Bach’s Sonata for Solo Violin # 1, Presto is by no means a beginner’s piece. It requires a keen sense of timing, a great deal of dexterity to hold various barre chords and a great deal of alternate picking and sweep picking skill (though the piece can be played entirely with alternate picking). It also has us paying close attention to phrasing. The combination of these techniques presents the guitar player a tremendous challenge and the payoff is readily seen – in a matter of weeks you will notice significant improvements in your technique, regardless of whether you are a beginner or an advanced player.

The previous two parts of this guitar lesson made up what I like to call the first part of the piece. Now we move onto the next part. If you have toughened out the previous 2 parts of the guitar lesosn then you should be well armed to tackle the second part of the piece. With that said, I will say that the second part is longer and tougher...

Above is the tab for measures 55-82. As usual, let me make an important point about not getting caught up in the tab. The way I tabbed it is based on various sheet music arrangements I have come across as well as personal preference. So if certain sections are problematic for you, then experiment with other fingerings. Ok, let me provide some tips:

1. As before, let notes ring to the maximum extent possible. This will mean choosing fingerings that allow note ringing. The ringing of notes is perhaps the most challenging part of the piece overall. I find that sometimes I am making great progress on the piece (working up to tempo, etc) but then my classical teacher will point out the fact that I need to work on letting notes ring through.
2. As before, use alternate picking to the maximum extent, as it lends itself better to consistent timing.
3. Play at an even tempo! Sure, some of the lines in this piece can be played at high speed, but you don't want to be slowing down and speeding up depending on the difficulty of a line. Maintain consistency and work the piece up to tempo. If you try to jump into the piece playing at a quick tempo then it will sound, for lack of a better word, aweful...
4. Focus on phrasing. There are some key parts in these measures that require attention to phrasing.

   55-58: Whereas the very beginning of this Bach piece opens with G Minor arpeggio lines, the opening measures of the second part of the piece consist of a D Maj arpeggio that ascends in a series of triads and then descends (starting at the D in measure 58) linearly. Though the piece technically does not have a triplet feel, there are certain phrases such as this one that just seem to beg to played as triplets. I experiemtned with many fingerings for this section. You could also play it entirely in 5th position but I find that approach a little awkward. Also, I personally like the sound of sliding up to the D in measure 57.

   67-69: This section has you going through the arpeggios F Min7, Eb Maj7 and D Min7b5. You want to let notes ring to the maximum extent possible in this section. There is certainly a better fingering choice that you could use - the fingerings I chose were simply the result of the difficulty that my guitar poses with barre'ing and buzzing! So be sure to experiment.

   70-74: These measures essentially follow a similar phrasing to measures 12-16. As with measures 12-16, the most difficult part of these measures is letting the low melody note ring throughout each measure.

   75-79: Again, here we have a section that calls for letting the low melody note ring throughout the measure. Be sure to make those low notes stand out - they really build tension for a logical lead-in for the next series of measures.

We are slowly but surely making our towards the end of the piece and it doesn't get any easier. On the contrary...

Note: The audio and MIDI contain measures 1-82. At about 50 seconds in audio file is where measure 55 picks up.

Later,

Brian Huether