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.

Most guitar lessons that deal with alternate picking have you playing very linear lines that lend themselves to high speed - scales, chromatic exercises, etc. While these sorts of exercises have great merit, they do not help one develop the sort of coordination needed for picking more intricate patterns.

You have probably noticed that a large number of my recent guitar lessons involve alternate picking arpeggios. Well, that trend continues as once again I have for you a guitar lesson that involves alternate picking arpeggios! But this time there is a musical context as I have taken the beginning measures of Bach's Prelude in Dm (BMV 999) as the basis for the guitar lesson.

Originally written for the Lute in Cm, this Prelude was eventually arranged for guitar in Dm to allow more ease of play. There are of course a variety of fingerings one could use. The way I have tabbed it is just one possibility, so feel free to play it however works best for you.

You'll notice that the tab indicates alternate picking. Your first instinct when playing these sorts of lines might be to use consecutive downstrokes or upstrokes (i.e. sweeps), but alternate picking will do absolute wonders for your coordination. The coordiation you will develop will essentially allow you to play nearly anything imaginable!

I recorded it at two speeds. The 'medium' version is the typical tempo that this piece is played at. The 'fast' version is not what you want to strive for musically, as the piece really is not meant to be played fast, but once you are able to play it at the proper tempo you can certainly increase the tempo to futher refine your coordination for exercise purposes.

Good luck with this month's guitar lesson!

Brian Huether

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