why. I really felt I can now understand the piece and how Bach composed it, and not just "type" the notes.

Sounds like you have a good teacher! Understanding a piece on that level really helps with memorization (among other things I'm sure).

I went through the same procedure with that piece - one week I worked on taking a stab at what I thought the chords were (some are obvious, others not so much), then my teacher and I went through and 'graded' my work. Suprising how much that one piece can teach you about chord progressions / theory. That, and its so much fun to play. I'm working on memorizing it now (just about have it knocked out, I'm happy to report!).

Congrats, Jeffrey!

My teacher also broke down that piece for me.

Only I, uh, didn't understand.

Go forth and nail it next week!