This guitar lesson revisits classical music as a means to continue the never ending quest to achieve technical mastery on the guitar. The guitar lesson uses Bach's Prelude in Dm as a basis for further developing alternate picking technique.

When I began this guitar lesson I had a set way of playing the piece. But having recently examined the piece with my classical guitar teacher and having found various sheet music arrangements showing other fingerings, I realized that there are alternative ways to finger certain sections that help keep the arpeggiated notes flowing and help preserve the spirit of the piece.

For instance, in Part 1 of this guitar lesson, I chose a fingering for bars 5-6 that broke up the arpeggiated notes, This time around, I chose a fingering that allows the notes to flow. So whereas before I was playing bars 5-6 as

E--------3---------------------
B------5---5---5-----2---2-----
G----6-------6---6-3---0-------
D--0---------------------------
A------------------------------
E------------------------------

I now play them as

E-------0---0---0--------------
B---------8--------------------
G----6--------6---6---6----6---
D--0----------------8---5------
A------------------------------
E------------------------------

This is but one example. I find that the fingerings shown at

Sheet Music with fingerings

work best for me and allow for maximal ringing of notes. If you absolutely must, you can view the corresponding tab at

Tablature

But the above link does not show the left hand finger suggestions, which is important as some of the lines are tricky unless played with the right fret hand fingers.

I think you will find that the most challenging aspect of this piece is not the alternate picking but rather the awkward chord fingerings that are strewn throughout the piece. And when moving from one awkward chord to the next, a lot can go wrong! In particular, check out the wide stretch needed to nail down bar 15! And if that isn't enough, pay close attention to the long series of awkward fingerings that show up in the vicinity of bars 19-26.

Have patience with this piece and feel free to email me if you have questions about how to approach certain sections.

Later,

Brian Huether