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.

Lately I can’t seem to get enough of classical music. Though I have certainly played classical pieces on my guitar in the past, it wasn’t until recently that I developed a further appreciation. In the past I simply played pieces with no regard to the intent of the composer. But thanks to my classical guitar teacher (Audie Bridges at The Music Emporium in Lexington, MA), I know realize that there is quite a bit involved in analyzing these pieces such as to maintain the intended phrasing and to play up to tempo.

Going over the various nuances of this piece is well beyond the scope of an online guitar lesson. I highly recommend seeing a classical music teacher if you are serious about pursuing pieces of this sort. But even without the coaching of a good teacher, you will still do wonders for your technique by practicing this piece.

As seen from the tab, this is what I like to call a very non-linear piece. That is, it is not made up of simple scalar runs that lend themselves to speed. The piece is made up of a never ending variety of intricate lines that must all be played at a steady tempo. I recorded the excerpt at a tempo that is fairly typical for guitarists (violinists generally play the piece a little faster).

The most important point for me o make about this piece is to not get 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, now that I made my disclaimer, let me provide some tips:

1. Let notes ring to the maximum extent possible. This will mean choosing fingerings that allow note ringing. And during arpeggiated parts (such as measures 4, 6, 8-11), keep your fingers held down while sweeping across the strings. The typical sweep picking technique has you releasing fingers as notes are played, but here you want to keep fingers fretted as long as you can. I have indicated the fingerings I use but experiment with others!
2. Try to use alternate picking to the maximum extent, as it lends itself better to consistent timing. Sometimes I play the piece entirely with alternate picking. For this particular recording I used sweep picking in measures 4, 6, 8-11.
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. Really focus on the tricky parts. For me personally, I find measures 12-16 to be the most difficult. As if the string skipping isn't tricky enough, there is the added challenge of needing to let the first note of the measure ring all the way through. The is accomplished by holding barre chord positions during these measures.

So persevere and have fun with this piece. We will go over the remainder of the piece in upcoming guitar lessons and I can ensure you the piece does not ease up…

Later,

Brian Huether

If you made good progress on part 1 of the guitar lesson then you should be well poised to take on this next section. In this section you see that there are several main phrases that require careful attention. I will touch on them below.

Above is the tab for measures 21-54. The part of the piece we are focusing on now starts at measure 25.

As I did last time, 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 (this time around I did not indicate the fingerings...). Ok, now that I made my disclaimer, 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.

   25-28: Thouh not normally played this way, I find that it is a really nice touch to let the 3rd note in each of these measures ring. To do so requires fingerings that allow the notes to ring.

   35-42: Note how there is a recurring pattern here (descending scale run followed by pivot note phrase). Essentially, you want to let the first note of measurs 35, 37, 39 and 41 ring for the duration of the measure. This will require care - trust me. In measures 36, 38, 40 and 42 you want to let the so called pivot note ring as much as possible.

   47-50: Here is the last major phrase of the this section. It is essentially a pattern of ascending third intervals, where the first note of each measure is held for the entire measure.

We are done with the first major section of the piece. Next time we will begin the next major section and break it into parts as well.

Note: The audio and MIDI contain measures 1-54. At about 21.5 seconds in audio file is where this excerpt of this piece picks up.

Later,

Brian Huether

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

In the last guitar lesson, we looked at the first 40 or so measures of the second half of the piece. I don't mean half literally since the second 'half' is much longer than the first. In any case, at measure 55, the second half/theme/ begins and last time around we ended at measure 82. My original intent was to finish the series of lessons on the Bach piece over the course of 2 additional lessons. But I think it is time that we move on to new material and so I have finished off the piece with this final lesson, which is quite lengthy in its coverage of bars 83 - 136...

Above is the tab for measures 83-136. 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.

   83-85: Similar to measures 55-58, these measures consist of an arpeggio that ascends in a series of triads. In this case we have an F Dom7 arpeggio. There are of course many ways to play this passage. I persoanlly could not come up with a single fingering that allows notes to ring throughout and so at the 2nd 3 note grouping in measure 84 I slide up to the 7th fret with my pinky to finish off the pattern..

   87-89: In beautiful contrast to the ascending triplets over the F Dom7 arpeggio, this passage has you descending in triplets over a F# Dimished triad arpeggio. Be sure to really let those notes ring!

   90-93: Note the recurring pattern in this section. At the beginning of each measure is a minor or major 3rd interval and at the end of each measure is a major 6 or minor 7 interval. For instance, measure 90 starts with the notes A# and G which make up a minor 3rd and the measure ends with an E and a D which make up a minor 7th interval. I find that the piece seems to beg the player to really accent the major 6/minor 7 intervals which make up the end of these measures. Accenting in this way helps build tension that leads nicely to the next passage.

   95-100: Again we have a recuring pattern. This time it has a question answer feel (in my mind anyway!), where measure pairs 95/96, 97/98, and 99/100 serve as question answer pairs. Ideally you want to let notes ring to the maximum extent in this passage, but fingerings that lend themselves to good note ringing don't necessarily lend themselves to playing at higher tempos. As such, my choice of fingerings here is a tradeoff between note ringing and speed. I also like how the choice of fingering minimizes movement. The passage is played mostly in the 3rd position with a couple exceptions.

   105-109: The recurring patterns in this piece are never ending! In these measures you want to try your best to let the first note of each measure ring throughout the measure. In some cases this isn't practical and so the fingerings I chose are once again a tradeoff between note ringing and economy of motion (i.e. limited position shifting).

   113-116: Here we have yet another recurring pattern. While you could essentially play these lines at lower frets and minimize position shifting, in this case we opt for position shifting because it affords us a repeating series of fingerings that are easy to execute. Note how measures 115 and 116 are essentially repeats of the same fingerings in measures 113 and 114. You simply slide down one fret at a time as you go from measure to measure.

   121-126: Like many of the recurring patterns in this piece, I find the pattern in this passage difficult to sum up succinctly in words. Essentially, each measure consists of a repeated note (3rd and 6th note of each measure) which is preceded by a minor or major 3rd interval in the first part of the measure and precded by a minor or major 2nd interval in the second part. These 2nd and 3rd intervals ascend in such a way that they seem to create two counter melodies (I am sure a music theorist will correct me and provide the correct analytical terms...). It wasn't until after I listened to my recording that this melodic movement became really apparent. Anyway, once you work through these measures I think you will find that the pattern will feel natural and logical. I have chosen fingerings that minimize position shifting and keep you firmly planted at the first position.

   129-132: Much like measures 47-50 consist of a pattern of ascending thirds that culminate in the ending of the piece's first half/theme, these measures likewise consist of a series of ascending thirds that serve as a segue to the piece's final end.

If you have persevered through these Bach lessons, then my hat is off to you. Bach's Sonata #1 for Solo Violin (Presto) is one monster of a piece that requires a great deal of patience, resilience, dedication, motivation and passion. Those are certainly traits that will help you on your quest for guitar mastery!

Note: The audio and MIDI contain the entire piece (measures 1-136). At about 1:15 in the audio file is where measure 83 picks up.

Later,

Brian Huether